Synopsis

In the 1960s there were about 350,000 Germans living in Romania, mostly in Transylvania. During the communist regime under the rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu many of them were exposed to discrimination and poverty, and dreamt of returning to Germany. Given that, the two countries signed an emigration agreement that was kept secret from the public. Thus arose a practice of selling people to the Federal Republic of Germany, wherein the dictator Ceaușescu had been sending people abroad in exchange for billions of financial contributions. In the course of twenty years the number of native Germans sent home estimated more than 250,000. This was nothing other than a unique phenomenon of a modern, elaborately organized human trafficking. The documentary Trading Germans shows how the deal came into being, how it was carried out and what consequences and intricacies went along for those involved. Meticulously researched archived pictures are set against interviews with emigrants and politicians. An attorney Heinz Günther Hüsch is one of the eyewitnesses who facilitated the negotiations from the German side and now shares for the first time the facts and the insight into the case. This film made in cooperation of German and Romania is a contribution to recovery of hidden history facts as well as a call for discussion of the subject.

Guests

Ada Solomon

Ada Solomon
Producer Aferim!, Trading Germans
In Vienna: October 8-11