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.

I liked the first half or so. They use German voices to read letters, and using these letters they paint a very intimate portrait of Himmler and his family. It honestly got so intimate that I had to remind myself that it's an Israeli production. Towards the end though, their use of era footage, which seemed like stock footage, was very graphic.

This footage turned away from a psychological examination to just gore. I think the idea of a psychological examination of a mass murderer is a very good idea, but the footage was too distracting and seemed more like a History Channel documentary. If they had labeled where some of the footage was from, perhaps it would have been OK.

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.

"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.