To many millions throughout the world, the genocide and the holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis against Jews, Russians, and others is a distant memory. It is really preserved only in films and books of reminiscences. Books like Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz and the Russian 1985 movie, entitled Come and See show us the inhumanity of the Nazis.
It is hard to watch the Russian movie, which depicts the changing of a 14-year old boy, Fiyoria, who sees the slaughter of his partisans and other innocent Russian peasants by the Nazi army. In fact, the film is basically showing us what Fiyoria sees. I have read that the actors and directors admit that real bullets were used, to make the battle scenes and the fear even more realistic, it is the behavior of the Nazis that may be most frightening of all. Especially one scene where a unit of SS soldiers applaud themselves as they butcher Russians.
plaque - Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under ...
Primo Levi
Yellow badge Star of David called "Judenstern". Pa...It becomes a parade, with marches being blared by some military band on the sound track. This is not the "sanitized" gassing of hundreds of thousands of Jews, of which Primo Levy was a survivor, but out-and-out genocidal butchery of innocent Russian peasant families. Even so, there are some touching scenes - one which reviewers seem to comment on the most - between the stunned boy and a girl - both young people seem to be stunned by bombing and devastation, yet here they are, almost serene. In a way this particular scene is a little reminiscent of The Diary of Anne Frank, where young love blossoms during the horror of hiding. The young boy becomes a survivor, but it is evident that he will never ever be the same. And that seems to signify a whole generation of young people...