HITLER'S CHILDREN - QUEERGURU

As I left the movie house somewhat dazed I simply couldn’t get the phrase out of my head about ‘sons bearing the guilt of their fathers’. Google tells me this originated from the Old Testament where it is paraphrased quite a few times. The trouble is as so often, the Bible is confusion personified and sometimes it says they should bare the guilt, and other times they need not. Shakespeare on the other hand was very clear as he wrote that ‘sons should suffer’ for the sins.

I however adamantly believe that we are not responsible for our parents actions, as they are not accountable for ours. So wanting to see this intriguing look at the 2nd and 3rd generation of some of the most despicable Nazi hierarchy in World War 2 is not about apportioning blame in anyway, but just seeing how they have dealt with the stigma of their own families brutal pasts.

Bettina Goering the great niece of Hermann Goering (Hitler’s Deputy) toyed with the idea of taking her husband’s surname, and has deliberately chosen to stay as far away from Germany as possible and lives in a remote ranch house in the back and beyonds of Sante Fe. She and her brother both made the conscious decision to be sterilized so that the family name and any bad genes they may have, would die out with them. Monika Hertwig on the other hand, knew very little about the truth of Amon Goeth her father’s role during in the war beyond the greatly altered story she had been fed, so when she saw Ralph Fiennes portraying him in ‘Schindlers List’ she suddenly realised what a monster he had been.

Israeli filmmaker Chanoch Ze’evi evidently met with over 60 descendants of the Nazi elite but only 5 of them agreed to participate in this very public examination of what life has been like for them growing up in the dark shadows of their families past. Each of their stories are fascinating, but it did however seem a wasted opportunity that Mr Ze’evi showed their testimonies without comment, and more importantly without asking them any questions. There is one scene where Rudolf Hoess’s grandson Rainer is visiting Auschwitz Concentration Camp for the first time and sees where his family lived in obscene comfort and undisturbed by the huge gas chambers just the other side of a high wall that his grandfather had created and ran. Rainer is asked to spontaneously talk to some Israeli students also visiting which visibly upsets him and provokes a rather tearful apology for his grandfather’s actions, and its left to his travelling companion , an Israeli journalist to comment that as heartfelt it appeared, it seemed both too little and too sudden.

Of all of the descendants featured, it was Niklas Frank, the son of Hans Frank who was Hitler’s Governor General of Poland, who had made the most effort to confront his demons of the parents he had come to hate. He wrote two no-holds barred books about his father’s exploits and has subsequently spent a great deal of time talking to schoolchildren about Frank Snr’s role in the Holocaust. Hans’s own daughter acknowledges how successful her father’s efforts have been to expunge the past, and as such she no longer feels the need to have to confront the issue itself.

The movie serves as an important part of the record of how we …. the world …. are still dealing with the legacy of that horrendous period. One pointed comment came from Katlin Himmler, Heinrich’s great niece, who mentioned that whilst no-one inside Germany raises an eyebrow at the mention of her infamous family name, it always causes controversy and problems when she visits any other country.

If you missed it, the movie is now out on DVD so hopefully will be available ‘streaming’ too soon.

Available at Amazon

★★★★★★★★