Waubonsee Community College

The truth shall make us free, produced by Michael Schmidt for Swedish Television

eng

videorecording

For High School; College; Adult audiences

The truth shall make us free

electronic resource

747799220

produced by Michael Schmidt for Swedish Television

52

For three years freelance journalist Michael Schmidt played a dangerous double game, insinuating himself into the inner circle of German neo-Nazis. They thought his film would glorify their movement and its leader Michael Kuhnen. Schmidt, however, was determined to expose the resurgence of Nazism in Germany and elsewhere. The result is a disturbing document of racial and religious hatred being bred into a new generation. The film brings us into a world of Nazi uniforms, sieg heil salutes, skinheads, mass rallies, and secret plots. Violent anti-Semitism is fanned by the showing of old Nazi hate films, like The Eternal Jew. Former East Germany is a fertile ground for hatred of foreigners and Jews since it is in economic and social crisis. Revisionist historians who deny that the Holocaust ever occurred have close ties with the party.They coined the slogan Wahrheit Macht Frei (The Truth Shall Make Us Free) to parody the Arbeit Macht Frei signs which hung over the gates of concentration camps. Anthony Hancock, a printer of hate booklets, and David Irving, author of books denying the Holocaust, both British, participate with relish in German demonstrations. This film is a warning to the world that old hatreds are being rekindled

general