Hitler's Children

Ironically sharing a title with a WWII Hollywood-propaganda drama, Chanoch Ze'evi's Hitler's Children interviews several adult offspring and descendants of infamous high-ranking Nazi officials, who are saddled with burdensome surnames and driven to make attempted atonements. Niklas Frank has written two bitter memoirs of being the privileged son of Hans Frank, German governor-general of occupied Poland. Niklas regularly reads to student audiences, cautioning against blindly following one's elders. Niklas tells the kids that he knows they are bored watching him "execute my parents anew," yet he persists, as though in self-therapy. Seemingly less haunted—although still the author of a book that has estranged her from her family—is Katrin Himmler, a granddaughter of Heinrich's younger brother. Katrin actually married a Jewish son of Holocaust survivors and admits that, yes, during their domestic spats the, uh, baggage sometimes comes up. Monika Goeth heard sugar-coated accounts all her life of her (executed) father Amon, a work-camp chief; she was devastated when she witnessed his portrayal as a sadistic murderer in Schindler's List. Bettina Goering, grandniece of Hermann, underwent sterilization surgery to discontinue the Goering bloodline. When a remorseful descendant meets Israeli pilgrims to Auschwitz, a note of bitterness appears as an adult child of survivors says that all this regret and catharsis still can't put back what was lost, or mend horrific wounds. An often powerful and sad documentary about the terrible legacy of the sins of the fathers of the Third Reich, this is recommended. (C. Cassady)