We open with a quote from Primo Levi, an Auschwitz survivor, that couldn’t be more pertinent if it were spoken today: “Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and act without asking questions.” I’ve seen many documentaries on the Holocaust, but never one told from the points-of-view of those who witnessed and/or participated in the atrocities of the Third Reich first hand. Many of those interviewed by director Luke Holland were children when Hitler seized power; their parents bought them their first brown shirts and black trousers from a Jewish store. They speak with nostalgic effusion of the “Jungvolk,” joined together to read from Mein Kampf while their older counterparts in the Hitler Youth would test their courage by visiting Jewish cemeteries at the “witching hour.” Some came from families of “convinced” Nazis. Others were influenced by their teachers, “party operatives” who made more of an impact on impressionable students than did their parents. One subject laughs off the slaughter of six million Jews with, “Maybe a million, no more.” As if that number were acceptable. It’s hard to watch the uncomfortable smiles that cross their faces at the end of each remembrance, but I couldn’t look away. Available on Amazon Prime. (2020) — Scott Marks
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