Dr. Josef Weiss, a Polish ?gr?is a successful general practitioner in 1935 Berlin where he lives with his wife Berta, her parents, and their three children. When his oldest son Karl marries Aryan German Inga, he is confronted by Anti-Semitism but rationalizes it and the family makes the decision not to leave the country. Erik Dorf, husband of one of the doctor's German patients, is a struggling lawyer who seeks employment and social mobility by joining the nascent but powerful Nazi Party. Within three years things have changed drastically in Germany. The doctor initially is forbidden to treat Aryan patients, and ultimately his office is closed down and his practice co-opted by an ethnic German. His home, including Berta's beloved piano, is confiscated, and son Karl is arrested. Although he pleads with Dorf to help him get his son released, he is turned down and ultimately deported to Poland to be reunited with his brother Moses. Berta, along with daughter Anna and son Rudy, is forced to live in a single room on the charity of Inga's family. Frustrated, Rudy leaves to somehow resist Nazi oppression. Daughter Anna is raped by German soldiers and sinks into a depressive, uncommunicative state. She is institutionalized and, in accordance with Nazi policy, is euthanized with other "mental defectives." Ultimately Berta is sent to Auschwich to be reunited with her husband. Meanwhile Erik, utilizing his skill with semantics and euphemistic terminology continues to rise in the Nazi hierarchy as the prot? of war criminal Reynhard Heidrich. He distances himself emotionally from the horrors of ethnic cleansing as the Nazis move inexorably toward solving the "Jewish Problem" with the "Ultimate Solutiom."

When this was aired on German television, police station switchboards were flooded with confessional calls during the "Krystallnacht" scene, where people were smashing the windows of synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses. People who had participated in the actual event were calling to confess their participation, but the Statute of Limitation had taken effect, and no actions could be taken, despite their confessions.

Erik Dorf:
I must confess, at times, I have difficulty keeping the SS, SD, and Gestapo seperate.


Reinhard Heydrich:
So do we. It doesn't matter, I run them all.

Anachronisms: On Kristallnacht, occurring in 1938, Reinhard Heydrich wears a type of collar insignia that the SS did not use until 1942.