The Director Of Hitler's Children – A Closer Look
The new documentary Hitler's Children has begun to get international attention thanks to strong reviews in the UK and great word of mouth built up around its screenings at various film festivals. It has been called 'powerful', 'emotional', and much more and continues to gain interest. This look at the children and grandchildren of Hitler's high ranking officers exposes the other side of the Holocaust for the first time and sheds new light on the problems these men and women have had to deal with. The movie is the brainchild of director and producer Chanoch Ze’evi, a Jewish filmmaker with a long history of excellence in the industry.
Ze'evi has been involved in filmmaking for a total of fifteen years, and focuses his efforts on themes of conflict, reconciliation, and more. He intends to spread the word about the past in order to provide hope for the future, and is the founder of Maya Productions. This Israeli based company specializes in the creation of documentary style films, and it distributes to local as well as foreign markets.
Ze'evi has created numerous well-received films including The Disappearance of Martin Bormann, On the Frontline, and Holocaust: The Next Generation. Each of these movies focuses on WWII, the Holocaust, and the effects that they've had on the world and those involved over the years.
But Hitler's Children is different. For the first time, Chanoch Ze'evi takes a look at the descendants of the German officers who perpetrated the Holocaust instead of the survivors of the genocide. As a result, he shows an entirely new layer of the events that happened during that time and how it has affected those on the opposite side of the fences.
Ze'evi developed the idea for Hitler's Children after a one on one meeting with Traudl Junge, who served as Hitler's secretary up to his death in his underground bunker. This meeting made him realize that there was another side of the legacy of the Holocaust that needed to be told. Hitler's Children is that story.
As the winner of the Tolerance Prize from the Berlin Jewish Film Festival and an Honorable Mention in the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2006, Chanoch Ze'evi has a solid history and a bright future in film. Hitler's Children is just the latest effort from this award winning filmmaker, and it's already being counted among his best – and one of the best documentaries on the subject, period.