DOCSLIB.ORG

DISCUSSION GUIDE Luke Holland’S Documentary “Final Account”

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
DISCUSSION GUIDE Luke Holland’S Documentary “Final Account” 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] 6.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Theresienstadt Concentration Camp from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Coordinates: 50°30′48″N 14°10′1″E
    Create account Log in Article Talk Read Edit View history Theresienstadt concentration camp From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Coordinates: 50°30′48″N 14°10′1″E "Theresienstadt" redirects here. For the town, see Terezín. Navigation Theresienstadt concentration camp, also referred to as Theresienstadt Ghetto,[1][2] Main page [3] was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress and garrison city of Contents Terezín (German name Theresienstadt), located in what is now the Czech Republic. Featured content During World War II it served as a Nazi concentration camp staffed by German Nazi Current events guards. Random article Tens of thousands of people died there, some killed outright and others dying from Donate to Wikipedia malnutrition and disease. More than 150,000 other persons (including tens of thousands of children) were held there for months or years, before being sent by rail Interaction transports to their deaths at Treblinka and Auschwitz extermination camps in occupied [4] Help Poland, as well as to smaller camps elsewhere. About Wikipedia Contents Community portal Recent changes 1 History The Small Fortress (2005) Contact Wikipedia 2 Main fortress 3 Command and control authority 4 Internal organization Toolbox 5 Industrial labor What links here 6 Western European Jews arrive at camp Related changes 7 Improvements made by inmates Upload file 8 Unequal treatment of prisoners Special pages 9 Final months at the camp in 1945 Permanent link 10 Postwar Location of the concentration camp in 11 Cultural activities and
    [Show full text]
  • HBO and the HOLOCAUST: CONSPIRACY, the HISTORICAL FILM, and PUBLIC HISTORY at WANNSEE Nicholas K. Johnson Submitted to the Facul
    HBO AND THE HOLOCAUST: CONSPIRACY, THE HISTORICAL FILM, AND PUBLIC HISTORY AT WANNSEE Nicholas K. Johnson Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of History, Indiana University December 2016 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Master’s Thesis Committee __________________________________ Raymond J. Haberski, Ph.D., Chair __________________________________ Thorsten Carstensen, Ph.D. __________________________________ Kevin Cramer, Ph.D. ii Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank the members of my committee for supporting this project and offering indispensable feedback and criticism. I would especially like to thank my chair, Ray Haberski, for being one of the most encouraging advisers I have ever had the pleasure of working with and for sharing his passion for film and history with me. Thorsten Carstensen provided his fantastic editorial skills and for all the times we met for lunch during my last year at IUPUI. I would like to thank Kevin Cramer for awakening my interest in German history and for all of his support throughout my academic career. Furthermore, I would like to thank Jason M. Kelly, Claudia Grossmann, Anita Morgan, Rebecca K. Shrum, Stephanie Rowe, Modupe Labode, Nancy Robertson, and Philip V. Scarpino for all the ways in which they helped me during my graduate career at IUPUI. I also thank the IUPUI Public History Program for admitting a Germanist into the Program and seeing what would happen. I think the experiment paid off.
    [Show full text]
  • Kristallnacht Caption: Local Residents Watch As Flames Consume The
    Kristallnacht Caption: Local residents watch as flames consume the synagogue in Opava, set on fire during Kristallnacht. Description of event: Literally, "Night of Crystal," is often referred to as the "Night of Broken Glass." The name refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms which took place throughout Germany, annexed Austria, and in areas of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia recently occupied by German troops. Instigated primarily by Nazi Party officials and members of the SA (Sturmabteilungen: literally Assault Detachments, but commonly known as Storm Troopers) and Hitler Youth, Kristallnacht owes its name to the shards of shattered glass that lined German streets in the wake of the pogrom- broken glass from the windows of synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses plundered and destroyed during the violence. Nuremberg Laws Caption: A young baby lies on a park bench marked with a J to indicate it is only for Jews. Description of event: Antisemitism and the persecution of Jews represented a central tenet of Nazi ideology. In their 25-point Party Program, published in 1920, Nazi party members publicly declared their intention to segregate Jews from "Aryan" society and to abrogate Jews' political, legal, and civil rights.Nazi leaders began to make good on their pledge to persecute German Jews soon after their assumption of power. During the first six years of Hitler's dictatorship, from 1933 until the outbreak of war in 1939, Jews felt the effects of more than 400 decrees and regulations that restricted all aspects of their public and private lives. Many of those laws were national ones that had been issued by the German administration and affected all Jews.
    [Show full text]
  • SS-Totenkopfverbände from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (Redirected from SS-Totenkopfverbande)
    Create account Log in Article Talk Read Edit View history SS-Totenkopfverbände From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from SS-Totenkopfverbande) Navigation Not to be confused with 3rd SS Division Totenkopf, the Waffen-SS fighting unit. Main page This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason Contents has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can. (December 2010) Featured content Current events This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding Random article citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2010) Donate to Wikipedia [2] SS-Totenkopfverbände (SS-TV), rendered in English as "Death's-Head Units" (literally SS-TV meaning "Skull Units"), was the SS organization responsible for administering the Nazi SS-Totenkopfverbände Interaction concentration camps for the Third Reich. Help The SS-TV was an independent unit within the SS with its own ranks and command About Wikipedia structure. It ran the camps throughout Germany, such as Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and Community portal Buchenwald; in Nazi-occupied Europe, it ran Auschwitz in German occupied Poland and Recent changes Mauthausen in Austria as well as numerous other concentration and death camps. The Contact Wikipedia death camps' primary function was genocide and included Treblinka, Bełżec extermination camp and Sobibor. It was responsible for facilitating what was called the Final Solution, Totenkopf (Death's head) collar insignia, 13th Standarte known since as the Holocaust, in collaboration with the Reich Main Security Office[3] and the Toolbox of the SS-Totenkopfverbände SS Economic and Administrative Main Office or WVHA.
    [Show full text]
  • “And Then They Came for Me...”
    “AND THEN THEY CAME FOR ME...” (Image: The National WWII Museum, 2014.057.036_1.) Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party’s rise to power in Germany ushered in an era of attacks against people Hitler deemed undesirable. Jews living across Europe became the primary target of Nazi hatred and violence. Attacks against other groups of people—such as individuals with mental or physical disabilities, political prisoners, Romani, Soviet citizens and prisoners of war, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, Slavs, and Jehovah’s Witnesses—also became a part of the Nazi program to “purify” German society. Those who did not fit within Nazi standards of a “master race” faced capture and horrific brutality in the attempted genocide now known as the Holocaust. From 1939 to 1941, the Nazis steadily took steps toward a formal policy of extermination. Known as the Final Solution, this policy spread to each region that fell under Nazi rule throughout World War II. Anti-Semitism had been present throughout Europe for centuries, peaking during times of upheaval, such as the Crusades or outbreaks of plague. This historical precedent perpetuated hateful stereotypes that again resurfaced in the era of upheaval that followed Germany’s defeat in World War I. While anti-Semitism had been limited to fringe political groups, the rising popularity of the Nazi Party helped promote ideas of segregating and removing the Jewish population from the region. While not all Germans actively supported the anti-Semitic attacks taken by the Nazis, many adopted an attitude of indifference toward the treatment of their Jewish neighbors.
    [Show full text]
  • State of Florida Resource Manual on Holocaust Education Grades
    State of Florida Resource Manual on Holocaust Education Grades 7-8 A Study in Character Education A project of the Commissioner’s Task Force on Holocaust Education Authorization for reproduction is hereby granted to the state system of public education. No authorization is granted for distribution or reproduction outside the state system of public education without prior approval in writing. The views of this document do not necessarily represent those of the Florida Department of Education. 2 Table of Contents Introduction Definition of the Term Holocaust ............................................................ 7 Why Teach about the Holocaust............................................................. 8 The Question of Rationale.............................................................. 8 Florida’s Legislature/DOE Required Instruction.............................. 9 Required Instruction 1003.42, F.S.................................................. 9 Developing a Holocaust Unit .................................................................. 9 Interdisciplinary and Integrated Units ..................................................... 11 Suggested Topic Areas for a Course of Study on the Holocaust............ 11 Suggested Learning Activities ................................................................ 12 Eyewitnesses in Your Classroom ........................................................... 12 Discussion Points/Questions for Survivors ............................................. 13 Commonly Asked Questions by Students
    [Show full text]
  • Berthold Viertel
    Katharina Prager BERTHOLD VIERTEL Eine Biografie der Wiener Moderne 2018 BÖHLAU VERLAG WIEN KÖLN WEIMAR Veröffentlicht mit der Unterstützug des Austrian Science Fund (FWF) : PUB 459-G28 Open Access: Wo nicht anders festgehalten, ist diese Publikation lizenziert unter der Creative-Com- mons-Lizenz Namensnennung 4.0; siehe http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek : Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie ; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. Umschlagabbildung : Berthold Viertel auf der Probe, Wien um 1953; © Thomas Kuhnke © 2018 by Böhlau Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Wien Köln Weimar Wiesingerstraße 1, A-1010 Wien, www.boehlau-verlag.com Korrektorat : Alexander Riha, Wien Satz : Michael Rauscher, Wien Umschlaggestaltung : Michael Haderer, Wien ISBN 978-3-205-20832-7 Inhalt Ein chronologischer Überblick ....................... 7 Einleitend .................................. 19 1. BERTHOLD VIERTELS RÜCKKEHR IN DIE ÖSTERREICHISCHE MODERNE DURCH EXIL UND REMIGRATION Außerhalb Österreichs – Die Entstehung des autobiografischen Projekts 47 Innerhalb Österreichs – Konfrontationen mit »österreichischen Illusionen« ................................. 75 2. ERINNERUNGSORTE DER WIENER MODERNE Moderne in Wien ............................. 99 Monarchisches Gefühl ........................... 118 Galizien ................................... 129 Jüdisches Wien ..............................
    [Show full text]
  • Simon Wiesenthal Center-Museum of Tolerance Library & Archives for More Information Contact Us at (310) 772-7605 Or [email protected]
    The Holocaust, 1933 – 1945 Educational Resources Kit Glossary of Terms, Places, and Personalities AKTION (Action) A German military or police operation involving mass assembly, deportation and killing; directed by the Nazis against Jews during the Holocaust. ALLIES The twenty-six nations led by the United States, Britain, and the former Soviet Union who joined in fighting Nazi Germany, Italy and Japan during World War II. ANIELEWICZ, MORDECAI Leader of the Jewish underground movement and of the uprising of (1919-1943) the Warsaw Ghetto in April 1943; killed on May 8, 1943. ANSCHLUSS (Annexation) The incorporation of Austria into Germany on March 13, 1938. ANTISEMITISM Prejudice and/or discrimination towards Jews, based on negative perceptions of their beliefs. ARYAN RACE "Aryan" was originally applied to people who spoke any Indo- European language. The Nazis, however, primarily applied the term to people with a Northern European racial background. Their aim was to avoid what they considered the "bastardization of the German race" and to preserve the purity of European blood. (See NUREMBERG LAWS.) AUSCHWITZ Auschwitz was the site of one of the largest extermination camps. In August 1942 the camp was expanded and eventually consisted of three sections: Auschwitz I - the main camp; Auschwitz II (Birkenau) - the extermination camp; Auschwitz III (Monowitz) - the I.G. Farben labor camp, also known as Buna. In addition, Auschwitz had 48 sub camps. It bacame the largest center for Jewish extermination. AXIS The Axis powers originally included Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan who signed a pact in Berlin on September 27, 1940, to divide the world into their spheres of respective political interest.
    [Show full text]
  • Belsen, Dachau, 1945: Newspapers and the First Draft of History
    Belsen, Dachau, 1945: Newspapers and the First Draft of History by Sarah Coates BA (Hons.) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Deakin University March 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the opportunities Deakin University has provided me over the past eight years; not least the opportunity to undertake my Ph.D. Travel grants were especially integral to my research and assistance through a scholarship was also greatly appreciated. The Deakin University administrative staff and specifically the Higher Degree by Research staff provided essential support during my candidacy. I also wish to acknowledge the Library staff, especially Marion Churkovich and Lorraine Driscoll and the interlibrary loans department, and sincerely thank Dr Murray Noonan for copy-editing this thesis. The collections accessed as part of an International Justice Research fellowship undertaken in 2014 at the Thomas J Dodd Centre made a positive contribution to my archival research. I would like to thank Lisa Laplante, interim director of the Dodd Research Center, for overseeing my stay at the University of Connecticut and Graham Stinnett, Curator of Human Rights Collections, for help in accessing the Dodd Papers. I also would like to acknowledge the staff at the Bergen-Belsen Gedenkstätte and Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial who assisted me during research visits. My heartfelt gratitude is offered to those who helped me in various ways during overseas travel. Rick Gretsch welcomed me on my first day in New York and put a first-time traveller at ease. Patty Foley’s hospitality and warmth made my stay in Connecticut so very memorable.
    [Show full text]
  • “The Bethlehem of the German Reich”
    “THE BETHLEHEM OF THE GERMAN REICH” REMEMBERING, INVENTING, SELLING AND FORGETTING ADOLF HITLER’S BIRTH PLACE IN UPPER AUSTRIA, 1933-1955 By Constanze Jeitler Submitted to Central European University Department of History In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Andrea Pető Second Reader: Professor Constanin Iordachi CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2017 CEU eTD Collection STATEMENT OF COPYRIGHT “Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author.” CEU eTD Collection i CEU eTD Collection ii ABSTRACT This thesis is an investigation into the history of the house where Adolf Hitler was born in the Upper Austrian village Braunau am Inn. It examines the developments in the period between 1933 and 1955. During this time high-ranking Nazis, local residents, tourists and pilgrims appropriated the house for their purposes by creating various narratives about this space. As unimportant as the house might have been to Hitler himself from the point of view of sentimentality and childhood nostalgia, it had great propaganda value for promoting the image of the private Führer. Braunau itself was turned into a tourist destination and pilgrimage site during the Nazi period—and beyond.
    [Show full text]
  • Tremors in the Shatterzone of Empires EASTERN GALICIA in SUMMER 1941
    25 Tremors in the Shatterzone of Empires EASTERN GALICIA IN SUMMER 1941 K S During the rst days and weeks aer the German attack on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 a wave of violence against Jews swept those territories that had been occupied by the Soviet Union since September 1939 or summer 1940 and now were invaded by the German armed forces and its Romanian and Hungarian allies. e violence consisted mostly of mass execu- tions by the German Security Police’s infamous Einsatzgruppen and pogrom-like excesses by the local Christian population. Oen both forms of violence were closely connected. 1 e anti-Jewish violence in the region sprung from both external and internal sources. Both sources of violence characterized the region as a borderland in the sense of a contested space where competing claims of states, nations, religions, and ideologies clashed with one another. us, the violent events of summer 1941 epitomize greater conicts that arose from the relations of the powers in the region and from the fundamental political and socioeco- nomic changes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Local anti-Jewish violence was one expression of larger structural tensions that characterized the region. is chapter will focus on Eastern Galicia. It does not aspire to a comprehensive presentation of all anti-Jewish violence or all pogroms, but is intended as an analysis of cer- tain motifs and contexts and, therefore, refers to specic cases as exemplary. 2 As a starting point, we look at the central violent event in the region, i.e., in Lwów (L 'viv).
    [Show full text]
  • Holocaust Memory for the Millennium
    HHoollooccaauusstt MMeemmoorryy ffoorr tthhee MMiilllleennnniiuumm LLaarriissssaa FFaayyee AAllllwwoorrkk Royal Holloway, University of London Submission for the Examination of PhD History 1 I Larissa Allwork, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: L.F. Allwork Date: 15/09/2011 2 Abstract Holocaust Memory for the Millennium fills a significant gap in existing Anglophone case studies on the political, institutional and social construction of the collective memory of the Holocaust since 1945 by critically analyzing the causes, consequences and ‘cosmopolitan’ intellectual and institutional context for understanding the Stockholm International Forum on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (26 th January-28 th January 2000). This conference was a global event, with ambassadors from 46 nations present and attempted to mark a defining moment in the inter-cultural construction of the political and institutional memory of the Holocaust in the United States of America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Israel. This analysis is based on primary documentation from the London (1997) and Washington (1998) restitution conferences; Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research primary sources; speeches and presentations made at the Stockholm International Forum 2000; oral history interviews with a cross-section of British delegates to the conference; contemporary press reports,
    [Show full text]