The documentary Mauthausen – Two Lifes records the story of two people situated in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp during the Nazi regime – Stanisław Leszczyński, born in Łódź, was there as a prisoner, while Franz Hackl, from Mauthausen, worked there as a locksmith apprentice. Two fates that could not have been more contrary – and yet they have so many disturbing things in common.
Austrian director Simon Wieland managed to portray the two protagonists and their confrontation with Mauthausen, which is an important symbol for the Holocaust and thus for guilt and cruelty, in a sensitive and multifaceted manner. The result is a strong and moving documentary about humane and also, above all, inhumane behavior in the face of crime.
