Do the following names have a familiar sounding ring to them? Heinrich Himmler? Herman Goring? Rudolf Hoess? Hans Frank? Amon Goeth?
Well, if you are at all up on your WW2 history, and, especially, if you're hip to who's who in the notorious Nazi camp, then these particular names should, of course, ring a very clear bell that comes straight from a Gestapo, concentration camp from hell.
Anyways - For anyone who might be a little vague about these 5 names and the significance that they had in the scheme of things during WW2, then here's a brief run-down of their general relevance.
Heinrich Himmler was second in command of the Nazi Party. His position was directly under Adolf Hitler.
Rudolf Hoess was the creator and commander of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.
Hans Frank was the Polish Governor-General who, during WW2, was directly responsible for all of the ghettos and concentration camps that existed in Poland.
Hermann Goring was a high-ranking Nazi official responsible for countless WW2 atrocities.
This well-produced, 60-minute documentary consists of interviews with 5 descendants of these once powerful figures who had reigned supreme in the Nazi regime. These interviewees are people who had inherited a legacy that had permanently associated them with one of the greatest crimes in all of history.
And their names are as follows - Bettina Goring, great-niece of Herman Goring; Rainer Hoess, grandson of Rudolf Hoess; Katrin Himmler, great-niece of Heinrich Himmler; Niklas Frank, son of Hans Frank; and Monika Goeth, daughter of Amon Goeth.
For more than 60 years these people have, in a sense, lived in the shadows, trying to rebuild their lives without being constantly reminded of what their fathers or fore-fathers once did.
In Hitler's Children each of these people discusses the delicate balance that they reached between the natural admiration that a child has for his father or relative and the innate revulsion that they clearly hold towards the crimes which their ancestors committed.
The viewer is told of the challenges that these people had to face in protecting their families as they passed down their family name to future generations.
All-in-all - Hitler's Children was an interesting documentary that provided the viewer with even more insight into the devastating effects of a worldwide event, like WW2, which, even today, still continues to have an impact on us.
