The young boy's uniform...


I know that a lot has been cut out of the original - Netflix running time is 122 minutes. It's been a while since I watched the film. So the German film or the book "probably" can answer this question (or I just missed it?).

When the train arrives at the POW camp, a frail young German soldier in the front rank was forced to strip naked by the Russian officer. This was simply for having a letter from his mother. He had been introduced earlier, in the boxcar with Forell. What became of this boy? Was he just left standing there to freeze to death?

I found this act by the Russian to really reveal his vengeful character's cruelty, and even at the end of the film when he relented, that brutal act stayed with me - he seems to be casually sentencing the boy to die of exposure for no valid reason except perhaps to cow the other POWs. Was this ever made clear in the book or the longer German film?

BTW - Forell was being sentenced to 25 years at hard labor for crimes against the Russian partisans. There are many accounts of atrocities by both sides, but the Russian view of the German troops is expressed in the (Netflix DVD) "Come and See."


*Everything happens to me! Now I'm shot by a child! (T.Chaney)

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