Synopsis

This documentary tells the story of how the Nazis stormed the fortress of law, how they gradually subjugated the judiciary and the legal system in order to assert the supremacy of the "people's community" over individual rights. This story is told through four singular destinies: Johann Reichhart, the Bavarian executioner and world record-holder for judicial executions; Lilo Gloeden, a committed woman; Werner Best, a Nazi jurist; and Hans Litten, a democratic lawyer. From 1933 to 1945, during the twelve years of the Nazi era, Hitler's courts handed down some 16,000 death sentences on their own soil. 30,000 more with the military tribunals.