Five good friends who grew up together secretly meet on the eve of departure. Charlotte, a girl with innocent patriotism, is about to go to the field hospital to be a nurse. Her sister, the musically gifted Greta, and his lover Victor, although they can avoid the battlefield, have a bigger hidden danger - Victor is a Jew and is hostile to the whole of Germany. Young people laughing, chatting, singing and dancing—the door opened. Someone reported them violating the curfew order. The tough Gestapo broke in, but was cleared away by the weak woman Greta in a few words, covering his Jewish boyfriend.
On the battlefield, the Germans were victorious in successive battles, approaching the city of Moscow. Lieutenant Wilhelm is brave and good at fighting, and is invincible; his younger brother is a weak scholar who loves Soviet and Russian literature, and he never volunteers to fight, becoming the target of ridicule and scolding from his comrades; Charlotte is as timid as a mouse in the field hospital The doctor looked down on him and was ostracized by his peers; in Berlin, Greta was willing to sell his body to the Gestapo in exchange for his musical career and Victor's permission to leave the country.
The seemingly one-sided balance of power began to change quietly as the war continued. The German army continued to deepen and fell into the huge quagmire of the war; the elder brother was forced to execute prisoners of war, and the sense of military honor was inhumane; , the technology has made great progress and transformed in the smoke of gunpowder; Greta got her wish---the Gestapo gave Victor permission to leave the country, and she herself became a famous singer.
No matter how personal fortunes change, returning to Berlin for Christmas to celebrate victory remains the same belief. Until the brothers fell into the cold winter in Moscow with the German army, they began to doubt the meaning of the war; Charlotte realized that Lilia was Jewish, and reported her instinctively, but with a heavy sense of guilt; the famous singer Greta came to the front line After condolences, it was found that the war was far from smooth sailing as domestic propaganda; Victor thought he could leave the country smoothly, but was cut off by the Gestapo halfway and got on the train to Auschwitz.
The war situation began to reverse, and the German army was completely defeated on the east and west fronts; the former warrior Wilhelm chose to be a deserter after a battle; Frederham was seriously wounded and returned to the battlefield because of domestic false propaganda, but his mentality It was completely different; Charlotte became friends with Sanya, a Soviet nurse who served in a German military hospital, which made her doubts about the war even more serious; although Greta was thrown into prison for preaching "defeatism" after her return, the Gestapo, who was strong outside the country and working at home, was thrown into prison. In order to save herself a way out, but she hopes that she can prove that she has helped the Jews; Victor meets a Polish girl on the train, and the two successfully escape and join the Polish partisans.
What the film wants to express is far from over. The day the German army retreated was the time of the Soviet army's revenge; Wilhelm heard the Soviet army's announcement to persuade him to surrender, and did not believe that he could be treated humanely; Frederham did not want to live after the war, and chose to return to the battlefield to atone for his sins; In order to protect Sanya from falling into the hands of the Soviet army, Charlotte watched as Sanya was executed as a traitor; Victor was finally able to fight against the German army, and at the same time witnessed another evil - the guerrilla ambush The Germans also hated Jews and Russians, and he himself was expelled by the guerrillas because of his Jewish identity.
This earth-shaking war can make warriors cowardly, bookworms grow, powers retreat, weak rebound, advantages reverse, and disadvantages counterattack. But as the narrator said in the play---the biggest winner of the war is the flies, and the flesh and blood of humans feeds them. There is also an important scene in the play: brother Wilhelm hid in the wreckage of the Soviet tank after the fierce battle, and shared a bottle of water with the other soldiers-although they were their own masters, they were almost burned by the fire. Thirsty. The changing hands of the strong and weak on the scene is hardly worth mentioning in the face of the disaster brought by the war to all mankind----even if the Allied forces finally won World War II, it still plunged all mankind into a cold war that lasted for more than half a century. .
Reflecting on war, if we stay on the outcome of the war itself, we will only fall into the cycle of retribution, which will lead to harming others and ourselves. Just like Germany itself, unwilling to lose World War I and launching World War II, not only divided itself, but also caused the world to lose a cold war. Fortunately, the Germans have been reflecting for a long time, and today they can regain their standing among the nations of the world. I sincerely hope that the Germans will continue their journey of self-examination through this newly released TV series. I also hope that the various wars in the past can really wake up all mankind, and finally make war shrink and peace last forever.
Published in "Information Times" on May 25, 2013, with minor changes.
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