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Episode

"Hasenjagd": Der Film, der das Schweigen über ein Kriegsverbrechen brach

Podcast
Inside Austria
Published
Dec 27, 2025
Duration seconds
2279
Processing state
processed
Canonical source
https://inside-austria.podigee.io/217-neue-episode
Audio
https://audio.podigee-cdn.net/2273138-m-93dac81e67562abf5daabc67e6aa1422.mp3?source=feed
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/v1/public/podcasts/inside-austria-4385468/episodes/hasenjagd-der-film-der-das-schweigen-ber-ein-kriegsverbrechen-brach
Markdown
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Summary

Director Andreas Gruber discusses the decade-long struggle to bring the 'Mühlviertler Hasenjagd'—a forgotten Nazi war crime—to the screen. He explores how his 1995 film broke decades of silence regarding the massacre of concentration camp prisoners by the SS and local collaborators.

Topics

  • Austrian History
  • World War II
  • Mauthausen Concentration Camp
  • Film Production
  • War Crimes
  • Documentary Filmmaking
  • Collective Memory
  • Nazism

Highlights

  • Main idea: The film 'Hasenjagd' served as a vital tool for breaking the collective silence surrounding Nazi atrocities in Upper Austria
  • Practical takeaway: Using feature film dramatization can bridge the gap when historical documentation is scarce or non-existent
  • Failure mode: The danger of 'permissibility to hate,' where societal structures allow individuals to succumb to violence and complicity
  • Main idea: The production required ten years of intensive research and oral history to reconstruct events that left few physical traces
  • Practical takeaway: True historical engagement requires moving beyond mere discourse toward concrete, active resistance

Chapters

  1. 1:00 Introduction to Andreas Gruber: Director Andreas Gruber introduces his background in documentary and feature filmmaking.
  2. 3:50 The Legacy of Oral History: A look at the importance of early research and the use of oral history techniques in documenting the massacre.
  3. 6:40 Capturing Human Reactions: Gruber discusses the diverse emotional responses of witnesses during the research process.
  4. 9:30 Dramaturgical Structure: The decision to center the narrative on the Langtaler family to ground the historical tragedy.
  5. 12:20 Personal Tragedies: The inclusion of specific, tragic individual stories within the larger historical context.
  6. 15:10 Local Resistance to the Film: The tension and lack of public interest in addressing these crimes during the film's development.
  7. 18:00 Balancing Fiction and Fact: How the director navigated the necessity of dramatization due to a lack of archival footage.