The Story Of Hitler's Children – Another Side Of The Horror

The Holocaust stands as the greatest atrocity the modern world has ever seen, and hopefully will see. Countless films and documentaries have been made to expose the horrors inflicted on those who were imprisoned in concentration camps, and to help document the suffering so that the past won't be repeated. But while there are numerous films that are well worth watching, the other side of the story has often been overlooked.
 
Today, descendants of those who perpetrated the Holocaust continue to struggle with their names, their emotions, and the actions of their fathers and grandfathers. While the suffering of Holocaust survivors is unending and terrible, those who have grown up in the black shadows of their fathers have their own pain – their own battles that they wage daily.
 
Hitler's Children tells their story. This documentary, completed in 2011, was made by director and producer Chanoch Ze’evi after meeting with Hitler's personal secretary, Traudl Junge. The meeting made him realize that opening a dialogue with those on the other side of the concentration camp walls is important as well, and that it will help shed light on their own struggles, the way that evil affects even those it is close to, and that the claims of Holocaust deniers be further silenced.
 
With that in mind, Hitler's Children features interviews with the children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews of high-ranking Nazi officers. Himmler, Goeth, Goering, Hess, and more. Those are names that will forever be associated with genocide, and are names that these men and women have grown up with for decades. Hitler's Children tells their story, giving them a voice for the first time on film. They discuss whether or not they changed their names, the guilt and shame of growing up in their fathers or grandfathers' shadows, the anger that concentration camp survivors have against them and their family, the struggle between love and revulsion, and the decision to have children of their own or to let the family name vanish into the annals of history.
 
Hitler's Children has already received high praise from UK magazines and is in line for a 2013 release in America. DVD orders are available on the official website as well. No matter how you see the film, critics agree that it is powerful, extraordinary, and emotional. The Holocaust will never be forgotten, and for the children of Hitler's inner circle, the wounds are different but no less painful to bear.