What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy

Dir: David Evans

2015

****

Philippe Sands 2015 documentary is a shocking and rather unsettling look at two elderly men, Niklas Frank and Horst von Wächter, whose fathers were Nazi Officers responsible for sending thousands of Jews to their deaths, including Sand's own grandparents. Sands, a human rights lawyer, speaks to both men separately to understand what it was like to be the child of a Nazi officer during the Second World War. Niklas Frank (son of Hans Frank, Governor of Occupied Poland and Hitler's personal Lawyer, also known as The Butcher of Poland) had quite an unhappy and loveless childhood. When he learnt the truth about his father he faced his family’s demons and became quite outspoken and honest about the atrocities his father had committed. He certainly wasn't at peace (one of his siblings remained a Nazi and Escaped to South Africa, another committed suicide due to guilt) but becoming a spokesperson for civil rights has given him a level of peace of mind, while he certainly doesn't feel responsible for any wrong, he does feel it is his responsibility to speak out against Nazism in all is guises. His 1987 book The Father: A Settling of Accounts, was a controversial novel that took Germany by storm and was celebrated among critics. He keeps a picture of his father just after he was hanged in his breast pocket at all times as a reminder of who he is. Horst von Wächter, son of Otto Wächter is a different kettle of fish. After a very awkward first interview, it is clear that Horst is either uncomfortable with taking about his father or in denial of what he was responsible for. In the end both appear true. The documentary starts to take an unexpectedly dark corner when the two sons get together. Both know each other and consider each other friends but the more they talk and visit sites where their fathers worked, the more it becomes clear that Horst doesn't believe his father was guilty of any wrong doing. The film then gets even darker, when visiting a church near a mass grave in the Ukraine, the three men encounter a funeral organised by a group of local neo-Nazis (some in full Nazi uniform). While Niklas questions the group in a forcibly calm manner, Horst soon lets himself become a hero among them, once they realize who his father was. What follows is disturbing and frightening in equal measure. The film is never forced in any way. Sands focuses on fact but never intimidates of tricks his interviewees and the documentary is never sensationalist. It will stay with you for days later, the sign of a good documentary and a reflection of the scary world we live in.