Digging Out From Under the Nazi Rubble

Like many movies about World War II-era Germany, “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days” tells an extraordinary story of struggle. But this melodrama about a young resistance fighter actually reflects a newer cultural movement: the burgeoning German interest in digging out from under the Nazi rubble and reclaiming the past.Sophie Scholl was the most famous member of the White Rose, the legendary anti-Nazi underground movement. Her bravery and idealism in the face of the Nazis is undeniably inspiring, and the film covers the highlight of this defiance: her capture, interrogation, and trial for treason.Instead of Holocaust victims and Nazi aggressors, we watch a bona fide German hero in this film. The 21-year-old Scholl is caught distributing flyers, and continues to face down evil, turning a withering Gestapo interrogation into a debate over the atrocities of the regime.The subsequent sham trial becomes a podium for her and her coconspirator brother to declare the Nazi leadership a murderous cabal that is acting contrary to the wishes and consciences of millions.The director, Marc Rothemund, is not quite up to the material here, but he does know when – and how – to step aside. The facts of Nazi Germany are compelling enough alone, and he gains authenticity by working from historical transcripts (some only recently made available).But the simplicity of his presentation belies the novelty of its portrayal. Here are Germans who are not aggressors, passive conspirators, or sainted secret protectors, but victims, too – and rebels. Last year’s “Downfall” generated controversy by humanizing Hitler, but Scholl’s is just as radical a characterization: unapologetically martyr-like, very heroic, and very German.German actress Julia Jentsch, who plays Scholl, conveys both the woman’s Joan of Arc resolve and terrific strain. Ms. Jentsch’s efforts received adulatory press coverage in Germany, and it’s as if her very performance suggests a national struggle to insist upon an untainted identity. When Sophie claims to represent an aggrieved people that did know better, the righteous pull of identifying with her, then and now, is palpable.This is not to suggest that “Sophie Scholl” misrepresents the experience of Nazi Germany. Over the years many critics have rightly observed that any portrayal of the wartime experience will be skewed in some way. The exceptional story of Sophie Scholl has been told before (twice in 1982 alone), and it was inevitable that it would be told again.What’s interesting is that “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days” shares with the lesser World War II dramas the tendency to demand rather than elicit a response. Thanks to staging that is as constricted as a play, there’s nowhere to look but at the spectacle of Scholl. (And the clumsy music cues don’t help.)Mr. Rothemund redeems himself a little with the film’s climactic scene, and with touches like a scene showing Sophie staring out a window as she eagerly awaits the Allied bombing. By all accounts, his efforts are paying off with widespread critical praise. Last year’s festival prizes have borne fruit with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.But it’s important to recognize that in this ravaged stretch of history, no solace is ever complete. New views of the Third Reich should doubtless be encouraged, and nobody likes to rain on the parade of a hero. Yet the shining inspiration of Sophie Scholl – someone who had the conscience to recognize wrongs and the strength to object – carries with it the tragic reality that millions more did not.

Digging Out From Under the Nazi Rubble

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