And the so-called “Commissar Order”-Hitler’s instruction that any Soviet officials captured during the invasion of the USSR be immediately executed-is not carried out by Wilhelm with blind obedience, let alone enthusiastically. But Friedhelm’s fatalistic words are also refuted.įor example, Wilhelm unsuccessfully attempts to prevent a Jewish girl from being shot by the SS.
The friends are involved in crimes that nobody would have committed under normal conditions. The three episodes of Generation War confirm this in part. Prior to the start of the war, Friedhelm predicts it will bring out the worst in people. Charlotte is influenced by the nationalist education taught in the Nazis’ BDM (Bund Deutscher Mädel-League of German Girls), but that does not affect her friendship with Viktor and Greta, who according to the prescripts of the Nazis were guilty of “racial defilement.” The well-read Friedhelm counters the officially promoted ideals of the “German heroes” with ridicule. “Shalom, fellow countrymen”, Viktor greets his friends ironically. The young people have a much more casual attitude toward the slogans and watchwords of the Hitler regime. The trilogy is clearly an anti-war work, which-in a realistic and nuanced way-shows the overwhelming consequences of the war for young people at the time and how it changed their lives and thinking.Īt the beginning of the mini-series we are not introduced to the type of fanatical youth portrayed in Nazi propaganda movies (and in many other films and media presentations). The rapid and direct focus of director Philipp Kadelbach is influenced by American cinema, without falling into the Hollywood tendency to stage one bloody orgy of violence after another. The personal experiences of former war veterans also flow into the film. The stories are told concurrently, so that a kind of cinematic mosaic is created. Charlotte (Miriam Stein), however, is proud to serve Germany and volunteers as a nurse on the Eastern Front. For Greta, the Third Reich does not really matter. Viktor is the partner of Greta (Katharina Schüttler) who admires the film star Marlene Dietrich and dreams of her own singing career while rinsing glasses in a pub. Viktor Goldstein (Ludwig Trepte) is the son of a Jewish tailor who proudly fought for Germany in the First World War and who considers the Star of David to be a “mistake”.
The main characters include the brothers Wilhelm (Volker Bruch) and Friedhelm Winter (Tom Schilling), who come from a good home where they maintain Prussian military values. Those who survived are heavily scarred by the hell they have gone through. Somewhat naively, they believe they will soon meet again. We begin in Berlin, 1941: Five young people, just out of school, are hurled into the atrocities of the Second World War. The program was recently aired on Polish television as well. Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter has now been distributed to the US and other countries under the name Generation War. The mini-series generated an almost unprecedented public discussion in Germany.
Each of the three episodes was watched by an estimated seven million people, or some 10 percent of the adult population. The World War II television mini-series Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter (Our mothers, our fathers ) reached a record audience in Germany when it was broadcast in March of this year.
Directed by Philipp Kadelbach, written by Stefan Kolditz