The University of Aberdeen will host a special screening of a documentary offering audiences a rare insight into a hidden post-war world revealed through recently rediscovered recordings of some of the most notorious Nazi perpetrators.
The Barbie Tapes, an award-winning documentary by Dutch filmmaker Foeke de Koe, will be shown on December 2 and followed by a discussion and audience Q&A with the director and Professor Thomas Weber, Professor of History and International Affairs at the University of Aberdeen and Visiting Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
The film centres on a remarkable collection of audio recordings made in 1979 by German investigative journalist Gerd Heidemann during a clandestine journey through South America.
Accompanying Karl Wolff, the most senior surviving SS officer, Heidemann secretly recorded conversations as they sought out Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo officer known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for his role in the torture and murder of resistance fighters and Jews during the Second World War.
Hidden for decades in a Hamburg basement, the recordings have since become part of the internationally significant Gerd Heidemann Collection at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, following efforts led by Professor Weber to secure, authenticate and preserve the archive.
Far from a conventional historical record, the tapes capture Nazi perpetrators speaking freely and candidly away from courtrooms, investigators and public scrutiny. The recordings provide an extraordinary window into the attitudes, networks and self-perceptions of figures responsible for some of the twentieth century's worst atrocities.
Described by Professor Weber as "the most important private collection on the Third Reich and the inner lives of extremists acquired by a university archive", the collection contains more than 7,000 folders of documents, around 100,000 photographs and recordings of conversations with former Nazi officials gathered across several decades.
Recent research led by Professor Weber has also helped reassess the legacy of journalist Gerd Heidemann. While his reputation was overshadowed by the forged Hitler Diaries scandal of the 1980s, his work has revealed previously overlooked efforts by Heidemann to investigate Nazi fugitives and gather evidence about war crimes, including work undertaken on behalf of Israeli intelligence.
Professor Weber said: "The recordings featured in The Barbie Tapes offer an unparalleled insight into the mindset of individuals who committed and enabled some of the worst crimes of the twentieth century.
"Unlike testimony given in courtrooms years later, these conversations capture perpetrators speaking openly among people they believed shared their views. They expose the stories they told themselves, the networks they maintained after the war, and the ways they sought to justify or conceal their actions.
“In his The Barbie Tapes, award-winning filmmaker de Koe retraced the 1979 journey of Heidemann and Wolff as they travelled to La Paz, Bolivia, to meet Klaus Barbie with the travel logs, audiotapes, and photographs from Heidemann’s archives serve as the foundation for the documentary.
"At a time when societies around the world continue to grapple with the dangers of extremism, these recordings remind us why understanding the past remains so important and the screening will provide a platform for discussion on how extremist beliefs endure and how people rationalise violence and persecution."
The screening and discussion, running from 6.30pm to 8.30pm in the MacRobert Building, is co-hosted by the Hoover Institution and the University of Aberdeen.
Further details and booking are available at https://www.abdn.ac.uk/events/25245/