The German Neighbor

Description
Reviews
Citation
Cataloging

If you are not affiliated with a college or university, and are interested in watching this film, please register as an individual and login to rent this film. Already registered? Login to rent this film. This film is also available on our home streaming platform, OVID.tv.

Integrating impressive archive material, The German Neighbor follows the steps of Adolf Eichmann’s awkward and unusual life in Argentina and his remarkable defense at the trial in Jerusalem.

Roberto Klement was a gentle and respectful neighbor in Buenos Aires. But Klement was actually Adolf Eichmann, the executioner of “the Final Solution to the Jewish Question” in WWII. In 1960, Adolf Eichmann was kidnapped illegally and taken to Jerusalem for the Nuremberg trial.

Fifty years later, Renate Liebeskind, a young German translator living in Argentina, is hired to translate that trial into Spanish. Eichmann's vulnerable image and matter of fact testimony puzzle Renate. Entangled by certainty and ambiguity, she starts looking for answers in conversations with historians, reporters, philosophers, and family members. Not completely satisfied, she embarks on a journey that follows the one traveled by Eichmann after his arrival in Argentina. The film combines the exploration of Eichmann’s daily life during his exile in Argentina with images of the trial in which he was sentenced to death by hanging in 1961.

"Long live Germany! Long live Austria! Long live Argentina! These are the countries with which I have been most connected and which I will not forget. I had to obey the rules of war and my flag. I am ready.” – Last words of Adolf Eichmann, Thursday evening on May 31, 1962, at the gallows of Ramla prison.

* Spanish language audio description is available via the ALL4ACCESS App and/or .wav file when purchasing a DSL license.

Accessibility for these films was created by DICAPTA and funded under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education- Office of Special Education-OSEP, project “Enhanced Access to Video for Students with Sensory Disabilities through Emerging Technology,” TV Access H327C210001.

"The film presents extensive footage from the Eichmann trials, including testimony by Holocaust survivors who detail the horrors unleashed by the Nazis...viewers unaware of the Eichmann story will find this to be a decent introduction. A strong optional purchase." — P. Hall, Video Librarian

"The German Neighbor proposes to investigate the story Adolf Eichmann after World War II. One way or another, we all know what Nazism is and what happened during the war, but the film asks: what happened with the Nazis that managed to escape Germany? And worst, how did they manage to hide in our country? The German Neighbor is a strong and emotional documentary with valuable testimonies that goes deep into Adolf Eichmann's last years before his kidnaping and execution in Israel." — Samantha Schuster, Cinefilo Serial

"Hannah Arendt... insinuated that [Adolf Eichmann] was a regular man, a "terribly normal" person and the product of its time. According to her, evil can originate in regular people who leave reasoning aside to surrender to the ideology of their time. The directors' greatest virtue lies in capturing this concept and reopening the discussion that started more than fifty years ago. " — Juan Pablo Pugliese, Escribiendo Cine

Citation

Select a citation style:

Main credits

Liji, Martín (film director)
Liji, Martín (screenwriter)
Cervio, Rosario (film director)
Cervio, Rosario (screenwriter)
Saldicco, Antonella (actor)

Other credits

Cinematography, Lucas Gaynor; editor, Rosario Cervio.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

Jewish Studies, Adolf Eichmann, Mossad, Holocaust, Nazi, crime against humanity, final solution, exile, Nuremberg trials, spanish, spanish language, latin america, latin american cinema, latin american film, ibero america, latin, latinx, latino, latina,,AL156, ,AM156, ,AN156, ,AO156, ,AP156, ,AQ156, ,AR156, ,AS156, culture, identity, identity politics, culture wars, left wing, right wing, intersectionality, identity groups, civilization, literacy, humanism, cancel culture, online culture, cultural revolution, cultural diffusion, culture shock, popular culture, pop culture, material culture, cultural capital, cultural assimilation ; Criminal Justice; Holocaust; Adolf Eichmann; Human Rights; Emigration and Exile; International Politics; Sociology; War Crimes; Genocide; "The German Neighbor"; Pragda; Israel; Argentina; World War II; WWII; Nazi; Adolf Hitler; ,doc,bio; history