Title: Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers
Genre: Documentary
Director: Larry Price
Release: (2006)
One of my favorite random moments from The Simpsons that just always stuck with me for some reason came in the “Bart vs. Australia” episode, when the family is being shown a slideshow about life in Australia before having to make a diplomatic mission there to settle an international dispute set off by one of Bart’s pranks. One of the slides shows a picture of a movie theatre, where the marquee outside reads: “Yahoo Serious Festival”, prompting Lisa to note, “I know those words, but that sign makes no sense.” I was reminded of that scene, and found myself feeling very much like Lisa, as I first settled in and watched the opening credits roll at the beginning of Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers.
The second thing I thought of, a few minutes into the film, was “how are these guys still alive?” Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers recounts the uniquely complicated experiences of the surprisingly large number (as in, more than zero) of German Jews who served in the armed forces of Nazi Germany, told primarily through the firsthand recollections of four such men. It wasn’t so much their ages that made me wonder this, but just the idea that they lied about their own heritage to enlist in Hitler’s army and lived to tell about it. But I was soon reminded that my own incredulity is borne out of a perspective that has only seen Nazi Germany through twenty-first century glasses. The fascinating tale of these four men and others like them serves as an interesting reminder that sometimes events are reflected in history books much the way bodies are reflected in circus mirrors, and that often decisions in life are not made with the same knowledge that they will come to be judged by.
The film begins immediately – almost abruptly – with the story of Werner Goldberg’s ironic twist of fate as a young German soldier. Goldberg, who disguised his own Jewish heritage to enlist, gave new meaning to the phrase “hiding in plain sight” when his photograph was selected to be featured in a prominent Nazi propaganda campaign. All throughout Germany, Goldberg’s picture was plastered on posters and in newspapers promoting the efforts of the German army. The caption beneath it: “The Ideal German Soldier”. Funny as that may sound now, it seems from some of the stories told throughout this film that this ironic contradiction may not have been so far from the truth. Though SS regulations technically prohibited anyone of even partial Jewish ancestry (known as “mischlings”) from enlisting, the need for manpower and a haphazard record-keeping system led to an unofficial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that allowed a number of young Jewish men to seek cover and employment among the brownshirts – several of whom were promoted up through the ranks to the highest levels of officers.
Price’s short film (just one hour, originally made for television in Israel) does a nice job of recreating and conveying the confusing decisions facing these men in their young lives, some of who seem to have had an inkling of what was going on, others who remain firm to this day that they had no idea about the existence of concentration camps until after their service. The moral choices of these men, which might now seem so black and white in hindsight, are grayed even further with every new wrinkle of perspective. Like the claim of Arno Spitz that, at the time, he always considered Hitler’s Nazi party just another political party and a separate institution from the German military. Or like Werner Goldberg, who never even knew his mother was Jewish until he began school and, even then, went several more years before the policies of the new Nazi regime forced him to consider for the first time that there might be a connection between his mother’s religious faith and his own racial identity – a potentially confusing subject matter even by today’s standards. Or of Hans-Geert Falkenberg, whose own Jewish friends urged him to stay in the army as things got worse, reminding him that the cover his enlistment provided made it “the safest place in Germany” for a Jew to be.
These are just a few of the eye-opening, and sometimes startling revelations, that continue to flow freely from the memories of these and other men interviewed in this film about the tragic irony of their own experience. An experience which, for some, seems to be still ongoing as they struggle into their twilight years to convince themselves their reasoning at the time was just – or at least justifiable. Who are we to judge?
Grading
Story: N/A
Acting: N/A
Visuals: C (*Note* - Standard, educational film style construction with narration over old footage interspersed between interview segments. Almost all pretty straightforward and appropriate for anyone, but about halfway through there is a relatively quick but startlingly raw and horrific montage of photographs showing bodies from concentration camps being literally disposed of by the truckload. A harsh but important ice-water blast to the face of reality for adults with only an abstract notion of the Holocaust from history books, but probably not appropriate for young children or weak stomachs.)
Originality/Innovation: N/A (regarding aspects of technical production or narrative structure), A (for content selection)
Enjoyability: N/A (Highly interesting but “enjoyable”, in the typical connotation used when discussing movies, might not be the best way to describe it. Intellectually enjoyable, perhaps, but emotionally, not so much.)
Overall: B+ (not a good go-out, veg-out, or make-out movie, but one that feels important to have seen)
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