Final Account

How did the Holocaust happen? People are not born evil, but somehow most of the population of Germany either contributed directly to acts of mass murder, or denied it was happening. The total defeat of the Nazis led much of the postwar population to condemn their country's past; but also to deny their own roles in it. In Luke Holland's film, he speaks to many elderly Germans about what happened. The less interesting part is where he asks them to admit their own guilt; many still deny it, but it seems to me that this is almost inevitable: if his interviewees all said "yes, I am effectively a murderer", it would be surprising but not that illuminating. Much more interesting than trying to make them take responsibility is where they open up and talk about what happened, and how it could have done so. One has to filter their answers through the lens of self-denial, but it's still worthwhile to hear their stories; and to think, not just in another world that "this could have happened to us" but "we could have done it to them". Soon there will be no living memory; but if we forget, it could easily happen again.

The masses of people can commit horrific atrocities when such acts reach a level of acceptability. Who among us has the courage to say no? The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately evil...

The last living Nazi's, some of which are still in denial, others/most are proud to have fought in the war, most are ashamed of the murders and one or two who are not ... I was left with a lump in my throat.

"Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions." Primo Levi

This film is so difficult to watch, but so very important. The interviewees are senior citizens that were German citizens, soldiers, and other workers during the Nazi regime that murdered nearly 7 million Jewish people. Their responses and opinions are eye opening, and in many cases, difficult to hear. Quite a bit of deflecting responsibility and using hyperbole and other rationalizations for what happened, and what was allowed to happen. And a few actually recognize their responsibilities for their role in the events that were perpetuated. Others still have pride in their roles, claim that things aren't as bad as reported, and in one case, still claim allegiance to Hitler and the SS. It makes for gut wrenching viewing. Especially the images at the end. The terrible horror of it all...

I know this is the kind of piece of media, a historical document that has storytelling intertwined inextricably as I oral stories do have more power sometimes, that isn't really applicable tk star ratings, but I'll give it this anyway simply for the reasons that this director (who's grandparents died in the camps) has a strong sense in the editing of how to pace these interviews with the B roll of the camps and the cities surrounding them (for once a drone shot that has a thematic purpose), and what he gets in the interviews shows that he knows how to ask the right questions and make it about what they knew or are still in the deepest depths of denial. There are those who take full responsibility and there's a very interesting theme of jow culpability leads to guilt and what it means to be German today, and this is best highlighted in that conference room scene (at the same place where the Final Solution idea was put forward, January 20th 1942). There are also one or two chronic deniers and double talkers are confounding, and yet it speaks to how reckoning with one's national identity and one's own sense of self can be very muddy. And it's especially important now for Americans to watch a film like this as it speaks to our own countries past horrors (this last week with the Tulsa massacre at 100 years made that clear). Hard to watch but just as hard not to.