Amen.

Amen. is a 2002 German, Romanian and French film directed by Costa-Gavras. The film Amen. examines the links between the Vatican and Nazi Germany. The central character is Kurt Gerstein , a Waffen-SS officer employed in the SS Hygiene Institute, designing programs for the purification of water and the destruction of vermin. He is shocked to learn that the process he has developed to eradicate typhus, by using a hydrogen cyanide mixture called Zyklon B, is now being used for killing Jews in extermination camps. Gerstein attempts to notify Pope Pius XII about the gassings, but is appalled by... the lack of response he gets from the Catholic hierarchy. The only person moved is Riccardo Fontana , a young Jesuit priest. While the character of Kurt Gerstein is historical, the character of the young priest is fictional, and the plot is fictional. The film is based on a 1963 play by Rolf Hochhuth, The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy, which was widely attacked in Catholic and Jewish circles for its unrealistic portrayal of Pope Pius XII. The German-language version of the film was released under the play's original title Der Stellvertreter.
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