It was June 1941, just before Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
They were called up and thought they would be back in Berlin before Christmas. At that time, the Third Reich was on the verge of collapse, and the German army was invincible. With its high-speed steel chariots, it successively annexed Czechoslovakia, blitzed Poland, occupied Denmark and Norway, conquered the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and fell to France.
On the day he packed his bags and left home, Wilhelm had a high morale as a young ensign, promising to bring his younger brother Friedhelm to victory. A qualified soldier, he obeyed every order from his superiors, including shooting Soviet prisoners of war and occupying radio stations at all costs. He had doubts, but the iron law of "military order above all else" held him firmly, so he gave in.
Unlike his role model brother, Friedhelm didn't care. He didn't know what they were fighting for, and even doubted the meaning of the war. Therefore, Friedhelm, who first entered the barracks, did not take credit for performance, did not charge into battle, and did not follow orders. He was "the only one who did not take the initiative to participate in the war."
Charlotte, who has been a military doctor since she was a child, has never doubted this country. When someone asked her "what else is after the Third Reich", she replied: "Nothing, the Third Reich will last forever. ." When the head nurse asked her "Do you know why you are here?", she took it for granted: "We are here to serve the German soldiers." Charlotte is more simple than Friedhelm, she simply wants to do for the country Something, she simply felt sorry for the dead and wounded soldiers, and simply liked Wilhelm.
In order to help Viktor get a pass, Greta pays a woman's bottom line. The loveless Nazi officer created a short-lived dream of prosperity for her - just like that empire - and overnight, she became a star of all eyes, and her famous song played over and over on the gramophone: "My little heart has begun to dream of happiness, looking forward to your return in my hometown, I know you will be back soon..."
Viktor was the only Jew among them. He could have inherited his father's tailor shop and become an excellent tailor, but his innate national identity made him have to choose to escape to survive. He used the pass certificate obtained for him by Greta to prepare to leave this paranoia He was caught by the Wehrmacht and put on a train to the concentration camp.
"There were five of us. We grew up on the same street, we've known each other since childhood, we have different backgrounds and personalities, but we've become good friends along the way.?"
"We wanted to separate Say goodbye before."
"Okay, let's swear together: we'll be back here at Christmas, in this room."
"Let's live."
"See you in Berlin at Christmas!"
"We were young and thought the future belonged to us. Yes , the whole world is in front of us. All we have to do is act and we are invincible.”
What made them all change? Friedhelm said: War brings out the worst in us. Wilhelm said the war was not what I thought it would be.
It's time to say goodbye to the world we remember.
Later, Friedhelm was finally able to pull the trigger without hesitation.
Later, Greta was trapped in an illusory dream given by Nazi officers.
Later, Charlotte ruthlessly reported Lilija who had helped her.
Later, Viktor was forced to travel around with the Polish partisans to save his life.
Later, Wilhelm got tired of wars with no future. He was the most shameless deserter.
"When all your comrades are dead, who else can you fight for?"
Friedhelm thought Wilhelm was dead. He saw with his own eyes that the enemy's artillery shell hit Wilhelm, and in that instant it exploded, sending rocks and dust flying, and Wilhelm fell to the ground, motionless. At that moment Friedhelm felt like he was going crazy. With an explosion of unprecedented courage and strength in utter grief, he single-handedly took over the radio station—the last order from his superiors to Wilhelm.
Charlotte heard that Wilhelm was dead. This silly girl lost hope and reason, and that night she impulsively handed herself over to the military medical officer, cutting her way.
Friedhelm really thought Wilhelm was dead. So after returning to Berlin to recover from his injury, he ignored the obstruction of his poor mother and returned to the front line. This time, I really can only rely on myself. This time, it's really just me.
Greta finally understood that the real purpose of the Nazi officers sending her to the front was to keep her away from the city of Berlin. He was fed up with her. A disinterested singer had no value in the eyes of a Nazi officer, and he punched her decisively in the stomach. Greta, who finally returned to Berlin, was taken to a Nazi prison in Charlottenburg the next day on charges of passive treason until the end of her life.
Together with anti-Semitic Polish partisans, Viktor thwarted the Germans everywhere. They attacked a German train carrying military equipment as planned, but did not expect to find a whole three-carriage of Jews, who were to be sent to concentration camp gas chambers, just like Viktor before. The Poles opened the car door and closed it again. They had no intention of taking care of the Jews. They took what they wanted, turned around and left. Only Viktor turned back and helped the Jews escape that fateful train. Because he is Jewish, they are his fellow nation.
Wilhelm wasn't actually dead. A deserter, he was caught and sentenced to death with reprieve and served in the 500th Probation Brigade. They were assigned to do the dirtiest, most tiring, and most dangerous jobs, cleaning up all kinds of corpses, burying landmines with bullets, and burning the huts of innocent people. After going around in circles, Wilhelm found that he still did not have the grasp of escaping the war. As the captain of the 500th probation team said: "There are always people who think they can easily sneak away from the battlefield of life and death in the Empire."
Of the five, only Friedhelm was the only one who saw war clearly and knew how to accept reality.
Wilhelm: You're right, war brings out the worst in us.
Friedhelm: Yes, I know, but that doesn't change the fact that the fight will continue tomorrow.
Friedhelm: The war will only stop when it is over. We are slaughterhouse animals, heroes today and pigs tomorrow.
Wilhelm: It doesn't make sense.
Friedhelm: It doesn't make sense at all, God abandoned us, and now we are the only ones left, there are no goddamn generals, führers, only these people! If we're all dead tomorrow, okay, that's fine. But you have to lead us, and I want you to lead us.
I still remember what a gentle and simple child Friedhelm was in the first episode. He liked to read Artur Rimbaud and Ernst Jung; he would want to save a little Jewish girl from the Ukrainian auxiliary police; he would cry for Jewish civilians who were innocently shot; The old lady who was doing the laundry thanked him and gave her a can. By the third episode, however, Friedhelm had completely changed, turning into a killing machine that succumbed to orders. When the boss asked him to shoot the Jewish boy who was trying to escape, he shot; when the boss asked him to pull down the wooden stool under the gallows, he did it; when the boss asked him to kill his running friend Viktor, he didn't do too much The idea of pointing the gun at his boss-friends are his last bottom line, and no one can touch it.
In fact, we all know that Friedhelm is a murderer but not a murderer. He is just a weapon in the hands of those crazy murderers.
One of the recruits asked him, "How did you become this way?" Friedhelm said: "Try not to think of yourself as a person, some people become this way and others that way, no one knows what will happen, everyone changes. ." Maybe at a time when the snow gunfight was on the line? Maybe when he thought his brother was dead? Perhaps in countless hopeless waits in countless dark nights. - Who knows.
May 4, 1945, three days before the surrender of the Third Reich. Friedhelm chose to sacrifice his own life in that remote forest with his own hands in a slow and painful way, while giving his companions a chance to live. Before he died, he glanced at the black and white photo for the last time. The outline of the photo was already wrinkled by groping. He turned it over, wrote a string of addresses on the back of the photo, and asked his companions to help send it here.
He had already decided that if one day the war ended, his life would go to ruin along with the war. His hands were covered with countless grievances and blood, and he thought that God and the world would not forgive him for whatever reason.
He had already decided so, so he no longer fantasized about the future, planning a better life after the war, he turned himself into a walking shell that just obeyed orders.
He had already made up his mind because he couldn't think of any other way to forgive the sins he had committed in order to survive.
So the moment he fell, was Friedhelm relieved? Should be relieved. Finally, I can stop killing people and be myself in the last second, the nerd who used to like Jung's books.
The Third Reich is over.
"In May 1945, four years ago we said goodbye to each other, we were five good friends, we thought the war would be over by Christmas, and now the war is over where it started, in Berlin, or rather the ruins of Berlin When they reunited at
the Berlin Bar four years later, Berlin was no longer the Berlin it once was, the bar was in ruins, and only three of the five survived.
"It's good that you survived," Wilhelm said to Charlotte and Viktor.
How many times have lives hung on the line. We can imagine, if the shells hit the ground instead of passing by, would Wilhelm still be alive? Would Charlotte still be alive if Lilija didn't show up and come to the rescue? Would Viktor still be alive if the Polish guerrilla actually shot? And if, without getting caught or under the illusion of Nazi officers, would Greta be alive? Would Friedhelm be alive if he hadn't been the "early bird"?
In the age of war, who can say who will die and who will survive?
"Our Fathers" is a German film that has been in preparation for nearly ten years, visited a large number of parties, shot scenes in many countries, and was edited in the later period of one year. It shows the world how to think about and reflect on this war as the country that started the war, and reminds the world that 70 years later, this is our last chance to have a dialogue with the survivors of the war. Don't forget the pain of war and cherish the difficulty of peace.
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