This week, the Arthouse Film Festival showed us the documentary My Nazi Legacy: What Our Fathers Did. Philippe Sands, a European Lawyer, became acquainted with a German man, Niklas Frank. Niklas was born in 1939, and was the son of Hans Frank, a lawyer for Nazi Germany during World War II. Niklas, in turn, was also friends with Horst Wächter, also born in 1939, and was the son of Otto Wächter, who was also a lawyer for the Third Reich.

The documentary opens with Horst giving Philippe a tour of the home he grew up in. He talks about his father, who he rarely saw. Horst then shows several photo albums, indicating that Otto was a high ranking member of the Nazi Party, and there are photos of him in uniform with many others. Horst laments that he never really spent time with his father, as he was so young and his father was a busy man.

Meanwhile, Niklas similarly tells of his childhood. His life was different, and quite privileged. Their family moved to Poland after the start of World War II. Hans was given the rank of Governor-General of one of Poland’s territories. Niklas was raised by a nanny and his mother had very little to do with his upbringing. His father wanted to divorce his mother, but she wrote to Hitler, who ordered they stay married.

During the war, Frank was directly involved in the extinction of many Jews and others, as well as keeping the remainder of the Polish population under control. Otto Wächter worked with him as an administrator. He was the governor of Krakow, but then became the governor of Galacia in the Ukraine. It is known that he organized the ghettos where Jews and others were kept. After the war, Frank was captured by the allies, tried at Nuremberg, and executed. Wächter hid in the Salzberg mountains, eventually sought sanctuary in the Catholic church in Rome, where he lived until his passing in 1949.

All of this is known history. Philippe lets on that all of his family, save one person (his grandfather), was killed as a result of the actions of the Nazis in Poland, and specifically, Hans Frank. Niklas freely admits that his father is guilty of crimes against humanity. Horst, on the other hand, does not accept that his father had any direct involvement with the Holocaust. The evidence is all circumstantial, in Horst’s eyes, and there is no specific proof his father was the cause of any atrocities.

The rest of the documentary is spent digging in further into that history. Niklas and Frank are guests at a talk in England, with Philippe acting as host and moderator. Later they visit Poland, and later, the Ukraine. This movie is heartbreaking. Horst steadfastly believes his father is innocent, while Niklas and Philippe present evidence that would suggest otherwise.

This documentary is not something that I can say I liked or disliked. It relived some very ugly truths that many will find distressing. I know it did that, for me. The documentary does attempt to correlate the events of World War II to modern ones. As this film was being made, Russia had already invaded Ukraine, so there is a timeliness to it. I don’t believe that part of this documentary was properly fleshed out, but the connections were made.