The Rose Garden

The title refers to a plot of flowered land in Hamburg where 20 Jewish children were hanged April 20th, 1945, as the British army approached the city. The children had been used for medical experiments and their execution was ordered by an SS officer who lives in West Germany. He has avoided prosecution on legal technicalities. Fons Rademakers fictionalizes the incident by having the SS officer brought to court in today's Frankfurt as a witness in a related case. The old man has been assaulted In the city's airport by Aaron Reichenbacher, who claims he was the only one to escape the group hanging. He has returned from Montevideo exile to find his sister, and had chanced to see the SS officer at the airport.