Counter propaganda film

The Murderers Among Us (Die Mörder sind unter uns, German; 1946)
As sort of an effort to counter the effect of the Nuremberg trial which seem to paint the Americans as the saviours who were forced into a war to save Europe from a group of heartless barbarians, this German film must have been released. It goes on to show the sufferings of the average German and how they pull themselves together in a heap of rubble filled Berlin. Not all Germans were privy to the atrocities done by the Nazi regime. Many were physically and psychologically traumatized. Of course, they were some who benefited from the war and carried on with their lives as if nothing happened, turning the tide to their advantage.
Suzanne returns home from a concentration camp to a ruined Berlin to her half damaged apartment. Her downstairs neighbour, an optician, survived the war and continues his practice with whatever stocks that he could salvage. He is waiting patiently for his son to return from the war. He is kind of a father figure to Suzanne.

Living in another room is an astrologist who finds fortune by giving people hope to the uncertainty that lay in front of them.
Suzanne discovers that her apartment is occupied by a man who seem disillusioned and frustrated with life. Rather than leaving the apartment, she decides to share the apartment with him. I suppose, after being in a concentration camp, it is only normal to empathize with someone who had been traumatized by the war. This man turned out to be a surgeon, a Dr Morten, before
the war but now finds solace in the bottle and the night club nearby.
One day, Suzanne finds an unopened letter amongst Dr Morten's things address to a certain Mrs Ferdinand Brückner in case of Captain Brückner's death. Curious, Suzanne delivers the letter to the addressee, only to find that Mr and Mrs Brückner are living happily in great comfort.
When Suzanne tells Dr Morten about Captain Brückner's life, he becomes upset. He narrates his life story.

Dr Morten had been struggling to save lives before the war. He was drafted to the Army when it was war-time. The amount of violence and carnage that was going on was to much to stomach. His Captain, was ruthless ordering execution of hundreds of women and children, especially the innocent ones in Poland on Christmas Eve of 1942. Morten's pleas fell into deaf ears.
Later, the Allied Forces were about to capture them. Brückner was injured. Rather than surrendering, he wanted to take his own life and borrowed Morten's pistol.
Brückner survived anyway.
Dr Morten later meets Brückner. His pistol was returned. Morten is perplexed how his captain is able to put behind all his brutal acts and carry on life as if nothing had happened.
In the meantime, the plea of a crying mother, moved Dr Morten's aversion to blood to perform a tracheostomy on a suffocating child. This gave him confidence to move on in his life. His relationship with Suzanne also flourished.

Christmas came. So did the old thoughts of 1942 Christmas Eve in Poland. Dr Morten is decorating his Christmas tree. The sound of 'Silent Night' seem more pensive than ever in post war Berlin. In his walk-about, he sees Brückner celebrating Xmas with his workers of his factory. He talks in such a spirit giving them hope to work for the glory of Deutchland. At that juncture, Dr Morten thought that he had to shoot him with the same gun that he had lent him earlier. During the war, he had given Brückner the pistol, hoping he himself would punish himself for his atrocities. Now that he had survived that, he thought he had finish off the job. Just in the nick of time, Suzanne managed to stop him. She advised that we should leave the judgement to the higher authorities or higher power... Die Ende.