"Operation Spring" is a documentary thriller about a police investigation and court proceedings against Africans suspected of belonging to a Nigerian drug ring. New laws were implemented and new methods of investigation were put to the test for the first time. The film poses the question of whether the defendants ever stood a chance of receiving a fair trial.
The documentary is issueing the life of people being victims of the childrens "medical" department "Am Spiegelgrund". Victims and relatives of victims tell their problems handling memories that determines their life up the present days. The documentary is concentrated on the path of four persons to enable the viewers to get an impression of their memories. The victims stories are surrounded by statements of experts about the historical and medical background, among others: Elisabeth Brainin, doctor of psychiatrics, Wolfgang Neugebauer, chairman of the documentary archives of Austrian resistance, and Werner Vogt, medical doctor, who was engaged in a defamation court battle with Heinrich Gross (and aquitted in 1981). Dr Gross' trial started on March, 21 in Vienna. After one hour the judge adjourned the proceedings for an indefinite time, ruling that Dr. Gross was not mental fit enough to follow the trial.
