Hitler's Children

Do the following names have a familiar sounding ring to them? Heinrich Himmler? Herman Goring? Rudolf Hoess? Hans Frank? Amon Goeth?

Well, if you are at all up on your WW2 history, and, especially, if you're hip to who's who in the notorious Nazi camp, then these particular names should, of course, ring a very clear bell that comes straight from a Gestapo, concentration camp from hell.

Anyways - For anyone who might be a little vague about these 5 names and the significance that they had in the scheme of things during WW2, then here's a brief run-down of their general relevance.

Heinrich Himmler was second in command of the Nazi Party. His position was directly under Adolf Hitler.

Rudolf Hoess was the creator and commander of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp.

Hans Frank was the Polish Governor-General who, during WW2, was directly responsible for all of the ghettos and concentration camps that existed in Poland.

Hermann Goring was a high-ranking Nazi official responsible for countless WW2 atrocities.

This well-produced, 60-minute documentary consists of interviews with 5 descendants of these once powerful figures who had reigned supreme in the Nazi regime. These interviewees are people who had inherited a legacy that had permanently associated them with one of the greatest crimes in all of history.

And their names are as follows - Bettina Goring, great-niece of Herman Goring; Rainer Hoess, grandson of Rudolf Hoess; Katrin Himmler, great-niece of Heinrich Himmler; Niklas Frank, son of Hans Frank; and Monika Goeth, daughter of Amon Goeth.

For more than 60 years these people have, in a sense, lived in the shadows, trying to rebuild their lives without being constantly reminded of what their fathers or fore-fathers once did.

In Hitler's Children each of these people discusses the delicate balance that they reached between the natural admiration that a child has for his father or relative and the innate revulsion that they clearly hold towards the crimes which their ancestors committed.

The viewer is told of the challenges that these people had to face in protecting their families as they passed down their family name to future generations.

All-in-all - Hitler's Children was an interesting documentary that provided the viewer with even more insight into the devastating effects of a worldwide event, like WW2, which, even today, still continues to have an impact on us.

A look into the lives of the descendants of the top Nazi officials who worked under Hitler's command.

This is a rather interesting look at the children and grandchildren of some infamous members of the Nazi party. While we cannot blame them for what their parents did any more than we can blame anyone in Germany for what the generation before them did, these folks have an unusual level of guilt and shame to bear -- can anyone ever again have the surnames Himmler or Goebbels?

I do like that one person pointed out how the Nazi label has tainted Germany. While Germany has been around in various forms for centuries, we now see the country as a former Nazi country and consider German culture through the lens of Nazi culture. Why are we all so obsessed with this one decade? Is it heinous? Beyond words... but it is a relatively small part of German history. When will it be a thing of the past?

This film is fascinating, profound and moving. It raises important moral issues and shakes many conventional beliefs.

How should we view crimes committed by our parents and ancestors? At what point do our ancestors' acts forfeit our natural (and culturally-encouraged) love for them? Should we even face the facts of their choices and lives? The documentary addresses these issues in the starkest case: by speaking with the relatives of men who committed the worst of crimes. These children and grandchildren bear the family-name of their infamous ancestors while not accepting and, in some cases sharply repudiating, the legacies of those ancestors.

Modern society washes away what happened last week, let alone by the last generation. So the current inclination is to simply forget about the past. Yet when the past was atrocious, forgetting it is wrong. At the least, we owe victims of atrocities remembrance of their history and their suffering.

This movie should be seen by more people. To understand our present, we need to grapple with our past, including the ugly parts.

What I most appreciated about this film is that you do not have to be of German or Jewish ancestry to understand what is being discussed, you only need to be human. Personally, I am of neither ancestry but I was moved to tears as these candid and innocent descendants of those who both inflicted and suffered through one of the worst tragedies in history. As for the German descendants, they are very much trying to keep the sins of their ancestor from defining them while admitting that they were personally affected by their atrocious actions.

Some of their resemblances to their forefathers are uncanny to the point that some can easily be recognized as being the offspring of those who commanded the Third Reich, something that can be shameful or even dangerous.

Chanoch Ze'evi Has accomplished the near impossible: he has gathered the descendants of Hitler's regime. Placed them in front of his camera, let them talk, provided subtitles, and let the rest of the film work it's own insidious way into the psyches f all who watch it. Perhaps for the first time we are seeing a full picture of what life in and around Adolf Hitler was like as he terrified the universe with his megalomaniac plan for purification of the Aryan race – a plan that resulted in the deaths and tortures and cremations of millions of Jews, gypsies, criminals, homosexuals, and those who tried in vain to stop the atrocities.

The cast then are the descendants of Hitler's murderous group – now adults, forever tainted by the sins of their forbears, who explaining to us in penetrating eye contacts what it was like to be around the monster's court. Bettina Goering, Katrin Himmler, Eldad Beck, Rainer Hoess, Niklas Frank, and Monika Goeth are the cast members in this unforgettable film.

These six ordinary appearing people were not associated with Nazi leanings and they talk individually about what it is like to carry a name associated with the Nazi Party, being a blood relative to someone associated with hate and murder, being German at a time when that in and of itself was seen as being associated with Nazism, dealing with their family regardless of their allegiance to the Nazi Party, and if they feel any guilt associated with the actions of their infamous ancestor. Bettina Goering is the great-niece of Nazi official Hermann Göring shares her voluntary sterilization she underwent to put an end to her bloodline of horror (she now lives simply in New Mexico). Katrin Himmler is the great-niece of Heinrich Himmler, second in command of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler and has written copiously about the evils of the Nazi regime. Rainer Hoess is the grandson of Rudolf Hoess, creator and commandant of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Niklas Frank is the son of Hans Frank, Polish Governor- General during WWII, he who was responsible for the ghettos and concentration camps in Nazi occupied Poland. Monika Goeth is the daughter of Amon Goeth, commandant of the Plaszów Concentration Camp. In addition to these musings, Hoess and journalist Eldad Beck - a third generation Holocaust survivor - travel back to Auschwitz to revisit their shared ancestral past. And Frank tells in his writings and in public speaking engagements, most to school aged children, of his past of being the direct beneficiary to many of the Nazi Party's favors which in turn is partly the reason he denounces his parents.

Many viewers will find hearing these tales (basically related in German) unsettling and that is the film's purpose. Never ever forget that period in history and yet realize the agony of the descendants of those beasts that hopefully will never be duplicated.

Grady Harp