Draft:Ordinary Men - The "Forgotten Holocaust"

Ordinary Men: The "Forgotten Holocaust", narrated by Brian Cox, is a one-hour documentary by Broadview Pictures and ZDF, directed by Manfred Oldenburg and produced by Emmy award winning producer Leopold Hoesch. It was globally released on Netflix on September 13, 2023.

Content
75 years after the end of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, the documentary takes a look at another trial that made history. The Einsatzgruppen trial in Nuremberg against members of four death squads from the Security Police and SD, the SS security service, is considered the largest murder trial in history.

Six million Jews were murdered during the Second World War. Three million people died in the death camps, two million were killed in systematic mass shootings. A fact that is hardly known today. The perpetrators were face to face with their victims. They shot men, women and children - day after day, obediently and diligently, as if it were a normal job. Tens of thousands of Germans belonged to the mobile commandos of the Einsatzgruppen and police battalions. The film takes a look at who these men were and how they were able to commit such crimes, what the few survivors reported and how they escaped the mass murder.

Author Manfred Oldenburg traces the path of one of the murder battalions using written records, original documents, film footage and photos as well as scenic reconstructions. Historians and social psychologists comment on it.

The American lawyer Ben Ferencz, who was chief prosecutor in Nuremberg against leading members of the Einsatzgruppen, plays a central role in the film. An extensive interview with Ferencz forms a guide for the film.

Production and distribution
The film is a co-production of Broadview Pictures and ZDF. It was globally released on Netflix on September 13, 2023.