Overview

Germany, shortly after World War 2: As a prisoner of the Buchenwald, Lichtenburg, Esterwegen and Flössenburg concentration camps for many years, Carl Schrade (Bernd Michael Lade) experienced the atrocities of the Nazis at first hand. Now the former jewelry dealer is to testify as the prosecution's key witness in a court of law in order to put his tormentors behind bars. In the dock are SS men, NSDAP officials and Ilse Koch (Lina Wendel), the wife of the notorious concentration camp commander Karl Koch. The list of their inhuman crimes is long, the list of excuses and justifications almost longer. There is hardly any doubt about the guilt. But where did Carl Schrade's extensive knowledge of the camp administration procedures come from and how did he survive more than ten years in the camps?