86 Jews selected in the camp of Auschwitz were deported in the summer of 1943 to the Natzweiler-Struthof camp where a gas chamber was specially equipped to kill them. August Hirt, director of the Anatomical Institute of Strasbourg, wanted a collection of Jewish skeletons, to keep track of this "race” who “personify a repulsive, yet characteristic subhumanity"*.
How did this cynical project came to life?
What happened to the 86 Jews gazed for this anatomical collection?
At the crime scene, experts, witnesses and actors of memory tell the story of one of the most tragic episodes of World War II, emblematic of the Holocaust and the abuse of science by the Nazis, while questioning the difficult memory of the crimes and its ethical implications. But this story is above all about the struggle of a German journalist trying to give back an identity to these men and women who had been reduced to a list of registration numbers. The tireless search to find the name of the 86.
*according to the words of August Hirt. |