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Julian Rhind-Tutt

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Tamzin Griffin

Robin Lustig

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Adam Ganz

Drama on 4: The Gestapo Minutes

The Gestapo Minutes

31/07/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, The Gestapo Minutes

Mainz, 1945. Oppenheim has a visitor. A Gestapo officer needs a reference - from a Jew.

By Adam Ganz. 1945, and Michel Oppenheim has survived. He has a visitor: The Gestapo officer he worked for as head of the Jewish community needs a reference from Michel - as a Jew.

A new play by Adam Ganz 
starring Ed Stoppard, Julian Rhind-Tutt and featuring Robin Lustig.

Under the Nazis, Michel Oppenheim - lawyer, patriot and porcelain collector - is made head of the Jewish community in Mainz. The minutes of his regular meetings with Gestapo functionary Schwoerer survive. Civilly, they discuss the pettiest details of Nazi terror and arrangements for the deportations east. Thanks to his non-Jewish, wife Oppenheim survives. 

Once the war ends, the tables are turned. Schwoerer begs Oppenheim for a testimonial, which could save him from a US war crimes trial and execution. Oppenheimer must decide whether to help the man who sat across the table during the past six years of horror and humiliation.

Directed by Catherine Bailey
A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.

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