Before the Fall

When studying World War II, it is hard for contemporary students to understand how the leadership of one man led to the mass killings of Jews, homosexuals, and several other people groups. It is easy for students to dismiss the possibility that they would have joined Hitler’s Nazi regime. Yet, it is a valid question that should be answered. Would you have joined the Nazi movement if you had lived in Germany during the 1930’s?
The movie, Before the Fall, is an insightful depiction on how Hitler was able to use propaganda to manipulate people to support his cause. Based on real events, the movie follows Friedrich Weimer, a German teenager who wants to become an aspiring boxer. One day, a Nazi recruiter sees Friedrich box and offers him admission into a Nazi Napola academy (an elite, male, Nazi, political, youth school) where he can participate in a first-rate boxing program. Along with the boxing, he is to be instructed in academics as well, making it possible for Friedrich to assume a future position in the Third Reich regime.
Friedrich’s dreams for a better life are nearly dashed when his father refuses to sign the parental consent papers for his son to attend the boarding school. In an act of desperation, Friedrich forges his father’s signature and blackmails him into silence. As a student, Friedrich is educated and trained in boxing under the discipline of Nazi military principles. In being chosen to attend the Napola academy, Friedrich is given unprecedented privilege that his former life precluded.
Shortly after arriving, however, Friedrich’s eyes are opened to the cold, harsh, disciplinary methods of the school. The students are subjected to highly rigorous training exercises which require complete submission to the officers. In order to achieve total compliance, students are pitted in competition against each other; they are humiliated in front of their peers; and they live in constant fear of harsh and inhumane punishments being leveled against them. Daily, they are immersed in a culture which eradicates any traces of humanity, morality, or free thinking. Any signs of compassion, weakness, or dissension are not tolerated. As a result, the student’s individual identity is destroyed and replaced with the community identity, based on Nazi propaganda. Friedrich refuses to capitulate to the loss of his own identity when he witnesses the suicide of his best friend. Consequently, he decides to defy the regime and accept whatever consequences his defiance will cost him.
Before the Fall is a riveting account that explores the allure that the Nazi Party had on the German youth during the time of Hitler’s rise to power. This story brilliantly replicates the devastating toll that many in the youth movement experienced. It is a story that needs to be retold, lest we ever forget.
By: Bethany Smith