Watch HDToday. Frankfurt, 20 December 1963—For the first time, a German federal court places Nazi war criminals on trial. Fritz Bauer, a previously unknown prosecutor, is on a mission. Against the policy of silence and denial, Bauer wants not only to examine these Nazis but to make the whole of Germany face up to its past. It would be a shock to the nation and a young generation of Germans would be horrified to discover the crimes of their parents. German society would never be the same.