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CWC Docs: The Memory of Justice
with Andréas-Benjamin Seyfert
(Germanic and Slavic Studies, UCSB)
Saturday, February 21 / 2:00 PM
Pollock Theater, UCSB
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Director Marcel Ophuls’ magisterial documentary The Memory of Justice (1976) posits the Nuremberg Trials as the only consequential reckoning with crimes against humanity. The film asks a question that remains painfully urgent in today’s context of ongoing global conflicts: how do you seek justice after wartime atrocities? Made in the mid-1970s amid the shadows of Algeria and Vietnam, Ophuls’ film confronts this question with his signature candor and moral complexity. The film includes extraordinary interviews with figures including Albert Speer and Telford Taylor, and a musical performance by Joan Baez. A deeply personal work, the film also features an interview with Ophuls’ wife Regine, who grew up in Nazi Germany. At once a rigorous historical investigation and an emotionally transformative experience for audiences, The Memory of Justice challenges viewers to confront the complexities of justice, accountability, and memory across generations.
The Carsey-Wolf Center is proud to present The Memory of Justice in its full 278-minute running time. This screening will be accompanied by a critical and historical introduction by Marcel Ophuls’ grandson Andréas-Benjamin Seyfert (Germanic and Slavic Studies, UCSB).
The Memory of Justice was restored by the Academy Film Archive in association with Paramount Pictures and The Film Foundation. Restoration funding provided by The Material World Foundation, Righteous Persons Foundation, and The Film Foundation.
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Andréas-Benjamin Seyfert (Germanic and Slavic Studies, UCSB)
Andréas-Benjamin Seyfert is a Lecturer in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Seyfert is co-editor of Enchanted by Cinema: Wilhelm Thiele between Vienna, Berlin, and Hollywood, which was shortlisted for the 2025 Willy Haas Prize. His publications include contributions to the Journal of Film Preservation, Filmblatt, and chapters in edited volumes such as Goethe als Literatur-Figur (Wallstein, 2016), Rethinking Jewishness in Weimar Cinema (Berghahn, 2020), and Modernist Aesthetics in Transition: Visual Culture in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany (Bloomsbury, 2025).
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