David Evans (director)
Wildgaze Films (studio)
PG (certificate)
96 mins (length)
20 November 2015 (released)
17 November 2015
My Nazi Legacy is a film that aims to tackle the difficult moral question of how people are able to reconcile themselves to the crimes of their parents, and how much, if any, personal guilt they should feel for such crimes. The documentary is helmed by Philippe Sands, a lawyer specialising in international war crimes. The other two main participants in the film are Niklas Frank, the son of a senior Nazi, who Sands met while researching a book on the origins of international law; and Horst von Wächter, who Frank introduced to Sands, and whose father was also a senior Nazi.
The three travel across Europe to points which connect their respective families to the appalling history of Europe’s Second World War, during which we learn that many of Sand’s relatives were victims of the final solution in Poland, which was implemented by Niklas’s father Hans as Governer-General of Poland. We also learn that Horst’ father Otto was governor of Lemburg, now in Ukraine, the area where Sand’s grandfather’s family lived, and where a number of them were murdered by a Nazi unit under direct command of Otto von Wächter.
Despite both Horst and Niklas having shockingly similar connections to these awful events, they have strikingly different feelings about their fathers’ roles in them. Niklas has complete contempt for his father and supports the judgement that resulted in his execution following the Nuremburg trials, Horst on the other hand, whose father escaped trial after being indicted by sheltering at the Vatican, remains in denial about his father’s accountability throughout the film.
While it is interesting to see these two diametric opinions expressed, and it is increasingly fascinating and disturbing to see Horst maintain his denial despite mounting evidence being presented to him, I did feel the narrative structure of the film suffered from the fact that neither man moved from the fixed position he held at the beginning of the film. Although this is a documentary and so it’s fair to argue the film was correct in reflecting accurately what the two men expressed during their journey, I believe there is a more insightful film to be made on this complex issue, at times the conversations between the three men felt very repetitive. It is nevertheless undoubtedly an important and moving piece of work.