Heinrich Himmler - The Decent one

"Der Anständige" is a film whose main idea is so insane that you wonder why it was made in the first place. Think about it--the film seems to be an attempt to humanize and show the 'nice-guy' side of Heinrich Himmler!!! Heck, as long as they were doing this, why didn't they do the same for Hitler. After all, he loved his dog!

Using Himmler's diaries and letters, the film shows a portrait of a monster who had a very human side. He had a wife and kids and worked hard to make something of himself. Sure, it was as the head of the SS and leader of the final solution...so I guess you gotta question why the film tried so hard to humanize him. But in addition to trying to do the impossible, the film also managed to be extremely dull and could have been much better had its goal been to show that evil can show a nice face on the surface. But instead, it almost seemed like an attempt to rehabilitate the memory of a man who is evil personified. Strange and impossible to enjoy or appreciate.

By the way, the American release of this was entitled "The Decent One"!!! Huh?!

Der Anständige" (Himmer's private letters) is saddled with the unfortunately banal English release title of "The DECENT ONE" which will undoubtedly cause too many people to overlook it -- which is indeed unfortunate, because this film --fortunately caught at the Miskolc film festival in Hungary in September -- is definitely one of the more interesting documentaries to probe the background of top Nazi leaders and Holocaust perpetrators to come out in recent years. What this film does is is let Himmler, the most notorious Nazi of all next to Hitler himself -- speak for himself, through private letters sent to his wife throughout his unbelievably nefarious career. We therefore see an absolutely callous mass murderer as he saw himself -- which is to say as basically a warm hearted family man in love with a woman whom he eventually marries, but having to sacrifice his love in the name of duty -- a higher calling ...to exterminate all enemies of the Third Reich -- revealing his personal feelings to her in private letters at various stages of his insanely murderous career which is barely hinted at in the nebulous background lurking behind these letters. As Hanna Arendt pointed out in "The Banality of Evil" it is necessary to see that mass murderers like Himmler, Eichman, and company, did have private lives, and did not see themselves as evil bastards but rather as devoted men carrying out a lofty mission. Ugh. Shrug. Shudder. This remarkable documentary will evoke a different kind of revulsion in a new dimension. A must see for all having any interest in Naziism and Holocaust studies as well as, on a purely formal level, styles of documentation. Belgian~Israeli director Vanessa Lapa assembled this utterly amazing film from a cache of Himmler family letters that were "liberated" by advancing American troops at the end of the war and circulated for decades on a paper black market until winding up somehow in the hands of Vanessa's father in Israel -- but that is sordid story of its own.

The truth fears no investigation! And what better source of truth can there be about Heinrich Himmler than his own personal letters? Together with letters from his wife and daughter, his mistress, his subordinates in the SS, and others, this film shows us the reality of the war criminal - a man with clearly psychopathic tendencies, so consumed by Nazi ideology, and so bereft of faith in God, that he explicity ordered the mass murder of hundreds of thousands (at least) and justified it in plain text as being for the benefit of Germany and of "his people."

This is a must watch for anyone with an interest in the horrors of WWII. A case study in the banality of evil. How could a simple son of farmers (indeed, Himmler's occupation is listed as "certified farmer" on his marriage certificate) end up orchestrating such henious crimes with a straight face? I believe this film shows that the capacity for evil indeed lies within every one of us.

Thank you to the filmmakers for giving this material the light of day. Invaluable perspective on what really happened to lead to the "final solution" - unadulterated by propaganda or political correctness.

The truth fears no investigation - and the truth is indeed that Heinrich Himmler was an unrepentant war criminal.

In order to be really monstrous, evil people need good qualities. Being psychopathic will only get you so far. But,combine a psychopathic personality with a twisted moral compass, a functional but shallow intelligence, and the ability to work at a given task ceaselessly, and you have a Heinrich Himmler.

Himmler was a socially awkward young man. These days we would probably call him a nerd. Through his self studies, he converted to that hotch-potch of false science and false history, which later crystalised into Hitlerian Fascism.

He saw Germany as a once great country, which had become degenerate. He wanted to return to this mythic past, and, like Hitler, thought that progress required an increasing population, destroying populations to the East, and taking over their territory. He and Hitler made a diabolical double act.

The Nazis held themselves to be racially superior, and held that inferior races, while appearing human, were lower than animals because they had the capacity to corrupt higher races, both culturally and genetically. The lower races were like a disease which had to be eradicated. For a while, if they were useful, these peoples could be enslaved, but they would not be allowed to reproduce.

Himmler was an idealist, who wanted a better world for himself, his family, and his countrymen to live in. He was also a mass murderer with an evil ideology. That conflict is the subject of this excellent documentary.

This is a pretty interesting documentary about Heinrich Himmler, and his family, narrated through well-acted and well-spliced authentic diary entries.

Although it doesn't offer anything new about the wider context of the Nazi regime or the Second World War - in fact, the historical context is laid down using well-worn archival footage - the documentary brings to light the limited subject-matter of one Nazi family - and its struggles with love, ideology, hate and war.

We are granted access to wonderfully compiled audio-visual remains of the Himmler family, culminating in the Second World War. The war is an exciting tale as we hear about the problems with food shortages and family breakdowns from Himmler's wife and daughter.

But for me the most interesting parts of the film deal with pre-War period, starting with Himmler's youth and early adulthood. There is one especially powerful scene, where diary entries from the young and the old Himmler are superimposed. The educational and cultural background of reactionary Germany is shown to to have had a huge impact on the shaping of his views.

It is easy to forget that rabid Anti-Semitism and national conservatism were rampant even before the rise of Hitlerism. We are reminded that Nazis were largely average people with average lives, who held outrageous beliefs with the perfect serenity of common sense.

But what does it matter that Nazis are people too? Do we really need to see them in their marriages, happy family dinners, and bathing costumes? Do we need to be reminded? Why should we feel sympathy with something that should not be sympathized with?

I think such an objection to intimate portraits of horrible criminals would be missing the point. Films like this are important, NOT because we need to show empathy to murderers (although that has its place too), but precisely because we want to be able to spot murderers beneath the appearances. The conclusion of the film is that most Nazis, even the top-ranking ones, looked ordinary. We should recognize that making a distinction between an average upper middle class family and a love nest of murderous villains is not easy. Nor should it be. Otherwise our world would be too simple.

We need to exercise our skill of discernment. Evil rarely appears with the appearance of an obvious demon. Concentration camps can easily co-exist with happy days on the beach and birthday picnics.

Most monsters are ordinary people, but not all ordinary people are monsters. We need well-crafted biopics of monsters (and their non- monstrous families) to remind ourselves of the reality of what Hannah Arendt the banality of evil. This film does the job well.