Deschutes Public Library

The German Neighbor

spa

videorecording

The German Neighbor

Originally produced by Pragda in 2017

92

Integrating impressive archive material, THE GERMAN NEIGHBOR follows the steps of Adolf Eichmann's 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 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 in 1961

live action