“Why this film? Why now? Because it should not be thought that last year's commemorations have said everything that needs to be said on the subject of Auschwitz. Also because important film material on the Nazi state’s crimes against humanity has only now become accessible. And because there is a need for a film aimed at a mass audience which in just one hour can show the persecution to which the Jews were subjected in the Germany of those days, incorporating the new material and the testimony of survivors – Ruth Klüger, Henry Meyer, Erika Rothschild. It is a film that shows the faces of both perpetrators and victims, in an effort to make sure that we will never forget.” (Erwin Leiser)