Maybe Rauff

I will be working on a screenplay for a feature film on the biography of former German SS officer Walther Rauff. The subject, born in 1906, was in charge of developing mobile gas vans used for the extermination of Jews during World War II. After the war Rauff emigrated to South America, where he made a new career working for various well known German companies. At the same time—as officially confirmed in 2011—he worked for the German Foreign Intelligence Service for several years. Rauff managed to escape all Nazi trials initiated against him by German authorities. He died in Santiago de Chile in 1984.

For my research in international and US archives, I am looking for one or two students from the fields of political or social sciences, contemporary history, or visual and environmental studies with sound knowledge of Spanish and/or German. Another focus of research will be on the representation of perpetrators in film history—i.e., how can you tell a story with a main character such as Rauff?

Students will participate in working out strategies to build a film narrative from different types of documents and would benefit from my long experience in fiction and documentary filmmaking.