German TV drama confronts a nation's wartime guilt

A television drama exploring the guilt of ordinary Germans during the Second World War has become a ratings sensation in Germany, reaching more than seven million viewers.



A scene from Our Mothers, Our Fathers, the ground-breaking drama series shown in Germany

Our Mothers, Our Fathers follows the lives of five young men and women – two brothers who become Wehrmacht soldiers, a singer, a nurse and their Jewish friend.



The series draws on the experiences of the film-makers' parents


The drama begins on the eve of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and shows how the young people are rapidly corrupted by the Third Reich. One of the soldiers executes a Russian prisoner, while the nurse betrays a Jewish patient to the SS. The Jewish man is shown escaping the Nazis to find shelter with Polish partisans.



The three-part series has been hailed by critics as a "turning point" in German television for examining the crimes of the Third Reich at an individual level. The screenplay of Our Mothers, Our Fathers draws on the experiences of the film-makers' parents – the screenwriter Stefan Kolditz's father was a 19-year-old soldier on the eastern front, while a scene in which a Jewish child is shot was based on an event witnessed by the producer Nico Hofmann's father.




The final episode was watched by 7.6 million people





The drama also explores the seductive aspect of Nazism. Mr Hofmann told the newspaper Bild: "My mother took many years to understand that Adolf Hitler was not a father figure, not a substitute for religion, not a missionary."

Reviewers have praised the drama for breaking new ground by showing how the Nazi system reached into every corner of life. Christian Buss, a culture editor for the magazine Spiegel wrote in a review of the drama that while the question of Germans' collective guilt had been resolved, the role of individuals remained unclear.

"Who has had the conversation with their own parents and grandparents about the moral failings of their elders?" he wrote. "The history of the Third Reich has been examined down to the level of Hitler's dog while our own family history is a deep dark crater."

The final episode was watched by 7.6 million people.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/9949238/German-TV-drama-confronts-a-nations-wartime-guilt.html

 

Sounds like an exceptional program.

 

Well it was quite good. But it had way to many regime critics once again.

 

Man, youtube is so fast

http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperSturmfan2

Grüße
Philipp

 

Just saw first one on you tube Cheers Millen....Well I rate it anyway...Excellent

 

Another one on my watch list after I finish watching "Walking dead" :monster1:

 

Just finished the second one, and cannot recommend it more highly. I don't think it really is a case of Germany confronting itself...if so in a minor capacity. But It has given me a little more understanding of the German soldier at least.

 

Bugger....they took it down before I watched the third episode.....

 

It will be there again , it's just a matter of time

 

Do Germans of this generation really need to confront the past? I'm sure this show is both educational and entertaining, but I don't think Germans of today should feel any sort of collective guilt. Every nation has dark chapters in its past, but I just don't buy that "sins of the fathers" thing that has become part of the modern social dogma. Modern Brits shouldn't have to apologize for colonialism, or Americans for slavery, or Germans for the holocaust.

Learn about it, yes. Apologize for it, no.

 

Well I did not see much hang wringing or anything too much along the lines of attonement..be it expressing it or even wishing it...All I saw was 2 bloody good war time dramas based on the Eastern and home fronts...And gave me a view of the German soldier being what we mostly knew him to be...steadfast, brave and maybe not a liitle Prusianish...rather than full blown Nazi...And as one who has never felt the need to get into the head of the German soldier or his pretty uniform and badges...it made me aware of a single trurism...Most soldiers think and act alike no matter the nation.

 

There is different view on this movie. Despite the artistic freedom, film industry cannot serve as the Nazi cosmetics service.

Commenting on the film, Polish political writer, editor of the Open Democracy Internet portal Zigmund Dzencholovsky has this to say.

“The film that was released by German TV presents Poles as anti-Semitists and puts the blame on the Poles for the mass killings of Jews during the Second World War, but softly speaking, this is quite strange. German media must present a true picture of the events and in short, know show who initiated the Holocaust instead of searching for those who were involved in it. Polish official organizations, as well as the German community, could not ignore this. Truly speaking, I do not like attempts to eradicate the simple truth from the minds of people that Germans bear responsibility for the Second World War. The film is an attempt by Germans to share their blame with others. This is completely wrong. Germany must clearly formulate the truth about the events of the Second World War and it should clarify details.”

 

Sadly the video I was able to see did not have English subtitles, so there was a limit to what I could get out of it, still it looked extremely well made and look forward to one with English sub-titles.

As for the Polish critic's comments, yes many, though not all or most Poles, were Anti-Semites. And it would be impossible for a single film, even in three parts, could not convey a complete picture of the times or the people.

 

I must say that the depiction of the Poles was quite unfair. The movie made them seem almost more antisemitic than the Germans. And although antisemitism was widespread in Poland at that time (and the rest of the world btw) I think it is almost revisionistic to depict the Poles like that, especially the Polish Home Army who saved many Jews as far as I know. Actually that was the biggest flaw in the series apart from the fact that the constellation of the main characters is of course absolutely unrealistic (but on their own the characters are all credible).

Grüße
Philipp

 

Sorry, I don't think there was anything too heavy involved here. A Ukranian crypto civil bunch murdering in one scene...Polish resistance doing what all resistance movements did including French in a small scene...It however does not cover the Holocaust in any great detail. Its a war drama...Some people are reading too much into this. I agree on what commentators are saying about Germany and the war, but this drama if it was meant to be a vessel to project that...fails if thats the case, but succeeds as a war drama a good one at that. Maybe all the attonement and holocaust takes place in episode 3 which I have yet to see, but if there is not much difference from the first 2 episodes then the critics are seeing or not seeing something that just is not there.

The Telegraph review, presents it in similar vein, an attonement, the Germans nation faces up to her past etc etc...thats just not the case..it fails if this was the idea behind it.

Its far from portraying the holocaust or the Poles Or the Russians or the SS or Hitler in any great way. Which must be dissapointing for the critics if thats what they were looking for, or what the drama was made for. Looking at the first two episodes, it is weak on ethics, and morals and strong on personal social story and war and its violence. Maybe as I say Episode 3 has a big political or moral bang...I'll wait and see.

In my view...a great war drama, one that is not much different than I would expect the BBC to produce if they were to.

 

Well said...i agree...I want every Japanese student to KNOW what their fathers and grandfathers did...its about being honest and fair dinkum with yourself...BUT i DO NOT expect an apology from them...Is this show apologetic??

 

No the show isn't apologeetic. But I think that a nation has to apologize for war crimes it comitted , but Germany has done this enough. And most Germans who live today have no individual guilt at all but still the collective guilt will remain forever.

 

adv

 

Hmmm...i think there is an important difference between "acknowledge" and "apologise"...This is pertenant to Australia...The government a couple of years ago "aplogised" for the "stolen generation" - Aboriginals (mostly) taken from their parents who were deemed unfit (and they were) or a part of some governments "racial" policy to reduce the amount of Aboriginals being born...the first was an admirable move, the second, detestable.
Most Australians balked at the apology, because many think it was a good idea (we still take children off abusive/negelectful parents) or think that it was before there time and had nothing to do with it, and so nothing to apologise for...likewise right now, governments are aplogising officially for taking children off unwedded women (white mostly) in the past...(My mother had to give up her first daughter to adoption as she was unwedded (Conceived with a Canadian Sailor!) My brother and i were born in wedlock and not bothered by it. Again, people are balking at the apology because the NT wasnt even self governened at the time, so we had nothing to do with the practice...so why are we aplogising? Especially if the apology is followed by a demand for compensation. The perpetraitors need to apologise...the rest need to "acknowledge" the wrong doing and the subsequent suffering. In my opinion.

 

In the case of the WW2 it is not always easy to determine who is a perpetrator and who not.

Are the judges who sentenced (alleged) regime opponents to death perpetrators? After all they just enforced the laws that were in effect at that time.
Are German civilians perpetrators who took Jewish apartments and property after they have been bombed out?
Are Wehrmacht soldiers perpetrators who secured an area where mass executions took place?
What is with the soldiers who executed commisars? They just followed a direct order didn't they?

You can expand this list forever but the point is that to some (and I wish to emphasize some) degree the system forces you to commit crimes. In this context an excuse by the responsible system respectively it's successor is an appropriate thing to do.

Grüße
Philipp