I first heard about this documentary while watching something on the History Channel about Nazi Youth…or maybe it was the one the SS. As someone who during college and law school was very interested in International Human Rights and genocide issues (I even participated in a march on Washington for Darfur my 1L year), this documentary was super interesting for me (and honestly rekindled and invigorated my interest in those subjects again). It definitely made me think and posed many questions that still have major relevance in today’s age…war crimes, passive vs. active participation, moral guilt/culpability vs. legal guilt/culpability, forgiveness, deterrence & the purpose of punishment, symbolic vs. “real” justice, etc.

This documentary was very well-done with an interesting subject matter, but in my opinion was also pretty unbiased in it’s telling, leaving the answers up to the viewer. It had engaging and compelling characters and it accomplished what every good doc/story is supposed to do…start a real conversation. And it definitely did that…I called my younger sister (who’s in the military and legal field) up to recommend she watch and she thought it was well-done as well and it got us talking through some of the questions brought up by the case. Currently streaming on Netflix.

Don’t want to get too legal or heavy here on this entertainment blog, but if any of you have watched it, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Or are there any other docs on similar topics that you’ve seen and suggest I watch?