K (1997)

Samuel Bellamy (Patrick Bruel), a young police inspector, is friends with Joseph Katz (Pinkas Braun), an elderly Jewish antiques dealer who survived the death camps. Samuel and Joseph like to play chess, but one morning in Joseph’s shop, just after Samuel has lost to him, a German man enters the store. Joseph recognizes Rudi Guter (Hans Meyer), a former SS officer who massacred his family during the war. Guter recognizes Joseph by a birthmark behind his left ear. The two men fight in the shop as Samuel tries to get inside to stop them. But it is too late: Guter, who has not come alone, calls for his men to help, and Katz pulls out a gun and shoots him dead in front of Sam. Katz is eventually arrested by the police, and Sam has to take him to the station. But, not wanting him to stand trial, Sam frees his old friend and intends to entrust him to his father, who is due to leave for Israel. Shortly afterward, Guter’s men find Katz in Sam’s father’s shop. Katz manages to escape, but that very evening he is found dead after his shop explodes. In fact, the man Samuel takes to be Joseph is none other than a former Nazi. He has taken on all the trappings of a practicing Jew, knows Jewish rites and speaks Yiddish. This Katz eliminated Guter, who was on his trail and had since been working for the KGB and the former East Germany. After a series of further twists, Samuel discovers the deception... Since Katz was a former Nazi, the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, could not decently be recited for this criminal.