Does any one know a "good" film about the Nazis that I can show to my 13 year old grandson?

Question

I was thinking that maybe a fictional one based on fact might be more interesting. I don't want to bore him by giving him too much factual stuff. I also don't want him to see some of the more horrific things that would be in a factual account, but he is very interested in this subject. Any help appreciated thanks

I agree he needs to know the whole truth but not just yet. I have just been to Dachau and the Eagles nest so I got him some factul information from there. I also took lots of photos. I would idealy like to take him to one of the camps but as the closest is a 5 hour drive away from us it will be a bit too far when he comes over.

Answer 1

How about "Triumph of the Will"?

Answer 2

There are many good movies out there I feel the best ones are the old war movies like the ones with John Wayne. To name a few "The Longest Day", "The Guns of Naverone", "The Sands Of Iwo Jima" and "The Great Escape" If he is interested in the Nazis and you want to teach him about them then you need to teach him the whole truth if not then you will just glorify the Nazis. This is also a subject that I am very interested in and I began my research at the age of 12 and I am now 31 and am still learning many things about the Nazis, Hitler, and World War 2. There is a movie called "Conspiracy" it is a movie mad by HBO films and it is about how the Nazi General Hydrich Himmler came about the "final solution". There are also a number of good books on the subject...The best selection is at Barnes and Nobles Bookstores. If there is any questions that I could answer for you or you grandson I would be more than happy to answer them for me just email me. Good luck with your search and I hope that you will teach him the truth so that history may not repeat itself.

Answer 3

Truth is stranger than fiction. Why would you want to keep the truth from him? At 13 I am sure he has heard of, and possibly seen, some pretty nasty things just from watching the local news or reading some of the stuff on the internet.
It's good that he is interested in knowing about the Nazis, who were a horrendous blot on the 20th Century and on civilization as a whole.

"The Diary of Anne Frank" doesn't actually show anything brutal but gives an idea of the fear involved. "The Heroes of Telemark", set in Norway, and "Soldier of Orange" which focuses on the Dutch resistance tell of the horrors of Nazism ,and the movie "Carve her name with Pride" is about a British/French woman who worked for the French resistance and was sent to a concentration camp.

"Schindler's List" is without doubt one of the most compelling pieces of history ever brought to the screen. My daughter was a teenager when this film was released and she asked to see it. It made a tremendous impression on her. I think your grandson should see this film sometime soon - certainly warn him that there are some horrific scenes - but I personally believe that for most people, seeing the brutality of the Nazi regime gives them an insight and understanding that will hopefully prevent them ever participating in, or tolerating, such cruelty and injustice in their own society.

The fact that your grandson has expressed an interest in the subject suggests that he is a very aware young man. You should be proud of that and do whatever you can to help him develop into a thoughtful and compassionate adult.

Answer 4

If he can put up with subtitles, "Downfalll" (Der Untergang) is a superb film about the last days in the Fuhrerbunker. "Sophie Scholl" (Die letzen Tage) shows why the Nazis were evil but does not show graphic violence.

"Schindler's List" would be good but if he's only 13 he might find the extermination camp scenes upsetting. "Jakob the Liar" covers some of the same ground and might be more palatable.

Answer 5

As others have said "Schindler's List" is a good starting point.

I'm not sure that you should try to shield him from the horrors that the Nazis perpetrated, even at his young age. If we don't educate younger generations about that period in history the more it is likely to recur in the future. Witness the debacle of the former Yugoslavia. Such horrors are still possible - and many of the victims were much younger than your grandson. From my own experience people of your grandson's age are more than capable of reaching an understanding of events without being traumatised.

If he is interested learning about that period try the Shoah Foundation website:

http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/vhi/

Answer 6

There are a slew of actual NAZI films on youtube.com with english subtitles. I prefer that becuase much of what is produced on the history channel has a lot of "NAZI bad, NAZI bad." writing in the script. Whereas I prefer to let history speak for itself without having it spoon fed to me.

If you can find it, the best produced program I have seen was on the egg network a couple years ago. I believe it was a 3 part series called "The Art of the Third Reich". Very poignant considering how much ground it covered and how frighteningly easy it is to sway a population by simply controling what they talk about.

Hope this helps.

Answer 7

The Devil's Arithmetic. Outstanding movie based on award winning book placing modern day teenager into Nazi occupation and the camps. Have shown this in my Holocaust class for several years full of 12-14 years olds never had a complaint.

Answer 8

Aside from the obvious : schindlers list etc there a brilliant film about the fall of berlin called Downfall. The only drawback is it's a german language movie with english subtitles. of course there's always escape to victory at least that's got Pele in it.

Answer 9

I'd go with the world at war if theres a box set of the series, i was younger than him when i started to watch it. I think i got my interest for history from those programmes and it is completely factual. alternatively u could buy him some history books for example on the chronology of the war? hope he keeps facinated although if he plans to keep it on at school he will be bored to tears of the subject

Answer 10

In this order:
Der Untergang (german, the downfall)
The pianist
Schindler's list
Au revoir les enfants (french, goodbye children)
The Rise and fall of the third reich (more of a narrated documentary)
Nuremberg (about the trials of some major nazi's after the war)


can't think of anything else at the moment
maybe
Rosenstrasse (german, Rose Street, about female student-activists against the nazi's during their rise)
or
errr

Answer 11

Escape from sobibor (spelling not right)

Schindlers List

There was also a major mini series about world war 2 (you need the unedited version with the gas chamber scene)


That was a big thing, think 80s 90s

Possibly this... not sure

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085112/


What would be very good would be to show why hitler got to power and why he was popular showing thats you need to look past the nice stuff.


ie Hitler made a great cub scout movement, invented motorways, the herbie car etc, made nice speaches...


As people fell for that he got away with mass murder.

And how hitler used the press.

And things like how he made it look like poland attacked by dressing up jews as germs and attacking them dressed as polish soldiers.

So your Grand son can see Hitler did not do this overnight.


how he made the jews hated etc.


And how the americans let off many of the scientists... Plus how many like Joseph mengales survived in south America.