Directed by: Luke Holland
Documentary filmmaker Luke Holland recorded interviews beginning in 2008 of surviving members of Hitler Youth who witnessed or partook in Nazi crimes against humanity. Many have since changed their thought process about Hitler and the Nazi regime, while a few hold out in their deranged belief that what the Nazis did was justified.
Interspersed with archive footage, Holland's Final Account records the testimony of the last living Germans who were there from Night of the Long Knives up to and including the Holocaust. There is even a lyric from a song imploring Germans to "Sharpen the long knives...so they go better in the Jewish belly," No subtlety there. Holland's aim is noble. It is a race against time for Holland to film his subjects' statements before death silences them forever.
For the most part, Final Account is an intriguing documentary of how time and age alter views of history and past actions. There are occasional lulls because Final Account is essentially interview subjects talking, and some subjects aren't as compelling as others, but the underlying question enters our minds: What would you do? Most of the former Hitler Youth members (or Germans themselves) didn't speak up or take against action against the Nazis out of fear of repercussions, with the worst being a bullet to the head. Many of these Germans chose self-preservation at the expense of others' lives. Following the end of World War II, these men and women have to live with their choices every day for the next sixty-plus years. Many of these people say they were only following orders, while others say they had no alternative but to follow orders because they didn't want to line up alongside the Jews who were being murdered.
The question remains: What would you do? This by no means lets the subjects off the hook for their actions or inaction during the rise and rule of Nazi Germany. They made their choice. Let's hope others won't have to make the same choices.
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