Hitler's Children

What I most appreciated about this film is that you do not have to be of German or Jewish ancestry to understand what is being discussed, you only need to be human. Personally, I am of neither ancestry but I was moved to tears as these candid and innocent descendants of those who both inflicted and suffered through one of the worst tragedies in history. As for the German descendants, they are very much trying to keep the sins of their ancestor from defining them while admitting that they were personally affected by their atrocious actions.

Some of their resemblances to their forefathers are uncanny to the point that some can easily be recognized as being the offspring of those who commanded the Third Reich, something that can be shameful or even dangerous.

A look into the lives of the descendants of the top Nazi officials who worked under Hitler's command.

This is a rather interesting look at the children and grandchildren of some infamous members of the Nazi party. While we cannot blame them for what their parents did any more than we can blame anyone in Germany for what the generation before them did, these folks have an unusual level of guilt and shame to bear -- can anyone ever again have the surnames Himmler or Goebbels?

I do like that one person pointed out how the Nazi label has tainted Germany. While Germany has been around in various forms for centuries, we now see the country as a former Nazi country and consider German culture through the lens of Nazi culture. Why are we all so obsessed with this one decade? Is it heinous? Beyond words... but it is a relatively small part of German history. When will it be a thing of the past?

Hitler's Children (2011) is a documentary directed by Chanoch Zeevi. The movie features in-depth interviews with the children or grandchildren of notorious Nazis. Obviously, there are millions of people in Germany--and elsewhere--whose parents or grandparents were members of the Nazi party. However, the people in the film are descended from the most notorious, vicious members of Hitler's inner circle: Goering, Hess, Himmler.

All of the descendants of these Nazis appear to be gentle, humane people. The movie outlines the manner in which they have dealt with their unsolvable dilemma-- how can you love or respect a parent or grandparent who committed such monstrous acts?

It's interesting that none of the people in the film made any attempt to excuse or explain the behavior of their relatives. This attitude has severed some family ties. Their parents or siblings sometimes cling to the "it's all lies" excuse. The people in the movie meet concentration camp survivors or the children of survivors. How can they cope?

The Holocaust will remain a scar on human history as long as human history exists. Its psychological effects will always be with us, although perhaps they will diminish with time. For the people in the movie, the effects of the Holocaust are with them forever. It's an impossible situation. They have to deal with it in the best way they can.

This film was shown at Rochester's Dryden Theatre as part of the wonderful Rochester Jewish Film Festival. It's definitely worth finding and seeing, and it will work well on DVD. It makes a good companion film to another JFF movie, "The Flat." In "The Flat," a daughter of a high-ranking Nazi maintains the fiction that her father was "just a journalist." He wasn't.

This film is fascinating, profound and moving. It raises important moral issues and shakes many conventional beliefs.

How should we view crimes committed by our parents and ancestors? At what point do our ancestors' acts forfeit our natural (and culturally-encouraged) love for them? Should we even face the facts of their choices and lives? The documentary addresses these issues in the starkest case: by speaking with the relatives of men who committed the worst of crimes. These children and grandchildren bear the family-name of their infamous ancestors while not accepting and, in some cases sharply repudiating, the legacies of those ancestors.

Modern society washes away what happened last week, let alone by the last generation. So the current inclination is to simply forget about the past. Yet when the past was atrocious, forgetting it is wrong. At the least, we owe victims of atrocities remembrance of their history and their suffering.

This movie should be seen by more people. To understand our present, we need to grapple with our past, including the ugly parts.

Two years of German and I still needed the subtitles for many of the words. However, they spoke clearly and did not slur. Still once in a while, there is a dirty word I can add to my repertoire. Some English creeps in.

This is "Hitler's Children" (2011 German-Israeli co-production) It is like watching home movies. The People displaying the information are more interesting than the people watching the movie.

Bettina Göring is the great-niece of Hermann Göring.

Katrin Himmler is the great-niece of Heinrich Himmler. Karin wrote the book "The Himmler Brothers." Rainer Höß is the grandson of Rudolf Hoess.

Niklas Frank, son of Hans Frank a godson of Hitler Monika Hertwig is the daughter of Amon Goeth.

If you are not familiar with the people from the Third Reich each is given a mugshot and a rap sheet.

If you find this documentary interesting then nor next movie is "The Nasty Girl" (1991).

The DVD has gone up in price and you may want to look to a supplier in England. As the U. S. DVD available will require a region-free player.