A deafening silence
When are religious leaders obligated to speak out against tyranny and atrocities? When is it prudent for them to keep silent so they can fight another day? These are two of the timely questions raised by a pair of small films making the independent circuit: Amen, by celebrated filmmaker Constantin Costa-Gavras (Z and Missing), and Bonhoeffer, a documentary by Martin Doblmeier.
Both films use real-life stories and both succeed, to a point, in convincing us that spiritual and physical sacrifices must be made in the battle against evil.
Amen tells the true tale of Kurt Gerstein (Ulrich Tukur), a renowned German chemist who is enlisted in the Nazi SS to help purify drinking water for German troops. Little does he know that the Nazis are using Zyklon B pellets—which Gerstein himself helped develop—to kill Jews at concentration camps. When Gerstein finds out (in a powerful scene that involves little more than Gerstein peering through a death camp peephole and reacting with horror), he immediately makes it his mission to reveal these atrocities to the rest of the world. He seeks help from the Swedish consulate, Protestant church leaders, and finally Pope Pius XII.
