The Unknown Soldier

Michael Verhoeven's documentary follows the controversial Wehrmacht Exhibition as it tours German cities from 1999-2004. The exhibition challenged the long-standing popular myth in Germany that the Waffen SS was solely responsible for war crimes, while the average German soldier was merely a battlefield participant. The truth, as documented here in film footage, photographs, and letters from Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, reveals that German soldiers were also clearly responsible for the persecution and execution of civilians, particularly Jews. The German populace, confronted with this evidence, reacted with a variety of emotions: denial, shame, incredulity, anger, and (in the case of youthful skinheads) violence against those who supported the exhibition. At one point, an elderly man (presumably a veteran of the wartime German army) angrily but pointedly asks why other countries aren't holding similar exhibitions detailing their human rights abuses in distant lands. While The Unknown Soldier does indeed examine a painful but important subject, the film dilutes its own effectiveness through repetitive talking-head interviews and surprisingly sluggish editing, resulting in a piece that is often tedious when it should have been jolting. Optional. (P. Hall)