World War II Through a German Prism
Wilhelm Winter portrayed by Volker Bruch Image by Generation War
“Generation War” (a hit in Germany as “Our Mothers Our Fathers”) is a must see for those who view World War II /Holocaust films as a kind of cinematic rosary of remembrance.
With a Tolstoyan “War & Peace” sweep, its brutal battles as bloody and grim as those in Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan,” it is also a nod to the wrenching 1987 Byelorussian Holocaust film “Come and See.” The film’s author Stefan Kolditz, noted that he wanted the film to “open a conversation with the generation that lived during World War II in Germany.”
“Generation” follows a quintet of friends — brothers Wilhelm (Volker Bruch) and Friedheim (Tom Schilling), Charlotte (Miriam Stein), Greta (Katharina Schuttler), and assimilated Jew Victor (Ludwig Trepte) who greets everyone with an anachronistic glitch — “Shalom” — with them, in turn, replying the same —this in 1940s Nazi Germany ‘s Berlin!
Battles are meticulously recreated and performances by all are stellar. SPOILER ALERT: During the course of this two-part saga (Part I-131 min; Part II 148 min.) Ukrainians are brought in to kill Jews, young bewildered German soldiers are slaughtered by the Russians and brutalized by their own, Greta becomes a singing Marlene Dietrich genre radio sensation (later betrayed by her highly placed married Nazi lover) and Charlotte — a naïve nurse serving in a German military hospital in the Eastern front — first saves, and then in turn, is saved by a Russian Jewish woman doctor.
Wilhelm Winter portrayed by Volker Bruch Image by Generation War
Mistreated by Polish partisans, Victor, who acts mute, is suspected of being a Jew but is protected by a young Polish woman, an escaped slave laborer. In reality, his identity was but a trouser zip (sorry buttons) away which was that era’s norm of outing. A sensation in Germany, the film was an attempt to show — as author Stefan Kolditz noted —“that [these young people] were neither heroic resistance fighters, nor fanatical Nazis.”
During my conversation with the film’s director, Philipp Kadelbach, he said, “I was not planning to do a war movie. My grandfather was an active Nazi soldier at the time. My father was actually against the war so my father blamed my grandfather. I did not understand what was going on. When my grandfather died — I never had a chance to talk to him…I showed the script to my father. It started a discussion in my own family…. Casting was on my watch and it took months. Since these are both horrible people, I did not want to get emotionally attached to who they are…. Most of the film was shot in Russia.”
He paused: “But these five friends never existed. It is fiction.”
Difficult as it was — as a victim of Nazi terror — I felt empathy for these young people caught up in World War II’s cauldron. It is well worth the zitzfleysh (sitting time) to see both Part I and Part II.
Playing at the Film Forum through January 28 — when you exit Part I, you get a free voucher to see Part II at another time.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
