Most
Biblical scholars interpret passages regarding the iniquities of the father
being visited upon his sons and grandfathers to mean a patriarch’s lack of
sound moral guidance will potentially allow his progeny to follow his bad
examples and repeat his mistakes. This is a most pertinent question for Horst
von Wächter, the massively in-denial son of a high ranking National Socialist
official. In contrast, Niklas Frank, the son of the senior von Wächter’s direct
superior, has no trouble condemning his father’s crimes against humanity. International
law expert Philippe Sands will revisit the sins of the fathers with their two
very different sons in David Evans’ What
Our Fathers Did: a Nazi Legacy (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.
As
one of the foremost experts on the Nuremberg military tribunals, Sands was
quite familiar with Hans Frank, who was tried and executed for crimes against
humanity. They also indicted Otto von Wächter, but the sheltered former
governor of Krakow and Galicia escaped prosecution, until succumbing to kidney
disease in 1949. However, the absence of a legal conviction looms large in
Horst von Wächter’s revisionist view of his father.
Despite
their radical differences, Niklas Frank and Horst von Wächter are sort of
friends. One can imagine they share a bond of mutual early experiences few of
their peers could relate to. However, von Wächter’s childhood was clearly a
happy one, whereas Frank’s was not. As a result, von Wächter is emotionally
invested in protecting his stilted memory of a loving father, while Frank feels
no such loyalty to the absentee autocrat he so clearly resents. That is all
understandable to an extent, but von Wächter becomes willfully pedantic and
legalistic when confronted with evidence of his father’s culpability. It seems
nothing short of a full confession, signed and notarized in triplicate will
satisfy his standards of proof.
This
is where the drama comes in—and it is considerable. Chafing at his obstinacy,
Sands and Frank become increasingly frustrated with von Wächter’s flimsy
prevarications. Honestly, it is downright painful to watch his dissembling
during a joint appearance with Frank and Sands, following the publication of
the latter’s Financial Times article
that first started their sometimes contentious association. When Frank warns Sands
his perhaps former friend might be susceptible to Neo-National Socialist recruitment,
it is a heavy movement. Indeed, there are staggering scenes like that
throughout WOFD, in which von Wächter’s
hairsplitting fiddlesticks are routinely contrasted with Frank’s unforgiving
indictments.
