SYNOPSIS

In the last days of World War II, the world’s greatest art treasure is in a small village in Austria. Rubens, da Vinci, Raphael, Titian, Dürer, Vermeer, Goya, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, van Eyck’s “Ghent Altarpiece,” the Rothschild Collection – works of inestimable value, stolen from all over Europe by the Nazis for the planned Linz “Führer Museum” and brought to safety from Allied bombs in the Altaussee salt mine.

JOSEF ROTTENBACHER, a taciturn salt miner, has never been particularly interested in politics. He is a party member, but more out of convenience than conviction. ELSA, the wife of his best friend FRANZ MITTERJÄGER, accuses him of being a silent follower, even though there is obvious injustice going on around him. While Rottenbacher remains silent and hopes for the end of the war, Elsa and Franz support the resistance by hiding deserters and partisans in the hard-to-reach mountains.

Franz Mitterjäger, however, is already in the sights of the Gestapo. When Rottenbacher learns that the seizure is imminent, he warns his friend. Mitterjäger manages to escape into the mountains, but is shot shortly afterwards in front of his wife. The Nazis want to make an example of the dead man and refuse to give him a burial. This injustice leads Rottenbacher to finally take a stand. Together with Elsa, he stands up for his friend before the SS administration. More and more villagers join the two. When it comes to one of their own, they stick together. In defiance of the Gestapo, they give Mitterjäger a funeral worthy of him.

After the funeral service, the events come to a head. The surrender is imminent. The fanatical Gauleiter EIGRUBER wants to destroy the works of art stored in Altaussee in the spirit of Hitler’s Nero order rather than leave them to the enemy. The salt mine is to be blown up, which would irretrievably destroy not only the greatest art treasure in the world, but also the livelihood of the inhabitants of Altaussee. When the miners find out, Rottenbacher takes responsibility and for the first time actively resists. The demolition squad is already on its way when the courageous miners oppose it together with the partisans who have returned to the village in order to prevent the destruction of their mine at the last moment…