In this harrowing documentary, director Matthew Shoychet follows the trail and eventual sentencing of German SS Officer Oskar Gröning, who was found complicit in the genocide of over 300,000 Jews in Auschwitz during WWII. As Shoychet traces the history leading up to Gröning's sentencing, he also outlines the real-life statistics of justice. Only 49 Third Reich officials were prosecuted (out of 6500) for their crimes. With the legal system in a tight grip (many prosecutors were former Nazis themselves), prosecution of those responsible for crimes against humanity was stalled for nearly 70 years, with Nazi guards elderly by the time their cases were brought to court. This reality is not lost in the film, which serves both to illuminate the lasting effects of the war and the race against time to bring justice to those who've long evaded it.
Director Biography
Editor and Director Matthew Shoychet makes his feature film debut with The Accountant of Auschwitz. Based in Toronto, he studied film production at York University and co-founded Shoy Pictures with his brother and fellow filmmaker, Dylan Shoychet.
Press
"The doc also manages to have, at times, an intensely gripping quality, as Holocaust survivors face Groning and their vivid accounts clash with the banalities of his work that the mild-mannered old man describes." - Globe and Mail
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