Heinrich Himmler - The Decent one

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.

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 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.

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.

Der Anständige is a curious film. The historical footage is interesting, but it is spliced together to support a rather obvious conclusion: Himmler was a Nazi. Does anyone disagree with that? Some reviewers see this as a banality of evil effort, but if you listen to Himmler's words, even in early childhood, you will discover that he was always a Nazi and an antisemite, from start to finish. So now we know, it wasn't a mistake. He really meant everything that he did. The end.