THE DECENT ONE sheds new light on the architect of the Final Solution
THE DECENT ONE (DER ANSTÄNDIGE) (Vanessa Lapa, 2014)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
October 1-14, 12:30, 2:40, 4:50, 7:00, and 9:15
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
Vanessa Lapa’s chilling feature documentary debut, The Decent One, reveals that there wasn’t a whole lot that was decent about Heinrich Himmler, the SS chief who was the architect of the Final Solution. In 2006, Lapa’s father purchased a collection of Himmler’s diaries, letters, documents, and photographs that had initially been discovered in his home by U.S. soldiers in May 1945. The treasure trove forms the narration for Lapa’s film, as actors read from many of the items in chronological order while home movies, still images, and rare archival footage of Himmler and the rise of the SS are shown onscreen. The film includes letters, postcards, and diaries from Himmler; his parents; his wife, Marga; his mistress, Hedwig Potthast; his beloved daughter, “Püppi”; his foster son, Gerhard von Ahé; and others, in which the Gestapo head discusses love and romance, racial purity, motherhood, duty and honor, order and obedience, the Jewish question, homosexuality, and subhumans, troubling views he developed from a young age. “People don’t like me,” he writes after not being accepted into a fraternal group at college. Looking for purpose in his life, he explains, “You start to think, if only there was a war again. If only I could put my life on the line. Fight! It would be a pleasure.” He was also fully aware of the brutality of the Nazi regime. “I can predict the horrors of the future,” he notes in 1927.
Even his love letters evoke the terror he brought to the world. “What a naughty man you have, with such an evil, naughty movement,” he writes to his wife. Lapa and editors Sharon Brook and Noam Amit move smoothly between pictures of Himmler with his wife and children and shots of him in uniform, inspecting the troops and meeting with Adolf Hitler. It all makes for an uncomfortable intimacy, especially when the actual letters fill the screen; seeing his handwriting while listening to his words is extremely disturbing, but it’s not done in an effort to humanize him, as there is not much humanity to be found in the mass murderer responsible for so many atrocities. The Decent One is disquieting and unnerving, but it is also essential viewing. Named Best Documentary at the Jerusalem Film Festival, The Decent One begins a two-week run at Film Forum on October 1 (perhaps not coincidentally during the Days of Awe, the ten days of contemplation and repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur); Lapa will participate in Q&As following the 7:00 screenings October 1, 2, and 4.