A Jewish chief surgeon in Berlin, Professor Mamlock believes in reason, humanism and his country. As 1933 begins, he remains blind to the increasing anti-Semitism around him. He is troubled by those with opposing political views and throws his communist-leaning son out of the house. And he cannot believe that his daughter is driven from her school because she is Jewish. As the Nazis consolidate their power and new racial laws bar Mamlock from working at his hospital, his devastation leaves him no alternative. This film is based on the 1933 play written by Friedrich Wolf-a German-Jewish physician and renowned activist playwright, as well as the father of the director-in exile in Switzerland and France. The play premiered at the Kaminski Yiddish Theater in Warsaw in 1934. In 1938, a first film adaptation was produced in the USSR by Herbert Rappaport and Adolf Minkin.