DISCUSSION GUIDE Luke Holland’s Documentary “Final Account”

In 2008, British filmmaker Luke Holland began In a recent survey that studied U.S. Gen Z and interviewing Germans and Austrians who were Millennials’ knowledge of the Holocaust, 63 percent of witnesses from the Third Reich perpetrators’ side. More all respondents did not know that six million Jews were than ten years later, he created the documentary “Final murdered, and 11 percent of all respondents believe Account,” composed of a selection from the more than Jews caused the Holocaust. Antisemitic hate crimes 250 interviews he had conducted. The son of a Jewish spiked in 2020 in the US and a study in Europe in 2018 refugee from Vienna and a descendant of Jews killed by found some alarming results: nearly 90 percent of Jews the Nazis, Holland struggled with the question of how reported feeling an increase in antisemitism, over 50 and why ordinary people actively supported a regime percent were worried about being insulted or harassed that committed genocide. “Final Account” was his final in public because they were Jewish, and over 60 percent film; sadly, Holland passed away in June 2020. feared being physically attacked.

“Final Account” does not aim to retell the history of the Watching and discussing the film requires some prior Nazi era, but rather to depict how these people relate knowledge about the Nazis, their organizations, and to this history and reflect on their own role more than their crimes. Basic information can be found in the 60 years later. Thus it is a film not about history only literature that is listed below under Resources for Exploring but also about dealing with this history today. And there the Historical Background. Consulting it is recommended has never been a more important time to share this for contextualizing the statements of the interviewees. than now.

Background: Nazi Germany and World War II

• The interviewees grew up in Nazi Germany. Which aspects of their youth do they emphasize? • Which sites of Nazi crimes are shown in the film and what happened there? • Explore the functions of the SS for Nazi rule in Germany and the occupied countries. Which crimes were committed by the Totenkopf units and the Waffen-SS?

2 The Messages of the Film

• A quote from Primo Levi is used as a motto: • The introduction of the film ends with the question “Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be of a man speaking about the mass-shooting of Jews: truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common “Is this Germany?” How does the film answer this men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act question? without asking questions.” Does the film confirm • What do you think about the title of the film: “Final this statement? How or how not? Account”? • The second motto of the film reads: “Perpetrators are not born, they are made.” How does the film explain how Nazi perpetrators were made?

The Interviewees

Please refer to the Subject Guide to help recall each interviewee.

• There are various explanations why these people • Which interviewees have remained ideological became Nazis.To what extent are their explanations Nazis, which have undergone a significant change? convincing? Which of the explanations given by the interviewees are supported by the visual material, • How does the film depict the role of women during which are not? Who created this footage? Why is it the Nazi period and its aftermath? important to know the source? • Which scene of the film raised your interest most? • The interviewees try to explain their commitment in Why? Nazi organizations. Interrogate their motivations • Analyze the controversy evolving in the scene at the and reasons for their decisions. House of the Wannsee Conference. How would you • Herbert Fuchs explains why he joined the SS: “I describe the intentions of the student who attacks liked sports, I liked it tough.” What comes into your Hans Werk? Which motivations does he ascribe to mind when you hear (or read) this statement? Hans Werk? How does Hans Werk respond? How do the other students behave? 3 Resources for Exploring the Historical Background

In the Internet:

• Hitler Youth • Indoctrinating Youth • Napola: Adolf Hitler Visits the National Political Educational Institute [Napola] in Graz (April 1941) • Waffen-SS • SS-Totenkopfverbände [SS-Death’s Head units] • Encyclopedia of camps and ghettos Vol I, Part A, pp. 184 - 187

Books:

Hitler Youth by Michael H. Kater Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004

Waffen-SS: Hitler’s Army at War by Adrian Gilbert New York, NY: Da Capo Press, Hachette Book Group, Inc., 2019

The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS by Heinz Höhne London: Penguin Books, 2000

IWitness:

IWitness is the digital education platform of USC Shoah Foundation.

4 SUBJECT GUIDE

Karl Heinrich Lübbert Hollander Herbert Fuchs b. Quakenbrück, 1914 b. Bregenz, 1919 SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, SS-Obersturmführer Obersturmführer [Senior Lieutenant] [Senior Lieutenant]

Otto Duscheleit Hermann Franz Ferdinand Knoth b. Insterburg, 1925 b. Hamburg, 1927 (d.2013)

Waffen-SS Waffen-SS

Kurt Sametreiter Hans Werk b. Gastein Valley, 1922 (d.2017) b. Berlin, 1927 SS-Oberscharführer SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler [Sergeant]

Heinz Hennig Klaus Kleinau b. Bernburg, 1923 b. Bernburg, 1927 Wehrmacht Napola, Waffen-SS [German Armed Forces]

Karl-Heinz Rinne Margarete Schwarz b. Berlin, 1922 b. Melk, 1925 Wehrmacht Nannie of an SS-family [German Armed Forces]

5 Marianne Chantelau b. Wilhelmshaven, 1924 Franz Spalek, b. Mühlviertel, 1925 Bund Deutscher Mädchen [League of German Girls] Masonry apprentice Accountant (conscripted into Wehrmacht, 1943) U-Boot-Bunker Valentin [Valentin submarine pens] built through forced labor

Hugo Gote Theresia Kratochwill b. Slawentzitz, 1923 b. Ebensee, 1923 Wehrmacht Hid and later married an SS-man [German Armed Forces]

Siegfried Fröhlich Regine Bernwardine Wolff b. Köslin (today: Koszalin), 1915 b. Oldenburg, 1924

Luftwaffe Bund Deutscher Mädchen [Air Force] [League of German Girls]

Heinz Kurt Schultka Friedrich Eder b. Berlin, 1920 b. Salzburg 1925,

Wehrmacht Wehrmacht [German Armed Forces] [German Armed Forces]

Heinrich Hermann Werner Schulze Karl-Heinz Lipok b. Celle, 1927 Photo not b. Brandenburg, 1921 Photo not available available Wehrmacht SS-Totenkopfverband [German Armed Forces]

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