White-tiled rooms, neon lighting; on the walls black and white photographs documenting the atrocities committed by the german Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front in WW2. Against this background former soldiers talk about their experiences beyond the bounds of "normal" warfare. With a mixture of helplessness, impotence, shame, opportunism and undiminished fanaticism, witnesses from that time tell of atrocities such as shooting of Russian PWs, the murder of Jews and the rape and abuse of women.The differing accounts of these events demonstrate how selective perception was even in there most inhuman and brutal environments.
This film seeks not only to contribute to the demolition of the myth of the "decent" Wehrmacht (as opposed to the evil SS) but also to illuminate the construction of history in the post-war period and to make a diagnosis of the present.