Feature

BEHIND THE SCENE: When his parents' company goes bankrupt, Thomas Kleinert begins to look into his father's past. Shortly before, the young journalist learned from his mother that his father did not die in an accident in 1972, but committed suicide. When he receives a tip from a colleague during his search for clues, he travels to Poland. There, during his research, he comes across the story of a factory in Lublin that his father took over in 1942 as part of an 'Aryanisation programme'. The forced labourers with whom he builds up his production and thus consolidates his company in Germany come from concentration camps. Shortly before the end of the war, he manages to save his machines in the West. When publication of the incident is threatened in the early 1970s, Kleinert shoots himself in a hotel room. At the instigation of the editor-in-chief, the local press does not report the incident. Thomas Kleinert decides to publish the story. His article appears under the headline: "A painful look back to the land of the fathers".