It seemed quite strange that two West Germans would be allowed by the Communists (East German, Soviet and Polish) to drive from Frankfurt on the Rhine to Auschwitz in Poland. The Berlin Wall may have gone up by then as well, traversing the entire West/East German border.
I just can't see that happening after the formation of the Warsaw Pact and the hostility towards the West.
A good movie,btw.
Very good point. My family and I returned to Poland for a visit in 1957 from the USA. we were all American citizens but the red tape was incredible.
In 1963 my sister married a native Pole in Poland and it took over a year for him to get a visa.
none of us here are experts but the Eastern Bloc wanted tourists to visit and spend money and also wanted pro communist people who would spread the word about how great communism was.
Teachers and journalists and politicians and union leaders were given free or very cheap holidays.
Lots of Western Europeans (not all communist types) visited Eastern Bloc countries up until 1989.
I myself travelled to Leningrad via East Berlin in 1987.
I needed a visa but it was easy to organise.
The Soviets and the East German government was obsessed with promoting the idea that they were the anti nazis and the West German government were soft on the nazis still in western society.
There was a lot of truth in the GDR claims because a lot of ex nazi soldiers,civil servants,businessmen and even judges and police officers held similar jobs in the new democratic West Germany.
The East German government issued a book,free from its diplomatic offices,called
THE BROWN BOOK OF NAZI WAR CRIMINALS.
I have a copy it is badly written and inaccurate but still packs a punch.
I have not seen this film yet (will buy the dvd) but East German governments and the Poles would want to help in any situation that helped show West Germany was soft on fascism.
'Commie Land' pfft and the Berlin Wall went up in 1961 and the film was set in 1958, you're as ignorant as the denialists depcited in this film.
'Well I've got two words for you - STFU'
The film was set during the period from 1958 to 1963, when the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials began (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_Auschwitz_trials).
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