Hitler in despair

Munich

A German film that portrays the human side of Hitler during the last 10 days of his life premiered this week to mixed reviews. Der Untergang (The Downfall), starring Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, depicts the Nazi leader as a regular person, speaking in a sorrowful voice to his mistress and underlings as he ponders Germany’s inevitable defeat and contemplates suicide. “These were people, not robots,” said the film’s producer, Bernd Eichinger. The audience at the Munich premiere gave the film a standing ovation; newspaper critics were more skeptical. “Should one do this?” asked the Berlin Taggespiegel. “Show Hitler as though in the end he were only a victim, a victim of the circumstances he created?”

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