ZDF - Verdun Descent into Hell (2006)

“Hundreds of thousands are sacrificed on the orders of one man, and they don't even know whether they are fighting for right or wrong.” These are words from the diary of the lawyer Karl Rosner, who survived the war - one of several fates described in “Verdun Descent into Hell”. In the 300-day battle, 700,000 people were killed or wounded. It was the momentous calculation of the German Chief of General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn that the enemy army would be crushed in a gigantic battle of material and men. The slogan of the French General Henri Philippe Petain was “They shall not pass!” Again and again, soldiers from both sides were driven into no man's land, as if they were unlimited “raw material” for the “war machine”. The film gives a face to unknown fates, recalling the story of people on the battlefield who had to carry out orders given by generals who only knew the horror in the trenches from afar. Over 100 years later, the dramatic documentary uses letters and diaries of French and German soldiers in a parallel montage to reflect the individual and yet similar experiences of the mostly young people on both sides of the front, their struggle for survival under unimaginable conditions. These are experiences that represent the suffering of hundreds of thousands. The experiences described reflect the dimension of the tragedy hatred and fear, perseverance and despair, everyday life between life and death, at the front and in the rear, mourning for comrades, but also reconciling moments during the longest battle of the First World War, which in the end only knew victims. The war has changed the landscape forever. The traces of the battles for Verdun are still visible today. Verdun - the “original catastrophe of the 20th century” has become not only a memorial against war, but also a place of shared remembrance and reconciliation.

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