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?!

In 1945, shortly after Heinrich Himmler committed suicide, the US Army found a huge cache of his letters, papers and diaries at his house. Instead of handing them in to the appropriate authorities, they kept them; many of the papers subsequently found their way on to the international auction market.

Vanessa Lapa's documentary tells the story of Himmler's life through these letters and other documents exchanged between Himmler, his parents, his wife Marga and daughter Gudrun. Contrary to what other reviewers have observed about the title's so-called banality, the term THE DECENT ONE refers to a moment late on in the film, when Himmler discovers that the Nazi cause is about to collapse. He insists that he and many of his fellow-officers were decent in their behavior, as they were committed to the patriotic ideal of a greater Germany. We might interpret the term ironically, especially in light of our knowledge about Nazi atrocities, but in Himmler's view the Party always acted according to the noblest motives - for the greater good of the German (i.e. Aryan) people.

The documentary derives much of its power from the contrast between the sentiments exchanged in the letters - where Himmler expresses his love for his daughter and his concern for his family's welfare - and the images projected on screen, such as the burning of so-called "seditious" literature in Berlin in 1933, the regular parades of the SS in front of Hitler and Himmler, and the callous shooting of Nazi enemies in cold blood. We understand just how ruthless Himmler and his acolytes actually were, while at the same time realizing just how much their patriotism had corrupted them.

Despite the sentiments expressed in family letters, Himmler was in truth not really concerned about anyone except himself. He embarked on a well-publicized affair with one of his former staffers, by whim he had another child. But this did not stop him proclaiming his commitment to noble ideals such as the propagation of the Aryan race. He forced his family to take on an adopted child, Gerhard, who seldom got on with Gudrun and eventually joined the Nazi army at the earliest possible opportunity. Himmler did not really care; so long as he and his family could be seen to support the noble cause of Nazism, that was all that mattered.

In the end we are left with the sense that Nazism was actually an ideology that so blinded its supporters that they had no real sense of morality; they no longer understood the difference between right and wrong. They could claim quite innocently that they were kind and understanding towards their people, while at the same time embarking on a campaign to systematically exterminate Germany's Jewish population. Himmler's letters, as well as those written by his family, embody this (lack of) morality; to proclaim (as Marga did) that she "did not know" about the so-called "Final Solution" is no excuse.

This is the true horror of Lapa's documentary; it provides a lesson in the ways in which dictatorships erode human values, not only corrupting those at the apex of power, but the people willingly allowing themselves to be ruled in favor of a cause.

A documentary film combining letters and diary entries made by Heinrich Himmler and his family along with extraordinary archival footage involving most aspects of Himmler's life from his birth as well as concerning the rise of the Nazis in Germany from the 20s on through to the end of WWII. The letters and diaries were from a cache of materials discovered in Himmler's home by American soldiers at the end of the war. An amazing chronology made even more vivid by the recitation throughout of Himmler's actual words from his letters and diary entries, and enhanced even more by archival photography which I consider to be some of the best I've ever seen in films about the Holocaust or WWII.

A documentary that uses a cache of letters, diaries and documents to reveal the life of SS-leader Heinrich Himmler.

How can a film about Heinrich Himmler be bland? A documentary that explores his personal life, mixed with his professional life, ought to flesh out a very interesting individual. And to some degree it does, but presents the story in as bland and boring a way as possible, with nothing but voice-overs of letters and other documents. No experts reflecting on the importance of any of it.

Students of Himmler or World War II may enjoy this, and learn something new about this man. His strong distaste for homosexuals is interesting, for example. But presented like this, out of context, it remains lacking.

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.