Verbrannt, verstrahlt, vernichtet

The highlight of this overall programme devoted to "War and Peace" films is VERBRANNT - VERSTRAHLT - VERNICHTET, a documentary worked on for three years by Heribert Schwan and Rold Steininger. It is above all a comprehensive document about Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the intention of presenting an "objective" picture of the events. The testimonies of victims, politicians and scientists colour this document, but its great strength lies in the unemotional and non-demagogic approach of its makers. As a result, their document can also crack and hopefully punch holes in the armour of the pro-atom weaponisation movement. After all, do the math: the nuclear powers today have 60,000 atomic and hydrogen bombs, with 1,600,000 times the destructive power of the Hiroshima act.