The
documentary film Hitler's Children focuses on telling about the struggles faced by the children, grandchildren, and relatives of the men of Hitler's SS. Names like Goering, Goeth, and Himmler carry with them a tremendous stigma and a constant association of the genocide they committed. As a result, their descendants face daily challenges as they try to deal with life in the shadows of these men. Hitler's Children features interviews and discussions with these men and women as they explain how they relate to the victims of the Holocaust, the challenges of protecting their families, and their struggle coming to terms with the crimes of their parents.
There are numerous participants in Hitler's Children, each of them explaining their daily struggles to the cameras – and the world.
Katrin Himmler is one such participant, who is the niece of Heinrich Himmler. She has battled daily with her uncle's past, but has moved forward and today is married to the son of a Holocaust survivor.
Hans Frank was another high-ranking official, and his son Niklas today spends much of his time trying to stamp out the past. He currently visits schools around East Germany to speak to children and warn of the dangers of Neo-Nazism, which is making a return in the country. His godfather was none other than Adolf Hitler, and Niklas often claims to feel somehow responsible for the crimes of his father and godfather.
Bettina Goering, who shares a name with one of the most heinous and hated Nazi officials, tells the story of her decision to be sterilized in the hopes of letting the name die out eventually. She too wrestles with guilt and shame daily.
And Monika Goeth, daughter of Amon Goeth – one of the most evil men in the Nazi party and one featured in the film Schindler's List as portrayed by Ralph Fiennes – recounts the tale of her first encounter with a survivor of her father's evil.
Each of these men and women, and more, discuss the stigma of their name, the feelings of family but hatred of their parents' crimes, and the fact that they can never escape the past or the long shadow their fathers and grandfathers have cast over their lives. These are children who have suffered in their own way, and Hitler's Children gives them a voice for the first time as they talk about what it means to be connected to such evil and how they come to terms with it.