On the occasion of the announcement of the verdict on February 11, 1980, the television film investigates the background and outcome of the so-called "Lischka Trial": since October 1979, the trial against the former Nazi functionaries Kurt Lischka (10 years imprisonment), Herbert Martin Hagen (12 years) and Ernst Heinrichsohn (6 years), who were charged with aiding and abetting the murder and deportation of French Jews during the Third Reich, took place before the Cologne Regional Court. The film introduces the defendants and provides information about their activities and function during National Socialism. It describes their lives today and the reactions of their fellow citizens towards them. A special role is played by Heinrichsohn, who until then had been the mayor of a small town in Bavaria. The reactions of the French public to this Nazi trial are also documented, in particular Beate Klarsfeld, who had been campaigning for the prosecution of Nazi perpetrators for years.