All language subtitles for sprinter-harlan2008

Veit Harlan was the Third Reich's
most successful film director.

His films were seen by more than
1 00 million viewers throughout Europe.

After World War ll he was tried twice
for crimes against humanity

because ofhis anti-Semitic film
jew Süss.

He was acquitted both times.

He is a jew!

I recommend you do not miss
the next mail coach.

Why?
I have business in Stuttgart.

Indeed, I wanted a recommendation
for a hostel here.

There are none that take in jews.

In my history book,
when I was at college,

there was a small photo from jew Süss

underneath which was written:

jew Süss by Veit Harlan.

And it was then I realized
that this was my name.

That was difficult for me.

''Reichsführer-SS:

I wish that measures be taken

to ensure that all SS men and policemen

see jew Süss during the winter.

Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler.''

It became a murder weapon.

And once you've seen

that the fruit of your work

turns into a murder weapon,

it is difficult to just say,

''I am a filmmaker
and will carry on making films.''

That was the end for me.

That's where my, let's say, extreme
prejudice towards him comes from.

The image I have of my father

is mine.

And it's nobody's business

what I think of my father
or of my mother.

It's true to say that my father

was really a rather apolitical person.

He was an artist and just got carried away.

What took place
is not really forgivable.

Only his work counted, nothing else.

Only the realization of his plans counted.

Rrofessor Veit Harlan
at the UFA premises.

He is the director of such epic films as

The Great King
and the color film The Golden City.

I think he was a fellow traveler,

an ambitious man

who got himself the career he wanted.

Stanley of course

asked himself the same questions:

If I had been in his position,

what would I have done?

If I had recognized it in time,

would I have been afraid?

The people are rising upl

The people are rising upl

The storm is breaking loosel

So, my grandfather...

Veit Harlan.

My grandmother,

Hilde Körber.

And then a second wife,

Kristina Söderbaum,

an actress from his films.

And then Hilde Körber and Veit Harlan

had three children:

Thomas Harlan, my father,

then Maria,

and then the third sibling, Susanne.

Susanne had one daughter,

jessica.

Thomas married Luisa.

They had a son,

Chester.

Then...

he met my mother,

and here I am.

Veit Harlan got married again,

this time to Kristina Söderbaum.

They had two sons:

Kristian,

and Caspar.

And I know that Caspar

has three daughters:

Lotte,

Lena

and Nele.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
we are glad to welcome you to this...

exhibition:

jew Süss an NS propaganda film

here at the
Haus der Geschichte Baden-Württemberg.

I appreciate your interest
in this exhibition focusing on a film.

In 1 948/ 49, Veit Harlan

was one of very few artists
to be prosecuted

for crimes against humanity

for having made this very film.

Let us start
in the first exhibition room.

Veit Harlan was born in 1 899,
the son of playwright Walter Harlan.

He is one of six children.

Veit Harlan was a volunteer
during the First World War,

then became a stage actor and married
his jewish colleague, Dora Gershon.

lt was a brief marriage.

He married his second wife,
Hilde Körber, in 1 929.

He always maintained
that he was an actor.

It was very important to him.

It was where he came from,

his basis for directing.

It made him very capable

of dealing with actors.

His method of directing was very much
that of guiding his actors.

I think he considered acting as his roots.

Veit Harlan and Hilde Körber
worked together on several films.

Harlan was an upcoming director,

Hilde Körber one of the most
popular actresses of the '30s.

We children were aware of the fact

that our parents didn't fit together,

and that they couldn't
live together in peace.

They were too different.

My father was often loud and crude,
and she was of a very tender nature.

My mother was like a harp
to my father's kettledrum.

But I did love my father too,

and his rowdiness,

his laughter and his craziness.

He'd climb the stairs on all fours,

throw and catch me.

I loved it.

Father, Veit Harlan,
mother, Hilde Körber.

- How old were you when they divorced?
- Ten!

- Was this hard for you?
- Yes.

This was simply because my mother

no longer wanted us to see our father,

but I very much wanted to.

Voilá.

- Did you like him?
- Very much.

As he did you,
his only son at that time.

The only son and his favorite,
the most important one of all.

Thomas, Susanne and Maria Harlan.

Three very different siblings.

They enjoy a privileged childhood
in the Third Reich,

though their parents'divorce
casts its shadow.

Goebbels?

I only met him when
he came to Tannenberg Allee.

He had come there
for a meeting with our father.

I was four or five, I guess.

We were told the minister was coming,

were put in dresses.

Then he came, we gave a curtsy,
he patted our heads,

and we went off to play.

And the two of them
withdrew to my father's study

and discussed what they should do.

ln the Gerhardt Hauptmann adaptation
The Ruler,

Harlan employed NSDARslogans

and propagated
the Nazi cult of the genius.

The film, starring Germany's
most famous actor, Emil jannings,

received prestigious awards.

lt was Harlan's breakthrough.

Not only Goebbels, but Hitler too
noticed the talented director

who was so capable in lacing
artistic drama with ideological content.

On my death I shall leave

the works I created to the State.

That is to say, our national community.

I am convinced
that from amongst the workforce

that helped me to create these works,

the man will come forth

who has a calling
to further my endeavors,

be he from the furnace or from the desk,

the laboratory or the work lathe.

I wish to teach him only that

which a parting man may teach
one who is newly arrived.

He who is born to lead
needs no other teacher

than his own genius.

I've never seen an artist more loved

than my father was after the war.

On the streets, whenever I gave my name.

Incredible!

Everyone would fall silent, would say...

''Those were great moments.''

Their souls had been touched.

He could have played on that much more.

But anyway, it's unique
that someone should so perfectly

touch a nerve throughout his public.

It must have been in the 50s or the 60s,

one of the people at the studio

had a copy of it and said,

''It may be forbidden,
but watch this.''

And on a monitor this size

he showed me scenes from jew Süss.

It was terribly difficult,
we had to keep a lookout.

There were these little figures...

I didn't comprehend

that it is malignant
or how well or badly the actors play.

It meant nothing to me.

And I thought, ''It was for this
that he was prosecuted?

I don't get it.''

And as an old soldier I say:

If thejew means to do
abhorrent deeds with our womenfolk,

it is up to you, your Grace,
to stop him short.

Do you dare reproach me?

I'll have you imprisoned!

You cannot imprison
all Württembergers, your Grace.

That I can, rebels!

Then,just after I had turned 7 0,

I was invited

to a closed showing
of the film in the Urania Cinema.

And it left me speechless.

I just wept and was in despair.

And I couldn't even imagine

that my father
had really done this.

And this film
that everyone found so good,

I didn't even find good.

I thought that Krauss
really overacted,

and intentionally made it
as sleazy as possible.

I found it horrific.

I felt like going outside and puking.

jew!

jew!

Mr. Trenk, this is thejew's doing.

Leave her be.

- Kill him!
- Kill the villain!

Thejew has to go!

Thejew has to go!

I found the film particularly repulsive.

I found Kristina's role... repulsive.

And my father was very sad about it.

My mother,
who had two half-jewish sisters

was horrified.

It got to me really badly,

the mentality that it represented.

I could say the same of The Golden City.

The quality of the acting and directing

was irrelevant to me.

It was the mentality behind it
that got to me.

People obviously didn't catch that anymore

in Germany in 1 940.

Can't have been,
given the success the film had.

My daughter
will bear nojewish children.

- I see.
- We understand each other then.

It might prove dangerous

to reject the suit
of a man in my position.

I found the film shocking. For sure.

And why?

Because of the scenes, the way it was filmed,

and the reaction it caused.

The echo...

The film remains his trademark,
his black flag.

I could have seen it last year,
but I didn't want to hear people

criticizing, discussing, or berating it.

I would have felt attacked.

Now I think it would be okay.

And now I've seen the film.

It's full of caricatures,
Ifind it grotesque.

And I can't understand its success.

Because this is no great film.

I'd imagined it as starker
and more brutal.

Because this film was for so long

such a talking point.

So that finally, when you do see it,

you think,

''Is that it?''

That was my first reaction,
I thought it's, like,

so cheesy and really banal, too...

I thought it wasn't even very well told.

And so my first reaction was:

Why was this film censored for years?

And what's so terrible about it?

I'd imagined it much worse.

Because there'd been
so much talk about it, and,

because it was censored for so long.

So I had thought
it was really extremist.

And it was only in the context
of propaganda that I saw

what effects it had.

It was good to see it
in a school context.

So as not to be abandoned with it,

but that an explanation is furnished of how...

and with which means...

And I have to say,

none of my fellow pupils said to me,

''My God!
Your grandfather made this!''

ln November 1 939,

Veit Harlan was commissioned
to make jew Süss.

Goebbels, Minister for Rropaganda,
summoned the best German actors.

The film is pseudo-historical,

relates to thejew
joseph Süss Oppenheimer,

a financial adviser
in early 1 8th Century Württemberg.

The film opened in German cinemas
in September 1 940.

The female lead was played
by Harlan's wife, Kristina Söderbaum.

Her popularity meant that

jew Süss could be sold to the public

as both drama and entertainment.

Whilst filming crowd scenes in Rrague,
Harlan used

jewish extras from
Rrague and Lublin's ghettos.

This scene had the effect
of prompting the audience

to shout out things like
''Kick thejews outl''

Hundreds ofjews come here.
The people are outraged.

They fall on us like locusts.
Mr. Oppenheimer sets taxes...

That Oppenheimer managed
to introducejews into Stuttgart

was what the audience found threatening,

and generally unacceptable.

Some 20 million Germans saw it,

as did another 20 million Europeans.

Heinrich Himmler officially requested,

one week after the German premiere,

that measures be taken
to ensure that all SS and policemen

be shown this film.

The dimensions are unimaginable.

What did such films lead to,
what was their direct effect?

To what extent did they influence

any given SS man?

One can't say.

If the question is,
who in Germany was guilty,

many things need to be considered.

The fact is many millions

were slain by us.

Back then I got a postcard from Lublin.

I still have it somewhere.

On it he wrote,
''You can't imagine,

how glad thejews are to work with me.''

An enthusiastic postcard.

From Lublin. I remember it well.

I remember that

I wasn't surprised at the time.

It wasn't till later

that I reconsidered it, asked myself,
what on earth was that card?

Did he believe that these people,
so soon to be killed, should be allowed

to celebrate their religion
in peace one last time?

It's monstrous!

Or is this just more projection?

What did they know of their end?
What did my father know of it?

I don't know.

The hardest problem

for our civil administration
in occupied territory

is thejewish question.

German soldiers have been shot at in this ghetto.

Reprisals have been swift in coming.

This eastern jewish sub-humanity

is the source of the international
criminals that plague the West.

lt has supplied Western democracies

with pickpockets, procurers,
dealers of girls and narcotics,

and manipulators
of international finance and the press.

These are the samejews whose brothers,
sons and cousins in London and Raris

make such fine speeches
about humanity and civilization.

lnsubordinate elements
are being contained in camps.

It's plain to me that such a film

at such a time,

and in the context of the propaganda

that this film typifies...

That given this context

the film was the cause
of massive and malign results.

I'm sure of it.

Film has always been
subverted into propaganda.

These days all the war games and films

are sponsored by the American military.

They finance and produce war games

so as to requisition people.

Little has changed.

He was certainly not anti-Semitic.

And certainly not a Nazi. Not at all.

He spoke so derogatively about Nazis.
He can't have been one.

He had loads ofjewish friends.

They loved him.

Our doctor was jewish,
we had jews all around us.

I believe that he really

had a huge problem with jewish culture

and with thejewish religion.

It's true he'd had a jewish wife,

but she later left him and married a jew.

This hurt his ego.

Furthermore, he draws on all of the
anti-jewish imagery and depictions

throughout the centuries.

Thus all his resentment

and rejection of this culture
finds expression this way.

No, I don't believe that his first wife,

Dora Gershon, nor his anti-Semitism

are relevant themes.

That's too superficial.

The truth is

the non-anti-Semite
was the best man to sharpen the knives.

What makes this particularly dreadful

is that the person who did this
didn't comprehend

what he'd been complicit in.

And by the time he might be expected
to have understood it,

he still hadn't realized

that he should no longer
practice this profession.

You never discussed
jew Süss with him?

Directly, no. I saw the film.
But directly, no.

- You never discussed jew Süss?
- Never.

No.

I had no chance
till he was on his death bed.

He didn't let me ask.

He spoke to me, not with me.

These are very different things.

I couldn't talk to him about it.

He told me about his worries
about having made this film.

But I couldn't say to him,

I saw the film and
didn't like this or that aspect.

I hadn't seen the film.

Even if you're apolitical,

to make such a film which...

And I do accept
that he didn't want to make it.

But why did he have to make it so well?

Why make such a good film?

I can't comprehend it.

This is the reproach that...
to my mind, won't go away.

Someone who is so...
possessed by his work

can't intentionally make a crap film.

It's impossible.

He has to make it as well as he is able.

And he presumably thought
his way of going about it

was more humane and less venomous
than that of Goebbels or...

the rest of them...

who had been supposed
to make the film.

Even if it were to cost him his life,

he would never deliver
a bad piece of work.

Some musicians
simply can't play badly.

Yes, but a good director will know
how to direct badly.

He thought only of the moment,

the good scenes, the good light,

getting a fine shot,

and of a satisfied Goebbels.

I don't think he really imagined

what it would lead to.

He didn't tell me at once, he...

He came home, pale in the face,

said, ''I'll tell you about it later.''

And then he told me

that night, after lights-out.

He said, ''Yes...

I have to make the film.''

And I sat up straight and said,
''You simply cannot do this!''

There must have been coercion

for him to have made jew Süss.

But how this situation
is to be judged...

I only know the story in his version.

And it, of course,
has a subjective facet.

That it was a question of a situation

which he himself did not welcome...

I absolutely accept his word on this.

I believed him then
and I believe it now.

He wanted to carry on making films.

That was paramount.

And the extent to which
this was problematic for him

is, to my mind,

ridiculously exaggerated in his memoirs.

There he claims to have been forced.

This is the most absurd thing he says.
It wasn't fear that drove him.

He was working with material
that meant something to him,

and he molded it to perfection
because of this.

And the other thing was,

he'd seen that if he was to fulfill
this commission,

he'd have no trouble with
the financing of future projects.

Scruples?
No, he certainly had... none.

I'll put it this way:

His claims that he was forced
to make the film

are to be believed.

There are plenty of reasons to do so,
witnesses, too

who corroborate this.

So the question is,

if it is only due to coercion that
I do something I find reprehensible,

why then would I coerce my wife?

Why put her in a position

where she will do something immoral
that I want to avoid?

She's a free woman.
Goebbels can't give her orders.

I would say that

the fact that she acts in the film

is virtually proof that

he didn't really worry about it all.

Because he'd never have imposed

something awful on her.

Or something bad.

He found it possible and right
to make the film.

That's why she's in it.
The explanation's simple.

And it terrifies me.
The explanation is awful.

Well, Actuarius,

you can't be having fun.

You know that voice.

Oh my God!

Take the cloth down.

Take it down.

What does this mean?

Do you still hear anything?
That's the meaning.

So take it down, child.

Oh, you give it back!

No!

No? Fine. Keep it then. But...

- Oh Lord abovel
- What?

Oh,you're praying?

Rray to your God.

Rrayl

Not only Christians have a God.
Wejews do, too.

He is the God of vengeance.
Eye for an eye,

tooth for a tooth.

- You can thank your father.
- Let me go.

Should I save the traitors
from being shot?

- Don't you touch me.
- Don't be so prim

and you'll get
your Actuarius back again.

As I was saying,
you take guilt upon yourself

by making such a film,
and doing it well.

And this relates to my father.

But my mother, who as a young girl

had come across such a despotic man.

And gone through thick and thin
with him and done everything

that he told her to.

Whilst being incredibly naive.

I mean, my mother's strengths

didn't include her intellect

or her analytical abilities.

That wasn't really her thing.

She was a person

who made a strong impression on others

and who could be
incredibly sweet and touching and nice.

But she had no idea
what she had done there.

So it's just silly to reproach her.

It was a known fact that anti-Semitism

was present in Germany.

And it was after 1 938

and I began experiencing

those terrible things.

I wasn't in Berlin on Kristallnacht,

but it was 1 938,
and even if you'd seen nothing,

you still knew that people
were being persecuted.

Neither she nor Veit Harlan were stupid.

They knew what it meant.

But I think it's easier to say,

in retrospect,
that she was to an extent complicit

than this was in fact plain to her then.

Maybe not in jew Süss

but in the films before it,
like you said, too.

Because at the start, coming to Germany...

Filming anything at all...

And, then, filming
with a great director,

and with other great actors

was something for her...

And she was young at the time...

It wasn't apparent to her
where this was leading.

What situation she was in
and where it might end.

She didn't think about it.

She was a very important

and popular actress

so she had a certain responsibility

and therefore, also, a certain guilt.

You could say

that she was, to an extent, naive,

but it's also related
to the Swedish mentality.

Back then, mail bags
would be hung up on the trees,

and there'd be money inside and so on,
but no one stole anything.

The world was intact there.

And it's naive to think that when you
come to Berlin it'll be like that too.

You see.

Kristina Söderbaum had come to Germany
as a young actress in 1 935.

Her role models were Elisabeth Bergner

and Marlene Dietrich.

Having starred in two of Harlan's films,
she became his wife in 1 939.

The same year
their son Kristian Veit was born.

Söderbaum acted exclusively
in her husband's films

including The Immortal Heart,

the story of the neglected wife of
the pocket watch's brilliant inventor.

The city of Nuremberg is renowned

for people like Albrecht Dürer,

Hans Sachs and Peter Henlein.

Your Behaim is a madman like you.

But you shall have memorials
after your death.

On our house will be a plaque reading:
''Here lived and died Peter Henlein.''

And no one will ever know
that he was the death of his wife.

Don't you touch me!
You are immune to it all.

The eternal fame
you so crave will be yours.

But me? What do I have?

just pain and suffering and sacrifice.

The conceit of men makes them believe
their wives are property

there to live and die for them.

You too believe that
in your treacherous heart.

But let me tell you this

in the name of all womankind:

I retort to your arrogance
with these hands of mine.

- Not the watch!
- I'll be rid of it!

My mother was obliged,

when he was directing her,

to do lots of things

that she didn't want to do.

Like ride a horse into a cage
containing six Siberian tigers.

Or, before that,

I think it was in The Great Sacrifice,

they waited till the North Sea was wild

in November,
and she had to ride into it.

He insisted on it.

I must admit, these pictures were great.

But he gave personal feelings
scant regard in his professional life.

Aels!

Don't go in so deep.

It suddenly gets deep.

Aels!

Do you imagine my horse can't swim?

I guess he loved her.

But it was...

the kind of love where you take
complete possession of someone...

It's not for everyone.

I couldn't stand being loved

in that way,

and being forced into subordination.
I couldn't stand it.

Kristina Söderbaum,
the archetypal naive, childlike woman,

became a screen idol
with her natural, blonde, Aryan looks.

She was one of the best paid
female stars ofher time.

Nobody else embodied purity,

unspoiled nature
and idyllic romance as she did.

Harlan used this charisma

to enhance the dramatic,
fateful films he liked to make.

Kristina Söderbaum became noted
for her on-screen deaths.

It's happened to me twice,

that elderly people have said,

''Ah yes,
your grandmother was called...''

Then they hesitate,

say, ''No, I won't say it.''

And I say, ''The water corpse, I know.''

Annchen!

When she did die,

Lotte and I were both there.

We went back the next morning

and the undertakers had her in her bier

her hands folded.

I saw her and thought,

''She isn't dead, she'll get up
as soon as someone says 'cut.'''

Harlan's sentimental and gloomy dramas
are based on works

by writers such as Theodor Storm
and Rudolf Binding.

The director is masterful
in working with bombastic contexts.

He said himself,

''lf my films found favor,

it was due to innocence and its loss,

Eros and nature,

cruelty, murder and suicide. ''

I don't quite know
what the source was

of the kitschy melodramas
such as The Great Sacrifice

and lmmensee.

I don't know if all this kitsch
came from the wife,

or if these things were part of him.

I fear they were in him.
Those angelic choirs!

He had a weakness for things heavenly.

It was the postulation of feelings
that didn't really exist.

The synthetic creation of sentiment.

I fear that
The Great Sacrifice and lmmensee

are prime examples of this:

Creating artificial sentiment
and lending it... credibility.

Thank you, Elisabeth.

- Farewell, Elisabeth.
- Reinhardt, I'll see you

in two years.

Faithfulness was a popular theme.

Both in political
and in emotional terms.

It was wartime, the men were away.

So faithfulness was extremely important.

We spoke about
my parents' private lives,

to both of them
this was extremely important.

And that faithfulness in this film...

My father could usually decide
what kind of film he wanted to make.

Normally.

With the propaganda films less so.

But normally he could choose his themes.

And of course these were themes

that meant something to him and to her,

and were generally popular in any case.

This is the cinema of illusion

and of playing with emotions.

And I'd say that

that was what was essential to him.

And that this neatly coincided with

the implications that Goebbels required

and with the fundaments
of the Third Reich.

Harlan was solidly conservative.

A German nationalist, etc.

These are the values
that he represented

and which the Nazis also subscribed to.

In this regard,
they fitted together well.

This is a special I D card
issued by the Ministry for Propaganda

which allowed Veit Harlan

to use at anytime the backdoor

to the Ministry for Propaganda
on Wilhelm Platz in Berlin.

I think this was really an elite group

who would be received
at all times by Goebbels,

or who could wait
for an audience with him.

And only the most important filmmakers
would receive such a thing.

ln 1 94 2, Veit Harlan presented
at the Venice Film Festival

his first color feature film,
The Golden City.

He was, by then,
Germany's leading filmmaker,

the prodigy
the country could boast of.

His films are shown in most of Europe
to great success.

The Agfa colors that characterize
The Golden City

are mixed with racist undercurrents

contrasting the Czechs with the Germans,

pure country life

with life in sinful Rrague.

The odious thing is this belief in fate.

The mother of a young woman

died on the moors,

so the daughter has no choice

but to follow in her mother's footsteps

and to kill herself.

The inevitable and inescapable
is being depicted here.

And this is, of course,
deeply reactionary.

Mother dear.

Mother dear.

Father wouldn't take me in.

I'm coming to you.

Mother dear.

You see.

I'm going in the same way...

as you.

Mother.

I hear you.

You're calling me.

Mother.

During such times

when so many people were dying

and the meaning of life is questioned,

it was important, I think,

that death becomes
something significant,

that there's an aftereffect,
that people mourn.

That your death has had a purpose.
That's what these films express.

If you saw a melodrama at that time,

and had lost one of your relatives
or even one of your immediate family,

these films were soothing,
gave you the impression

that death is not just death
but contains a significance.

These melodramas gave it importance.

Harlan had difficulty
with filigree work, the gentle touch.

In lmmensee there's some of it.

He was quite crude
in his use of effects,

and often overreached himself
by setting such laden accents.

This even makes him
interesting at times:

Few people dared do this.

In The Great Sacrifice
it's almost surreal.

Albrecht!

I'm not at the gate, Aels.

It's Octavia who's greeting you.

Is that really you?

It is!

It is you!

I can see you, Albrecht.

Is that really you?

Who can say what's real?

Why did you come here, Albrecht?

To say farewell, Aels!

Yes, we must.

Harlan's last film in the Third Reich
is the historical film Kolberg.

lt depicts a Romeranian town
resisting Napoleon's troops in 1 807.

This epic portrayal of steadfastness

was the most expensive
and laborious of all Nazi films.

Having made The Great King,

Harlan is destined to make this film.

ln spite of the war
and the difficulty of getting materials,

The Rropaganda Minister
gives the director

almost unlimited resources.

We have to destroy the French supply lines.

There's no danger from the sea.

We'll attack their flanks!

It was all soldiers and battles.
I was very impressed

that all the military,

that you'd imagine
was required at the front

was there for the film.

This was a huge-scale thing
with 1 0,000 people

in the town of Kolberg.

Whilst millions were dying
on the battlefields,

the film calls on the civil population
to never surrender,

to die as martyrs
and share in this downfall.

''Better buried beneath rubble
than ever surrender''

is the watchword much in keeping
with Goebbels' ''total war. ''

Kolberg is shown in those few cinemas
still standing in january 1 945.

lt is the last great film premiere
in the Third Reich.

Prussians!

Germans!

Our city must encounter a cruel fate,

as must our fatherland.

But courage is stronger than fate.

Had you not resisted foreign forces,
I'd not be here now.

That's what unites us.

No love is more sacred
than the love of the fatherland.

No joy is sweeter than that of freedom.

But what awaits us in defeat,
is beknown to you all.

Whatever sacrifice
is demanded of you

is as nothing compared
to the sacred values for which we fight

so as to remain Germans and Prussians.

Gneisenau!

Gneisenau!

I've never knelt before a man.

But I do so now.

Kolberg may not be abandoned.

Gneisenau!

That's the spirit, Nettelbeck.

Now we can die together.

Goebbels had a choleric fit

when he first saw the film.

He cried that it was a pacifist film.

And remarked incisively that pacifists

are always ruled by non-pacifists.

He demanded that all the horrors be cut.

So I had to cut the scenes
where doors were torn down

to make coffins
since there was no other wood,

where the corpses
had poisoned the water,

where a grenade exploded in a house

where a woman had just given birth
and the child was buried alive.

He called this sadism.

I said, ''Minister, I can't portray heroics

if I don't show how heroic people are
and how terrible their circumstances.''

But he was of a different opinion,
and much was cut from the film.

Indeed two million marks

worth of horrors
were cut from the film.

And this, of course,
altered the film considerably.

Because I'd been intent
on depicting the horror itself.

In May, 1 945,

Harlan wrote a 23-page statement

about his stance on National Socialism.

The trigger was that
international and German papers

accused him of being
the number one Nazi director,

so he wrote a long statement,

claiming that his life
had been under threat

throughout this time,
as had been the life of his wife,

and that in fact,

in legal parlance,

he'd been under
an ''obligation to obey orders.''

And this remained the basic defense

during the trials of Veit Harlan.

After the end of the war,
the denazification commission

found that Harlan had been
merely a fellow traveler,

but initially banned him from working.

He nonetheless directed
several plays under a pseudonym.

ln 1 948, Harlan is prosecuted in Hamburg
because ofjew Süss

and he is publicly attacked.

I remember that several times

they both wanted to go to the theater,

and, in Hamburg, it was Ida Ehre,

who got up on stage
and said in front of everyone

she wanted Veit Harlan and
Kristina Söderbaum to leave the theater.

And they both did...

rather sadly.

I'd known from earliest infancy

that my parents
had serious problems.

It was obvious,

a feature of my
earliest conscious experience,

that my parents were under attack,

that they
defended themselves vigorously,

and that this
made no difference at all.

I think, however,

that the directors of that period

all had a good eye on their careers.

Some more than others.

And my grandfather

was someone, I think

who thought of nothing but his career...

In his choice of, say,

whether to make a given film or not.

And the fact that
he never accepted responsibility,

never recanted any of it...

He was never self-critical,

never said outright,
''I wanted to make films, that's all.''

So attention was concentrated on him.

Self-justification is rejection
of guilt and responsibility.

Instead of saying,
''Okay, I made a mistake.

I had certain priorities,
the leading one being:

Continue to make films
whatever it may cost.''

I imagine that he would have been
a little less harshly judged

by certain segments of the public.

I struggled with myself.

I saw how people recounted
the sufferings they'd experienced,

and how their whole family
had died in Auschwitz or elsewhere,

I'd feel sick.

Then I'd see

how my father was beside himself
with all the false accusations,

and how he defended himself.

I was beside myself.

I had a friend
who studied medicine.

And he demonstrated
on the street against Veit.

Kristina had eggs thrown at her,
that kind of thing.

And I was already in a position

where I understood why this happened

and also understood my friend a little.

But nonetheless, I was furious.

Both emotions at once.

I certainly wouldn't say

that he was wrongly persecuted.

I just think

that both he and others
should have been convicted.

And this didn't happen
in his or in other cases.

He didn't feel as guilty
as others claimed he was.

He always maintained
that he'd been forced

and that he'd been under such pressure
that he couldn't refuse,

that he'd had to do as he had.

There he sits, that accursed jew.

In a trial lasting months,
he has told nothing but lies,

lies and more lies.

His only excuse is that the duke
gave him carte blanche.

The charges I face

are due to the direct orders
I received from my duke.

I have the duke's written orders.
You can check.

I am merely
the faithful servant of my master.

- Boo!
- Yes, boo...

The judge, Dr. Tyrolf,

who found him innocent
on two occasions

had, during the war

had Ukrainian women beheaded

for the theft of a head scarf

during an air raid.

And...

the thought that my father

had been found innocent
amongst and by such people

was abhorrent to me.

That was it!

I thought, ''This is a world
I want no further dealings with.

I must entirely distance myself from it.''

That's it.

Perhaps I didn't put it that way,

but I'll never forget that moment.

Having been found innocent,

Harlan could again direct films.

ln the Germany of the '50s,
he polarized public opinion

much like director Leni Riefenstahl.

His film premieres and appearances
met with protests and boycotts.

ln public meetings,
he went on the offensive

against his opponents.

He always stressed that as an artist
he'd been used by the Nazis

and by the ''demonic Goebbels. ''

Veit Harlan attempted
in his post-war films

to return to his old successes.

Kristina Söderbaum was still
one of Germany's most popular actresses.

ln order to find any work at all,
Harlan had to take less attractive jobs

and get by without the huge budgets
that Goebbels had given him.

The melodramas he made after the war

might just as well
have been made in the '30s.

They were of that era.

He simply wasn't capable

of adapting
to new times or new ideas,

to a more open form,
or to progress and change.

These films are very hermetic and...

his whole oeuvre reflects

a very specific world view.

And this is
just as consistently represented

as it is in the case
of some great filmmakers

who have a conception of the world
that is represented

throughout their works.

This can really be said of Harlan.

You do dare to judge others?

Then let me tell you how I judge you!

Your love of your brother is sickening.

Impure! Criminal!

Your love is incestuous.

My love is what?

The whole village says so!

What does the village say?

Even your friend, the veterinarian,
called you an Isis.

Isis?

You know what that means, don't you?

Lord in heaven!

She's the devil!

Try to be reasonable.

Don't you touch me.

The atmosphere in the '50s

helped Harlan maintain his view
ofhimself as a victim of the Nazi era.

He tried to give his family
a life of prosperity and normality,

Their lives revolve
around a villa in Bavaria.

Friends from the revived
film industry would meet there.

But, as Harlan noted in a draft
ofhis autobiography,

the shadow ofjew Süss
won't disappear.

What the film did to us?

I can tell you precisely:
It ruined our lives.

That's what it did.

Like that.

And at that point,
you simply couldn't have guessed this.

That it would be used in such a way.

That it could simply wreck...

a person's life.

The whole fate of my parents,
so to speak

had, of course,
a great influence on my life.

And that already began,

when, as an adolescent,

in my late adolescence,

friends of my parents recommended
to me that I change my name.

For me this was out of the question.

I said, ''No, why should I?
I don't have to change my name.''

I once had a history teacher

who wasn't pleasant by nature,

was rather difficult.

She asked me
in front of the whole class

if I was related to Veit Harlan

my name being the same.

And I said no. But I was in tears.

I cried and left the class room.

I said, ''No, he's not my grandfather.''

But it caused me hardship
because then I got called a damn Hun.

That wasn't funny.

And anyway, at college
you feel guilty of things

regardless of what they are...

And I'd always refused

to find out what had happened
or to ask my father, Thomas.

To me, my grandparents were Nazis.
And that's it.

I wouldn't listen to explanations.

But I really felt it.

And I was very ashamed.

It never happened to me,

that someone asked,

''Is your name not that of Veit Harlan,

the German director?''

That never happened.

I did voluntarily tell this story
to good friends of mine.

But it's not the kind of thing...

that you talk about at the bar...

My sister, Maria...

Why did she, as an actress,
call herself Maria Körber?

And not Maria Harlan anymore?

What did it mean?

She wanted
to change her history, to vanish.

And my sister Susanne.
Susanne Harlan.

Why did she take the stage name
''Susanne Körber?''

Why, when she married,
was she ''née Körber''

before taking the name ofjacoby?

Why did they all try to eradicate
my father from their identities?

Although they all felt
a kinship that was profound.

He knows perfectly I didn't choose
to abandon the name.

I bewailed it myself,
my father was unhappy about it too.

My agents said to me,

''We can't place you with the name Harlan.
Change your name.''

I said I loved my father and wouldn't.

They kept on and on at me.

Then one day I got a contract.
And on it was the name ''Maria Körber.''

They did it behind my back.

I couldn't change it.

My father cried.

And I was very unhappy.
I didn't use force to keep the name.

But somehow,
I never managed to break with it

by no longer using the name.

I met a colleague.

He was jewish and his father

had been killed by the Nazis.

Right at the end.

And I married him though everyone said,

''You can't! He's so unsuitable!
He's a bad guy.''

And I said, ''You don't understand.

He has suffered.

Now he needs help.

And, having heard what
I have about my father,

I have the feeling that I must help

someone who lost his father like that,

and who was abused at school,

called a half-jew,
expelled from school.''

And since he'd had such a time of it,

such a terrible time,
I married him.

I thought I was doing a good deed.

But what a mess it turned out to be!

It really worked out wrong.

Nothing changed.
I couldn't change anything.

And my...

feelings of having to compensate someone

for the deeds that my father, too,
had participated in...

I didn't succeed at all.

The same thing happened to my sister.

She married Claude, or Klaus,
jacoby, who was also a jew.

She married him
and went over tojudaism.

My father was 1 7 years older
than my mother.

My mother converted tojudaism
so as to get closer to him.

And to replace for him
all that he had lost.

But it was impossible.

My mother wanted nothing
but to leave, leave, leave.

To leave behind her history, her father,

and everything

that this had meant to her.

So that she felt
invisible as a person.

My father died young of a heart attack

in 1 964, two weeks after
the death of my grandfather.

My mother had
a veterinary surgery practice

that did worse and worse business.

She found it shameful,

being unable to support herself,

would never have taken state benefits,

and, well...

if a person has no sense of self-worth,

and no more will to live...

And it was at that point
that she killed herself.

I belong to a family...

which the Nazi era

divided entirely

into perpetrators and victims.

I knew, particularly,

that my grandfather had had a career
making films for the Nazis,

at a time, when the Nazis
had murdered my other grandparents.

I knew this at the age of five or six.

My grandfather, Arturjacoby,

fought in the First World War
and thought himself German.

He was proud of
the Iron Cross (First Class) he'd won.

He struggled desperately

to be allowed to emigrate
with my grandmother.

He wasn't allowed to,
was deported to Minsk, and...

was murdered there.

Whilst during that period,
my grandfather, Veit Harlan,

successfully made
the feature films of the Third Reich,

lived a life of luxury,

and profited from the system
to the greatest extent possible,

he, too, a war volunteer
during the first world war.

One of my grandfathers
was in the limelight,

was controversial and prominent,

the other vanished into the darkness.

So the one made propaganda
for the other's destruction?

Yes.

You could say that,
inasmuch as jew Süss

is a call to persecute and kill thejews

in Germany and the rest of Europe.

And my other grandfather
and grandmother

paid for this with their lives.

Stanley's parents were from Kiev...

and Romania.

His parents were ofjewish descent.

Everyone he knew was Italian orjewish.

Stanley was in Munich,

we'd decided to marry,

he wanted to take me to America.

And Veit said,
''You're going to America? Terrible!''

He didn't want me to go.

My parents were there,
Veit and Kristina were there,

and some others, too.

I said to Stanley,
''You'll meet them now.''

I'd confessed already

about my awful ancestry.

And...

he drank a big glass of vodka,

and he met them.

My husband was shaken

after meeting all these
polite and amusing people.

And he said-

And he was...

astonished.

For a long time, he thought about...

how to make a film about this.

But he didn't succeed.

Stanley Kubrick wanted
to make a film about this era.

The normal course of daily events

when producing a film in Berlin.

What was it like?

A production meeting at 8:00,

budget, costumes...

the whole thing, casting...

He wanted to know,

wanted to make a film
about how this all took place.

What was it like?
At what point did Goebbels intervene?

When was the okay required
for each scene of the script?

What were those discussions like?

What influence was applied?

What conversations were held?
Revealing things like that.

I remember being in
Maximilian Schell's apartment

with him and Kristina Söderbaum,
and we worked on her

to try to get details
that you can work into such a story.

But we got nothing worthwhile.

The interesting thing
was that Veit Harlan

got his son to write
a film script with him in the mid-'50s,

in spite of all
the son's activities after the war,

and that the father was then criticized

because the film was
allegedly pro-Communist.

Because it was one of the few '50s films

that touched on the crimes
of the Wehrmacht,

at least briefly.

And in which the Communists and Russians
aren't simply maligned.

Hence the film's strange rating.

Thomas Harlan was the child

who developed the most
strength, energy and activity

of all the children.

And it was always

from a position that was
diametrically opposed to his father's.

After the war, Thomas Harlan
lived many years in France,

Roland and the Soviet Union.

He researched the Warsaw Ghetto,
found remains of concentration camps,

discovered evidence
to prosecute war criminals.

ln the '7 0s,

he was involved in
the socialist revolutions

in Chile and Rortugal,

realized spectacular
avant-garde films like Wundkanal,

and wrote many novels
on German and Russian history.

You can't just say,
''You should have known.''

He should have known
that it was wrong. Simply.

And forbidden himself
to enjoy doing it.

It's terrible, feeling
that he enjoyed doing it.

But nonetheless,
assuming that it had been that way,

after the war, having found out,

that it had been
an instrument of murder.

Imagine!
You've created an instrument of murder.

Then you'd have to change
your life entirely.

And I didn't understand

how his mind
hadn't been completely changed.

After the war,
my father worked as a carpenter,

and I'd have understood
if he'd never gone back to filmmaking.

- But he made films.
- He made films again.

I didn't understand

how, as a son,

he could speak like that about his father.

As if he were a film critic, you know?

Like a judge or something of the sort.

Somehow the fact
has been completely forgotten

that your father is your father.

And it's to him and your mother
that you owe your life.

That's where it all begins.

You can talk about it
amongst the family...

But really!
And profiting by so doing, too!

Honestly!
That's really shameful!

I really have no understanding for it.

That for thirty-odd years,

somebody could
keep on attacking our poor father.

It's too much.

I understand his opinions.

I understand them well,
his hatred of the Nazis.

That's a different matter.

But what he said about him.
Our father wept bitterly about it.

But to react in this way as a son!

That others did so,
and that the press took advantage,

and that the story was popular,

that bit I do get.

But I want no part of it.

And what I think about my father
is no one's business.

I'm not a politician or anything.

So, criticism should be internal,
within the family, and not public.

Yes. Of course.
You talk it over.

Was that the case
between your father and you?

Between my father and me?

It was not on the agenda
for my father and me.

I think that throughout the family,

the value ofThomas's work

has not been appreciated
the way it deserves to be.

His life was destroyed by his attempts

to try to repair some of the things

that his father had destroyed,

and by trying to find the people

whom he thought deserved punishment.

In his opinion, he never fully succeeded.
But that's impossible, anyway.

I think he's been traumatized

and that he can't get over it.

He might have written 50 books,

made 50 films.

It'll follow him to his grave.

It's a real injury
that will never heal.

After all, he's 7 9 now and
he still suffers from it all terribly.

I think it's hard.

I've encountered him
in various situations.

Not only on the trail of former SS men

and the history of Nazi Germany.

But the historical context
is so scandalous

that I appreciate the manner
my father reacted to it.

I wasn't the son of a father I rejected.

I was the son of my father

to such an extent

that with him

I was prepared to take responsibility

for all the scandalous things

that he contributed to.

To take this responsibility.

It was self-evident to me
to share his responsibility.

Rather than be against him.

I don't know how he,
within himself, processed this.

I think he thought me an enemy.

Suffering from chronic cardiac disease,
Veit Harlan retreated to Capri in 1 963.

The island on the Gulf of Naples
was his favorite holiday resort.

lt was the scene of many post-war films

and a dream destination for Germans.

He laboriously completed his memoirs,

his last attempt to justify himself.

I found it so meaningful
that on his death bed,

he called for the son
who had damned him.

I understood it as a really huge step.

If I'd thought
he'd live another year or so,

that he'd recover
or die an easier death,

there'd have been
plenty of conversation.

I wouldn't want to publicly say

my father had come to understand it all.

But he did think things over.

He spoke with Thomas,
with whom he had such confrontations,

more than he did with me.

When I came to Capri,
and he was in the hospital,

he was already...

He was dying.

It lasted a long time...

because he wanted to live until
his 25th wedding anniversary.

Which he succeeded in.

The doctors said,
''He is actually dead already.''

But he stayed alive long enough
to see his wedding anniversary.

He died three days later.

The marriage to my mother was-

and this was mutual-

the fixed component in life.

For both of them.

But I remember him as someone
who avoided responsibility.

And I'd feel relieved if I knew

that he died having accepted
this responsibility.

That he died knowing
what he had to answer for.

Simply.

I'd feel calmer.

There'd be less unease within me

if he'd left behind

what had been his life

in better order.

So.

I'm a bit tired now.

Would you like to-

No, I'll lie down.

I've lived here
and been an activist for 30 years.

And we knew from the beginning

that we had to resist

what was being done here.

You have to learn
from what has happened.

I think I have a very deep need

to be an active part of this resistance.

And this may well be related

to what happened in my family.

I consider this to be the lead-up
to a great disaster,

the production of atomic waste.

I'm convinced that this
is a crime against humanity

perpetrated for economic gain.

And the lesson I have learned
from German history

is that resistance must be prompt.

We're trying to do this,
employing all the means we have.

Now I have projects
I'm involved with, my music

and my son...

Of course a child is always a bridge

reaching into the future.

And indeed I'm much more concerned

with all of this, and with my work,

than with Veit Harlan
or the Harlan family.

Having said this, I'm ready
to give the matter consideration.

Intellectual consideration.

It is more intellectual
than emotional to me.

But there is something
in the psyche of our family,

something that could be called
a sense of guilt.

Everyone tells me it's not my fault,
it was my grandfather.

They don't try to understand

that it's still my blood.

So perhaps I have some bad blood too.

When you're young, you don't understand.
I'm sick of this burden upon me.

I want to understand,
to know about it.

Because even though
I wasn't brought up by my father

I think there's a genetic link.

When I have children,
I want to tell them about it.

All of the story.

Not just not know about it.

So I want to find out,

know all about my grandparents,

and about Thomas's life,
so I can tell my children.

That's my goal.

It shouldn't be forgotten.

It's like when
myjewish patients tell me stories

so they don't die out.

The last few of that generation

from the Nazi era are vanishing now.

And who'll tell the story then?

It'd be dreadful if it were forgotten.

No, I think the inheritance
of guilt involves having...

an obligation to deal with it.

You don't have to project
guilt onto yourself,

but have to deal with it.

And we're ready to do so.
We're concerned by it.

We don't just reject it out of hand.

Of course it'd be great if Grandpa
had been a resistance fighter.

But that wouldn't have meant

that I'd been courageous
or shown my strength, either.

If I'd had a grandfather

who'd sacrificed his life for something

it wouldn't reflect on me.

And so, by that token,

I don't bear the guilt, either.

It exists, must be dealt with...

But it wasn't me who did it.

It's almost something positive,

like a reminder to bear all this in mind.

It has nothing to do
with the question of guilt.

And I don't believe

it would make sense
to feel guilty in the third generation.

But it is still important
to give it consideration.

You still have the sense
of how close it all is.

I don't have to turn Grandfather
into a problem for her.

I just have to be there
if it becomes one.

I wouldn't want children who'd say,

''It's not my name, leave me out of it.''

It is an infamous story,

and I can't imagine that
my children's children's children...

can really be relieved
of all responsibility for it.

Be it only in terms of:

Are you aware of what happened?
Sometimes that's enough.