Eine eiserne Kassette
An Iron Box
In 1985 the Austrian politician Friedhelm Frischenschlager caused a scandal when he received the former SS officer and war criminal Walter Reder in Vienna after his release from prison. Reder was a leading figure when German troops committed several massacres with numerous civilian victims on their retreat from advancing US forces in Italy in 1944. One of the members in Reder’s SS formation was Olaf Jürgenssen, who served as a medic. He took a lot of photographs, which survived as negatives in an iron casket and eventually ended up with Nils Olger, his grandson. Following the traces of Jürgenssen’s path through the final years of World War II (from Hungary to Italy, and later denazification in Upper Austria, where he got married), Olger visits sites and speaks to witnesses from the period when Olaf Jürgenssen was part of the German war crimes, even if his photos seem to suggest that he was there in all innocence. In a video interview before his death his grandfather remains vague and deflects questions. Nils Olger’s pointed conclusion from his somber and calm film about history, memory and denialism: “What will I remember of my grandfather? Negatives.” (Bert Rebhandl)
In the presence of Nils Olger and members of the crew.
- Ingeborg Jürgenssen
- Olaf Johann Oskar Jürgenssen
- Giorgio Mori
- Roberto Oligeri
- Carlo Gentile
- Celso Battaglia
- Eliseo Federici
- Egidia Giuntoni
- Andrea Quartieri
- Friedhelm Frischenschlager
- Nils Olger
- Thomas Marschall
- Nils Olger
- Juri Schaden
- Oliver Brunbauer
- Nils Olger
- Vinzenz Schwab
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