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Mein Krieg - My Private War |
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Amateur movies shot with small handheld cameras by six German infantrymen on the Eastern Front during World War II form the core of this documentary. The men who took the movies appear on camera as old men to provide narration (in German, with subtitles), and they provide a perspective not often heard. As might be expected, they distance themselves from atrocities, and as they were foot soldiers in the Wehrmacht, their denials of involvement are probably true. One of the men still owns the camera he carried in the war, and he demonstrates how its small size made it perfect for impromptu filming in the field. Clips of smiling troops on the move is accompanied by an old man talking about how happy they were to be going to an unknown destination, likening it to "the joy one feels when on a journey." It turns out the gleeful trip he recalls was actually the beginning of the invasion of Poland and thus the beginning of the war in Europe. Later footage shows combat conditions in Russia, and the grisly aftermath of vicious combat. The rarity of the film footage, some of which was shot in color, makes this documentary worth watching. But the recollections of the amateur cameramen also provide an unusual insight into the German war machine, such as when one of the old veterans mentions how he eventually realized, "This was no defensive war forced upon us, it was an idiotic war of aggression." --Robert J. McNamara
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