In the Crosshairs: Germany and the RAF

Season 1, Episode 3

Episode Title: The families

Overview:

In everyday life, the only reminders of terrorists are the wanted posters in offices and authorities. The assassinations by the RAF and the June 2 Movement in the so-called "German Autumn" 20 years ago seem to be a thing of the past. But the victims of that time had families - and so did the perpetrators. For these relatives, what changed their lives forever, often from one day to the next, never becomes "history." Nothing has softened the helpless anger at the perpetrators, who instead of the death penalty, were sentenced to "golden cage". But even the perpetrators had or have relatives - Wienke Zitzlaff, now a retired school principal, talks about her younger sister Ulrike Meinhof. For the families on the victims' side, any political discussion sounds cynical. They did not lose their common father, husband or brother as "representatives of the system"; for them, common life was torn down by political murder, they themselves were thrown off track for decades.