Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Dmitry (i) on May 23, 2001 at 20:53:22

In Reply to: Question on a Holocaust Documentary posted by SR on May 23, 2001 at 17:18:59:

I am not sure about the documentary you watched, but there is a film that deals with this very subject - ignorant bliss of German people living right next to a concentration camp.
It is called THe NASTY GIRL and is most probably available on video.
Basic premise is exactly the same as you descibed.
A young lady living in a peaceful town somewhere in Germany circa 1986-90 writes an essay for a contest about her town in the WWII and little by little she digs up a lot of disgusting things about her fellow townsfolk, inluding the "lack of knowledge" about a camp that was just outside the town walls, and even denial of any wrong-doings on the part of all the people who either worked in that camp or had some business affiliations with the camp. She goes through the usual red tape and becomes a "crazed scape goat" when it's time to forgive and forget. I don't want to disclose the whole film, it is more interesting to watch it than to read what I wrote about it...
It is actually one part of a trilogy that includes
THE WHITE ROSE and MY MOTHER'S COURAGE.
A while after I saw it, I happened to see the follow-up documentary. This woman was ousted from her town because of her questions and consequently left Germany. Naturally she was labeled a left-wing communist psycho. A moving scene is the one where the camera shows the memorial erected after the war, with the names of the ones who died in the camp. All the names were erased right after the memorial was built in the 1940s. The memorial iteslf is covered by some thick bushes, so noone can see it. Yet, officially it exists. Some people who died in the camp were from that town, some people who killed them were also from that town. She is doing research in Washington and writing a book about the way her little pretty town lived during the war.
---------------
Another film that you will find interesting is titled THE TRIAL OF ADOLPH EICHMANN
--------------

Steve, one well-known barn burning was in Khatyn', Beylorussia(now the country known as Belarus). Khatyn was a village that was torched by the Germans with its inhabitants, men, women and children. I believe only one man survived. If I remember correctly it was discussed here a year or so ago. All-together 136 villages in Belorus were torched.
I wonder how many villages were torched in Vietnam and in Afghanistan...