Amen (5 Stars)

I decided spontaneously to watch this film today after reading news reports that the Vatican will open the archives of the documents of Pope Pius XII, commonly called the most evil Pope of the 20th Century. He was the Pope who knew about the mass murder of millions of Jews, but made no public statement about it. Those who are generous say that he remained neutral in wartime because he was scared of reprisals from Hitler; those who are less generous say that he hated Jews and supported Hitler's efforts to annihilate them. It's hoped that the documents will shed light on his personal views. Personally, I don't think the documents will answer any questions. I expect that the Pope's closest advisers, maybe even the Pope himself, destroyed all incriminating evidence after the War.

The film follows Kurt Gerstein, an expert in disinfection, who joined the SS in 1941. Due to his technical expertise he rapidly rose in the ranks and became the head of the Hygiene Services. His duties included the creation of mobile purification systems for drinking water to be used by German soldiers.

Gerstein was doubtlessly a German patriot, and he even supported Hitler in the early years of his career. The turning point came when his mentally ill niece was put to death. He joined in protests to stop the euthanasia of the mentally ill. The protests were successful, but they came too late. When the German government agreed not to kill mental health patients, most of them were already dead.

Then Gerstein was invited to visit concentration camps to solve their purification problems. After the use of Zyklon B in the showers, the cleaning squad had to wait for two hours before it was safe to enter. The camps wanted the waiting time to be reduced to five minutes, so that they could kill Jews faster. Gerstein gave his assistance in the optimisation of the camps, but he was horrified at what he saw. Although he was a Protestant, he sought the help of the Catholic Church to speak out against the mass murder of Jews. He thought that if the Pope, the world's biggest and most influential Christian leader, condemned Germany's actions, Germany would be forced to close the camps.

But the Pope didn't listen.

Gerstein himself visited Rome, but he was refused an audience with the Pope. He had friends in the Catholic Church, who the film combines into the one fictional Jesuit priest Ricardo Fontana. They begged the Pope to intercede, but he refused. The exact reasons might be found in the archived documents, but it's doubtful.

The German army entered Rome to gather Italian Jews for the camps. The Catholic Church likes to make a big deal of the fact it gave refuge to a few thousand Jews in Vatican City, but there were many, many more who perished.

One of the film's main characters is an unnamed SS officer who is only referred to as "the Doctor". He's obviously meant to be Dr. Josef Mengele. The film ends with him seeking refuge at the Vatican. After the war many German officers were being persecuted by the Allied Forces and threatened with trial and execution. The Catholic Church offered sanctuary to any German officers who were Catholics, including transport to South America.

This is a fascinating film, with the emotional depth that we can expect from any film made by Costa-Gavras. Kurt Gerstein is torn between his duties as a German officer and his deep Christian beliefs. His closest friends turn against him, because they don't believe what he tells them about the concentration camps. One of his Christian friends despises him for joining the SS, and he says "I have clean hands because I only organise freight trains to the East". Is that a reference to Adolf Eichmann?

I'll be watching the press for any news about Pope Pius XII. But I won't hold my breath while I'm waiting.