Final Account

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...

"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've watched and read a lot of stuff about The Holocaust and the Nazis, yet whenever I approach some new material, it's always with the same thought 'It can't happen again though can it'. The sad reality is antisemitism is on the rise again, certainly in the UK. Which is what makes documentaries like this vital. What makes this a little different from many on the subject is rather than focusing on debunking deniers or being solely voiced by survivors. It relies on those who participated on the Nazi side. The last living generation of the third reich... and their families. Most are products of the Hitler Youth program. They talk of liking the uniform, feeling included, the social engagement, the belonging to a group. Singing! Old men and women now, they still recall the lyrics with an obvious fondness. Some were just civilians, but nearly all admit to knowing what was happening. Even hiding SS officers when the camps were liberated... and chuckling about it! It feels like a lot of people making a lot of excuses. The pressure put on them from Hitler, the social engineering they were subjected to, the fear. There's not a lot of remorse. They talk as they would've at the time and it's clear that many haven't truly reevaluated or have an intention to. Some say they didn't know about the concentration camps, others admit it was clear something was going on, even if they weren't aware of the full extent. "These heroes you hope to find, there aren't many of them. We were scared". Many talk in terms of us and them. They see themselves as Germans. Not Nazis. The Jews a separate entity in the events. Not fellow humans. There's certainly no suggestion they feel any responsibility. Even those who grew up and worked as part of the regime, as bookkeepers, as guards. The only truly enlightened voice is that of filmmaker Luke Holland, who asks the questions we're all asking. 'Who reported the Jews hiding in your barn?', 'Did you know what was happening in the camps?', 'Would you have killed those Jews?'. The answers are always the ones you don't want to hear. There's a ridiculous denial about the whole thing. They knew what was happening. They did nothing. Although the stories are told with a contemplating tone, they're matter of fact. This would be even more troublesome viewing but for the way this documentary is assembled. The voices are intercut with a mix of archive and present day footage of the places spoken of. This along with text illustrating the numbers of people lost and the sombre strings of the score, make this necessarily bleak. Some admit their guilt, but hide behind semantics. Others openly stand by Hitler. It's shocking. It should be. These people should be looked upon as criminals. If they're too old and indoctrinated to feel the shame they should, it's for future generations to carry. Never forget. It can't happen again.

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.

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.