MovieChat Forums > Spielzeugland Discussion > Truth or Fiction?

Truth or Fiction?

posted 15 years ago by sjahng
4 replies | jump to latest

Yes, Spielzeugland was a very touching short film, BUT I hope it was adapted from, or at least based upon, a confirmed true story. I'm sure there were some mini Oscar Schindlers in Germany during the war, but otherwise I find this tale to be highly improbable. To me it just feeds into a dangerous trend towards historical revisionism via the tool of cinema... a "feel good" movie by Germans to celebrate the supposed innocence and goodness of "ordinary" Germans during "the Nazis' " Holocaust.

[–] daybreaq 15 years ago

Well, I seriously doubt anyone actually took a child off a train this way. But it is documented that some people took Jewish children in and hid them and/or passed them off as their own children. There was a German social worker who passed away recently who had smuggled children out of the ghettos (the waystation before the concentration camps) and placed them with volunteer families.

True though that not enough people did this though the Danish people proved it was possible to resist the Nazis and save people: 99% of the Danish Jews survived the Holocaust because "ordinary" Danes helped them escape. The success of the Danes pretty much indicts the majority of German citizens and citizens in the rest of the Nazi occupied countries.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Molly-31 15 years ago

Absolutely there were ordinary Germans who hid Jewish children or smuggled them elsewhere. In fact, it happened quite a lot. Just not enough, like the guy said. There is a book out called Suddenly Jewish Do a search on "Hidden Children".

I'm all right, I'm alllll right!

[–] joisepeterson 15 years ago

That's right, a lot of Jewish children were smuggled into safe houses.

Many Jewish mothers at the time thought it safe when their newborn sons were born they didn't get them circumsised as they heard stories where Nazi's forced young boys to pull their pants down to see if they were cut.

Just reminded me of that photograph of a group of men stripped naked and forced to stand at the dug grave moments before being shot. Along with them is a baby of about three or four who has one of those cloth caps on his head but he is still naked.

I went to the Sydney Jewish Museum and one survivour talked how when she was 14 and her sister was 11 they were cornered once by the gestapo and intergated.
They mainly asked the girls questions about the Christian faith to which the girls answered correctly since they were sent to a Catholic school. Even though they were Jewish.