In lieu of a review - my thoughts on “What Our Fathers Did: a Nazi legacy”
I just recently finished watching What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy - a documentary following the sons of two high-ranking Nazi officials. Niklas Frank, son of Hans Frank, head of the Polish occupation and a man responsible for ordering some of the worst atrocities in the European front, feels anger and guilt over his father’s crimes, and sees denouncing his father as almost a duty. Horst von Wacher, son of Otto von Wächter, a lower-ranking official who was in charged of the occupied portion of what is now Ukraine, clings to the memories of a loving parent and desperately tries to convince himself that his father was ultimately a good man who did the best he could do under the orders he was given - in spite of all the evidence to suggest that he was very much a willing participant.
As with Hitler’s Children, another documentary that deals with children of Nazi officials, this is the sort of thing that I can’t really review. But I feel like I must at least write down some thoughts.
As a Russian with Poles and Jews in my family tree, I can’t be impractical, and I’m not even going to try. When we see the footage from the Krakow ghetto, or the modern-day footage of a Ukrainian synagogue that was set ablaze has been abandoned since… it feels personal. When I hear about entire towns’ Jewish populations being But I could understand, on a basic level of human empathy, why Horst was so deeply in denial. Not enough to forgive, but I could understand.
At least, for most of the documentary.
Toward the end, Niklas, Horst and human rights lawyer Phillipe Sands (who acts as the documentary’s de facto host) travel to Ukraine to visit a field where Phillipe’s family and thousands of other Jews were massacred. They come across a group on Ukrainian nationalists (quite a few of whom were clearly Nazis), who praised Otto von Wachter as a good man who fought for Ukrainian independence. The was Horst basked in praise… “rubbed me the wrong way” would be putting it mildly.
When I mentioned this to my mom, she pointed out that, hey, why wouldn’t Horst bask in it. Everything he clung to all those decades was getting validated. But… Basking in the praise of Nazis still felt profoundly wrong. From my admittedly very biased perspective.
Speaking of Ukrainian neo-Nazis… For better of for worse, the documentary doesn’t shy away from pointing out something that, until the Ukrainian crisis, was the part of what my people called the Great Patriotic War that we tended to try to avoid. When Nazis invaded Ukraine, they tried to frame the whole thing is liberating Ukraine from Soviet occupation. They formed squads of Ukrainian soldiers to (ostensively) fight the Red Army Now, Nazis were never serious about Ukrainian independence - the Ukrainians were Slavs, and thus as much of a subhuman force of slave labor as Russians. And they never did trust the Ukrainian forces to fight on the front lines until things got desperate. But fact remains that a lot of nationalists see those soldiers as part of Ukrainian resistance against Russia and, thus, inspirational figures.
Conveniently overlooking the not-so-small detail that many figures they venerate quite willingly took part in the slaughter of Ukrainian Jews.
As I’ve written before, the Ukrainian Crisis is slowly but surely driving the two sides towards the extremes. Views that would have otherwise been fringe are gaining wider currency. As Phillipe says during the documetnary, during conflicts, there is a lot of temptations to see things in black and white, and ignore the many, many shades of gray.
Must as I castigated the United Russia’s apparatus for cheapening the legacy of World War II in pursuit of their own political agenda, the sad truth is that there are Nazis (and people with similar beliefs) among the supporters of the current Ukrainian government. Not as many as the Russian state media likes my people to believe, but they’re there.
My mom had commented that she wasn’t sure that this documentary shouldn’t have been made. It is a difficult film to watch. It is, ultimately, a deeply personal look inside the lives of two men who, through no fault of their own, found themselves living in the shadows of horrifying legacies.
But ultimately, I would argue that, as hard as it is to watch, it should have been made. It deserves to be seen.
I’ve written before that, one of the big reason why World War II is personal for me is because I know real, flesh-and-blood people who were affected by it. This is not just some abstract conflict. But I’m among the last generation that can say that. As veterans and survivors die of natural causes in growing numbers, the conflict becomes more abstract. And when it becomes more abstract, it’s that much easier to make a war a prop, a way to advance your own interests and your own agenda.
What our Fathers Did reminds us that, as awful as Hans Frank and Otto von Wächter were, they were human beings, who had families, and who experienced love and fear like everybody else. It doesn’t absolve them of anything - but it does remind us that regular human beings are capable of killing millions.
It reminds us that the world is messy and complex. At the same time, it reminds us that, much as we may be tempted to shape history to our end ends. It reminds us of the pervasive power of self-deception, and just how damaging it can be.
I don’t know how someone who doesn’t come in with the same background as I do would feel about the documentary. But I doubt anyone would walk away unaffected.
Click to view---
What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy screens at the Gene Siskel Film Center every day until Thursday, November 19. For the exact showtimes, click here.