Le dernier des injustes

Location: Theresienstadt. This was a deceptive site of propaganda, labeled by Adolf Eichmann as the “model ghetto,” crafted to deceive both the global community and Jewish people about its true purpose as a precursor to the gas chambers. Individual: Benjamin Murmelstein, the final leader of the Theresienstadt Jewish Council, a disgraced hero banished to exile. He was compelled to engage in daily negotiations with Eichmann from 1938 until the war’s conclusion, yet was not summoned to testify at Eichmann’s trial, despite being arguably the person most familiar with the Nazi executioner. Over twenty-five years following “Shoah,” Claude Lanzmann’s latest film uncovers a lesser-known but crucial facet of the Holocaust, illuminating the beginnings of the “Final Solution” in an unprecedented manner.