Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss, crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland.

The case of Timothy Evans was the first major post-war miscarriage of justice to capture public attention. Of low intelligence, Evans was damned by his own, false confession that he had murdered his wife and daughter. The trial and rightful conviction of John Christie for one of these murders three years later, did not, however, bring about a pardon for Evans. Despite having four alibi witnesses, the 28-year-sailor, who was described by his own defence lawyer as a "semi-civilised savage", was convicted and executed within six months of the murder. Three years after Mr Evans was hanged, John Christie, a neighbour in the house at 10 Rillington Place, confessed to strangling eight female victims - including Beryl and her baby daughter. He too was executed. It was to be many years before the judiciary and the government were to finally allow the late Timothy Evans a pardon.

The socialist dream collapses.

Germany, January 1939: a day in a concentration camp. Subjected to harsh military discipline the hungry prisoners are digging a huge hole and filling it up again. Several are tortured, die of exhaustion, in the electric fence, or are shot.

Lawrence Neman is a well-heeled New York average citizen. One day when he needs glasses, his appearance takes on a trait that corresponds to the widespread notions of Jewish physiognomy. As a result, Newman is soon treated and harassed as a Jew, feeling the latent anti-Semitism - which is first expressed by the fact that he loses his job. His opposition to the stupid dictatorship of public opinion is becoming increasingly violent, against prejudice and exclusion. Consciously he steps on the side of his Jewish fellow citizens, shares their fate, marries a Jewish woman, for whom he feels sincere affection.