The Last of the Unjust
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In 1975, on a terrace in Rome, a historical conversation took place between Claude Lanzmann and the former Viennese rabbi and last living "Jewish elder" Benjamin Murmelstein. At the time, Lanzmann was working on his film SHOAH (1985), now considered one of the most important works about the Holocaust. But Murmelstein's testimony is different: He does not talk about the extermination of the Jews, but about survival, mustering the highest tactical skills. Murmelstein had been forcibly conscripted by Adolf Eichmann as a research assistant in 1938; later he was deported to the showcase concentration camp Theresienstadt, as deputy "Elder of the Jews": here he was to organize the city's beautification, as Theresienstadt was paraded to foreign aid organizations to demonstrate the Germans' supposedly humane treatment of the Jews. "Of course, I participated in this propaganda to ensure the continued existence of the ghetto," says Murmelstein, who probably saved thousands in the process. THE LAST OF THE UNJUST is a portrait of a brilliant tactician that is still not long enough after three and a half hours. (Magdalena Miedl, SKIP)
"If you show that you are afraid, then all is lost." BENJAMIN MURMELSTEIN
Cast
Benjamin Murmelstein, Claude Lanzmann
Director
Claude Lanzmann
Camera
William Lubtchansky, Caroline Champetier (A.F.C.)
Producers
David Frenkel, Jean Labadie, Danny Krausz, Kurt Stocker
Editing
Chantal Hymans
Staff
SOUND: Antoine Bonfanti, Manuel Grandpierre, Alexander Koller