ID

FBW003642      Fiction

Country / Year

German Democratic Republic, 1966

Original Title

Lebende Ware

Directed by

Wolfgang Luderer

Produced by

DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme (Gruppe "Heinrich Greif"), Potsdam-Babelsberg

Staff

Production manager: Fried Eichel; Script: Walter Jupé, Friedrich Karl Kaul, Wolfgang Luderer; Script supervision: Aenne Keller; Camera: Hans Heinrich; Editing: Wally Gurschke; Art direction: Alfred Drosdek; Costumes: Joachim Dittrich; Makeup: Karl Neuling; Music: Wolfgang Lesser

Cast

Horst Schulze (Kurt Becher); Marion van de Kamp (Gräfin); Hannjo Hasse (Adolf Eichmann); Siegfried Weiß (Ferenc Chorin); Wolfgang Greese (Rudolf Kasztner); Peter Sturm (Mahlmann); Erika Pelikowsky (Frau Mahlmann); Rolf Hoppe (Grabau); Ivan Malré (Endre); Thomas Weisgerber (Hermann Krumey); Hans Ulrich Lauffer (von Mauthner); Kurt Steingraf (von Freudiger); Friedrich Richter (Stern); Hannes Fischer (Dieter Wisliceny); Wolfram Handel (Joel Brand); Albert Hetterle (Rathey); Herwart Grosse; Martin Flörchinger; Hans-Hartmut Krüger (SS-Unterscharführer)

Length

2648 m / 96'47''

Format

35mm/sw/1:2,35 (Totalvision)

Dates

- 13 May 1966: Censor, GDR (MfK) Protokoll 69/66, Nr. 226/66
- 08 Sep 1966: Premiere
- 09 Sep 1966: Anlaufdatum

Abstract

Budapest 1944. Kurt Becher, Obersturmbannführer der SS and deputy of Heinrich Himmlers in Hungary proposes a wealthy Jewish businessman to rescue his life and the lives of his family, if he would sign the company on Becher’s name. Becher starts “trading” other objects of value against live and forces the Zionist movement helping him transfer the money to a bank in Switzerland. After the war, Becher becomes a successful businessman in the RFA. It I not before 1961 that his past is revealed, when the Attorney General of Israel announces, Becher will be kept and sent to trial, if he ever touches Israeli ground.

Subject Terms

Budapest; Hungary

Holdings

- Bundesarchiv - Filmarchiv: 2648 m / 97'; 35mm

Distributor

Progress Film-Vertrieb VEB, Berlin/Ost (initially)
Progress Film, Berlin (current)

Bibliography

- , in: Filmspiegel (Berlin/Ost), Nr. 1, 1966
- , in: Film heute und morgen (Berlin/Ost), Nr. 2, 1966
- , in: Kino DDR. Progress-Presse-Informationen (Berlin/Ost), Nr. 1, 1966
- , in: DEFA-Blende. Betriebszeitung für die Belegschaft des VEB DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme (Postdam), Nr. 3, 1966
- Kaul, Friedrich Karl: , in: Filmspiegel (Berlin/Ost), Nr. 12, 1966
- Schulz, Günter / Zilinski, Lissi (Red.): Filmobibliografischer Jahresbericht 1966, Filmwissenschaftliche Bibliothek, Institut für Filmwissenschaft an der Deutschen Hochschule für Filmkunst (Hg.), 1966
- , in: Berliner Zeitung (Berlin/Ost), 14.06.1966
- Schenk, Ralf: "Holocaust und Klassenfrage. Lebende Ware (DDR 1966, Regie: Wolfgng Luderer)", in: Filmblatt (Berlin), Jg. 10, Nr. 28, Herbst 2005