Zug um Zug – Budapest 1944

This is the story of Rudolph Kasztner, sent to represent the Jewish Aid Organisation-Waadah, and explores the moral ethics of deals he was forced to make with Adolf Eichmann in order to secure the release of as many Hungarian Jews as he could. Promising goods that he couldn’t deliver and wares that he didn’t possess, Kasztner bluffs and double bluffs his way through what becomes a poker game of power, with each round he wins or loses representing thousands of lives. In the end, of the 600,000 deported he saves 1,684. After the war, Kasztner was to many people in Israel suspicious to be a collaborator with the SS – and was killed by Isreali nationalists after his rehabilitation from the Israel High Court. Zug um Zug is a thought provoking docudrama that takes a selection of scenes from the original stage play, based on the true story, and investigates further aspects of the story through the use of eyewitness accounts. (DOK.fest München)