Being absorbed in a deliberate and powerfull regime change, without knowing it's future implications. It's around us all the time, whether in the US, North Korea, EU. We can only see so far into the future, agenda's and lack of information. The Hofmann brothers illustrate quite well the sort of optimistic spirit of those days when Germany seemed te be recovering from the depression and a bright future lay ahead. The powerfull businessmen and politicians conspiring to create a new order that would make them immeasurably rich while creating an industry around rearmament that is insustainable even with a huge war planned ahead. The people just happy to be able to find new jobs and pay the rent. Sure, the regime is not perfect, but as the hofmanns say; the rough edges will fade and a more neutral government will rise...surely!
In this movie the brothers slowly find out that their choices to join the SA and SS come at a heavy price and there is no way back. Every hint of doubt will result in imprisonement, torture and death. How much misery will you let slide before you reach the point where your own life is no longer more valuable than the lives you help ruin? For Helmut it is a long road; first he loses his principles; instead of teaching he chooses money and career opportunities. He doesn't believe the nazi propaganda, he's too intelligent for that. Flattered by the interest in him by Heydrich he joines the SS. Then he loses his integrity; he knows what kind of fascist torturing and murderous people are his colleagues, but out of fear and self preservation decides to act as if he belongs there. He gives up on the woman that loves him, accepts that his parents silently dissaprove his choices and let's his softer academic personality whither and die. In the end, for anyone that doesn.t know him, he is nothing more than a cold sinister symbol of fear and death.
Karl fares no better. Younger and simpler of mind, he hopes the nazi party will make sure there are enough jobs and strong unions. Enthusiast as he is, he joines the SA even though he is not antisemitic. He too discovers that his colleagues are not like him and are out for brawls and later party approved agression. He sees early on that he bet on the wrong horse. He has the courage to speak up a few times and get's in real trouble. Where it not for Helmut, he would have died.
The path these brothers follow is a path many of us follow even in these times. Vote for this guy or that, only years later can we see with clarity if a choice was right. This movie gives an insight to the mechanics of a totalitarian state and how it was possible for good men and women to stand idle even when knowing what was going on. I guess the moment you look a monster in the eye, is the moment most of us freeze in terror. In a way it reminded me of "unsere mutter, unsere vatter", the german miniseries about a group of young Germans with different paths through te war also ending in shock when they finally see how far they had been lead astray. Losing youth, innocence, friends, family, homes.
In this movie the brothers slowly find out that their choices to join the SA and SS come at a heavy price and there is no way back. Every hint of doubt will result in imprisonement, torture and death. How much misery will you let slide before you reach the point where your own life is no longer more valuable than the lives you help ruin? For Helmut it is a long road; first he loses his principles; instead of teaching he chooses money and career opportunities. He doesn't believe the nazi propaganda, he's too intelligent for that. Flattered by the interest in him by Heydrich he joines the SS. Then he loses his integrity; he knows what kind of fascist torturing and murderous people are his colleagues, but out of fear and self preservation decides to act as if he belongs there. He gives up on the woman that loves him, accepts that his parents silently dissaprove his choices and let's his softer academic personality whither and die. In the end, for anyone that doesn.t know him, he is nothing more than a cold sinister symbol of fear and death.
Karl fares no better. Younger and simpler of mind, he hopes the nazi party will make sure there are enough jobs and strong unions. Enthusiast as he is, he joines the SA even though he is not antisemitic. He too discovers that his colleagues are not like him and are out for brawls and later party approved agression. He sees early on that he bet on the wrong horse. He has the courage to speak up a few times and get's in real trouble. Where it not for Helmut, he would have died.
The path these brothers follow is a path many of us follow even in these times. Vote for this guy or that, only years later can we see with clarity if a choice was right. This movie gives an insight to the mechanics of a totalitarian state and how it was possible for good men and women to stand idle even when knowing what was going on. I guess the moment you look a monster in the eye, is the moment most of us freeze in terror. In a way it reminded me of "unsere mutter, unsere vatter", the german miniseries about a group of young Germans with different paths through te war also ending in shock when they finally see how far they had been lead astray. Losing youth, innocence, friends, family, homes.