[music playing]
[anxious breathing]
GESTAPO 1: Move aside.
GESTAPO 2: We are looking for the girl.
Where is the [german]?
KERSTIN: The one you're searching for, she
returned to Lubec two days ago.
GESTAPO 1: You are Frau Schlegel?
She is your child?
KERSTIN: Yes, but she doesn't live here.
She lives with her aunt in Lubec.
You're making a mistake.
Women like you, you contaminate.
If she's anything like her mother, she'll be open also--
to contaminate from within.
You won't find her.
Because she doesn't live here.
Leyna, come They've gone.
LEYNA [VOICEOVER]: Spring 1944.
That was the year I turned 16.
Children like me from the Rhineland
were known as Rhineland bastards or "Hitler's problem,"
because our German nationality automatically
came through our white mothers even though our fathers
were African and often absent.
There were so few of us that in my entire 16 years,
I never saw another soul like me.
Happy Birthday, sweet girl.
Thank you, Frau Heinrich.
LEYNA [VOICEOVER]: Hitler wanted to deal with us secretly,
without being seen by Germany to be attacking our Aryan mothers.
So though we had a freedom that the Jews did not have,
still we had to be guarded, especially
once the Gestapo started to visit us in Rudesheim.
It wasn't that I had not known I was different.
It was that as I reached 16, I really began to feel it.
That was the year I realized Hitler had a plan for us.
Why are we going to Berlin?
To be invisible.
Stop talking, Koen.
Read your book.
I have my drawing book, but no pencil.
I can't draw without one.
You want a pencil?
I think that I might be able to help you, little man.
Thank you.
He's restless.
He's a boy.
We never grow out of it.
Your papers?
Yes, of course.
I have all of our papers.
Here.
Schlegel?
Yes.
Invisible.
Here is not like the Rhineland.
They're not bothered with children like you
or this talk of fixing you.
Life will be good again.
I promise.
We have a new girl joining us today.
Her name is Leyna Schlegel.
Stand up.
Schlegel is a good German name, but your face, so un-German.
Leyna has facial features in common
with people of which continent?
Greta.
Africa.
Indeed So how does a girl like you
come to have a name so Germanic as Schlegel?
Schlegel is my mother's name.
And what is your father's name?
When will you tell me about my father?
He was black from head to toe.
LEYNA: I want to know who he was.
Leyna.
You know everything.
I was just a little older than you.
Made mistakes.
Mistakes?
Not you.
Koen, get me some water, please.
He was a good soldier.
But I've told you all this.
I don't know what else.
Why did you not marry?
Mr. Mueller slapped me yesterday, because he told me
that you were the first of all people who are white
and the worse of all people, black.
That's what a Mulatto is.
But I told him that's not true.
To me you are the best of everything.
Your hair is dirty.
I'll wash it for you tonight.
[bell ringing]
Heil Hitler.
Hey, shouldn't you be going with them, monkey?
HIDA: Wilhelm just returned from Vienna.
KERSTIN: But he knows we're coming?
Yes, of course.
I told him.
She actually is beautiful.
And he looks just like Father.
Go on, Leyna.
Sit down.
I didn't expect you with the children.
Today they saw a Negro at the door.
Tomorrow it will be a Jew, you know?
Nobody saw us, Hida.
Leyna, go ahead of me.
See if you can pick up a good loaf of bread
before the store closes.
Take Koen with you.
Leyna, please, use the back.
Kerstin, I want you to understand,
I have nothing against your family.
And a choice between your child and us, well, I know,
it's no choice at all.
But I spilled blood for the Kaiser.
And last month they kept my sick father over two nights
because someone convinced them he had a Jewish mother.
And now you bring your Negro here.
You compromised me, us, your sister, without any regard.
Wilhelm.
Listen for just a moment and you will never hear from us again.
I need papers.
Kerstin.
Something to say Leyna has been sterilized.
You really are quite unique.
Wilhelm, you have access.
A Gestapo document declaring her physically changed.
You can do this.
I know you can.
You should leave, Kerstin.
Hida, please.
I didn't think the order would extend to Berlin.
I hoped she would be safe here.
But two days ago they came.
She was out.
I told them she carries the papers with her but I'm afraid.
I'm afraid that they will take her from the streets,
from the school, anywhere that I can't protect her.
Leyna, let's go.
HIDA: Why did you put her in school?
What's the matter with you?
KERSTIN: I can't hide her.
If not school, then labor service.
Who knows where she would end?
All the girls must do labor service.
She's no different.
You want her to be special?
No.
I want her to be like everyone else.
Unremarkable.
Then she will not escape this war as if it never happened.
None of us will manage that, Kerstin.
KOEN: Gunter.
Where?
Where did that voice come from?
Ah.
Some bread, please, Gunter.
How are you?
Good?
Settling in?
I miss home.
Morning.
Ah, is that a, yes, I think a smile.
That's better.
There are people waiting.
[speaking german]
I always keep good come back, but you can have it.
Now listen to me.
If your sister forgets to smile, you
remind her of Gunter's face.
It's funny, yes?
Yes.
Can I go now?
Yes, you can go with the other boys.
Go on then.
Koen.
I have no choice.
The law says you must go.
But where you are going, they will teach you many things.
Lots will make sense and feel right,
but so much will be confusing because it
will be different to the things you learn here at home.
But I want you to understand that nobody
can know a son better than a mother,
no teacher, no group leader.
I hope, Koen, that you choose never to forget this,
that you keep what I teach you in here and here.
Do you understand me, Koen?
[chatter]
Leyna!
I didn't see you.
Leyna?
Sorry.
Let me look at you.
You should be more careful.
I need to get you home so we can clean these wounds.
[WHISPERING] I'm sorry.
Why are you in the building so early?
The leaders in meeting before the boys arrive.
I told them we need to.
Are you making problems for yourself?
The older ones are taking pocket money from the others.
Yesterday I had mothers screaming in my ears.
Wait!
Ask.
Hm.
Don't take.
We're a little late, Frau Nagel.
I'm sorry.
What happened to you?
KERSTIN: A little hooligan ran her over with his bike.
It was an accident.
What do you say, Koen?
Thank you, Frau Nagel.
And next time, I kick your ass at chess, huh?
A gentleman asked me to take it for you.
He was at your door while you were gone.
I ask him his name, but he didn't want to tell me.
Wilhelm.
Hida must never know.
Here, take them.
A set of the doctor's papers has also been filed.
Who?
A connection in the municipality of Rudesheim,
one who is critical of the regime.
A communist?
You have communist contacts?
There are more papers inside that
must be archived in Rudesheim.
Have them signed and returned to me as instructed.
And then you must forget that you ever had a sister.
Here.
[chuckling]
What?
Nothing.
You polish like your Uncle Harry--
like a girl.
Oh, well Uncle Harry told me I polish like you.
When you're finished, go and get yourself cleaned up.
You have mud in your hair.
My targets were excellent today.
I have to go to Hamburg tonight but Sunday,
Sunday we'll catch some fish, yes?
I have papers for you.
You should carry them with you wherever you go.
They will protect you.
Where did you--
They're false, but they're enough.
No one will know.
Wilhelm needs you to sign these also.
If I send them back to him, he will
make sure it's in the right place for us to be left alone.
What is it?
A declaration that you will not
commit the crime of racial mixing
with anyone of German blood.
I am of German blood.
It's just a signature to keep them away.
It means nothing.
It means something surely or why should I sign?
I won't.
Fine.
Then they will come for you, Leyna,
and they will make you sign, not false, empty papers.
Real ones, and not before they have fixed you in reality
and cut your insides to do so.
Neither you nor your brother entered
this world without pain.
But I could not be in this life without you both.
You should also know the blessing
of motherhood one day, Leyna.
I want that for you.
If you do not sign, they will do to you
what can never be undone.
You will be who they have made you.
What was the treaty that enabled Poland to take
this land from the empire?
Anna?
Versailles.
Schlegel.
The five principle leaders were signatories to this treaty?
Heil Hitler.
OFFICER: Heil Hitler.
STUDENTS: Heil Hitler.
Sit.
Schlegel, stand.
Come.
Leave your books.
You won't need them anymore.
And take your bag.
They didn't hurt you.
That's all that matters.
They can force you from school, but they
can't stop you learning.
You'll learn here at home.
But you will be conscripted to work now.
I was proud of how you worked today.
You're growing so quickly.
I have a coat that will fit you nicely now.
Drive us home?
No, thank you.
I-- I'll cycle.
Oh, please.
You followed us home.
I wanted to know if you're all right.
I am.
What are you looking at?
I don't know, your bruise.
I'll see you.
What's your name?
OFFICER 2: Gunter, [speaking german]..
Gunter!
Take them off.
Off!
They didn't circumcise you good enough, Jew.
I can fix that.
WOMAN 1: What happened?
He was a Jew?
MAN 1: Printing leaflets.
WOMAN 2: He was plotting with other students.
MAN 2: He wore a crucifix like it was a badge.
Running with some rotten Zionist group.
I heard some people outside Gunter's store.
Something happened to him today.
I know.
I was there.
I saw it.
He was touching the bread.
But he was Jewish.
Don't be stupid, Koen.
He was good Jew.
Leyna.
Good Jew?
He was a human being.
If I forbade you from sharing the streets with me
because your face is freckled, should my words make
you any less of a human being?
Should that mean that anyone should shoot
you in the street like a dog?
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry you had to see such a thing, Leyna.
Also to you, Koen.
It's not your fault. It's my job to protect
you from the things you hear, even the things you think.
A Waffen SS man.
He came to speak to us in training today.
He told me my skills are superior.
He wishes to speak with me further.
What was his name?
Leiber.
Section leader.
Tell me when does Leiber plan to speak to me?
I don't think they're asking you to fight.
And are you asking them why they are not out there
fighting themselves these men who walk around recruiting you
idiots?
Why are you angry?
It's easy to hit the target when no one is attacking you,
Lutz.
You think there's time for practice out there in the east?
Out there the enemy is real and his only target is you.
This isn't a game to me.
I am training hard.
Everyone can see it.
I fought in the last war for four years, and when I got
back Germany was even worse than when I left.
No work.
Debt.
Hunger.
Like you, we ran willingly towards our death.
Towards protecting the-- the Homeland.
Like fools, we didn't ask a single question.
And all those men, comrades that I ate with,
slept with, pissed with-- they died for nothing.
Do you understand me? [ANGRILY] For nothing!
We were humiliated, cheated.
But this war, this war is ours.
You cannot make a difference.
That's not true.
ANNOUNCER [ON RADIO]: Germany will
be freed from the Gestapo hyenas, the SS murderers,
and anyone who believes in the filth of Hitler,
of National Socialism--
[chatter]
--and this repulsive system.
We will see the end-- not of you,
not of Germany, for the fight is not against the German people.
Leyna.
ANNOUNCER [ON RADIO]: On the contrary, Britain fights to--
LEYNA: I--
ANNOUNCER [ON RADIO]: --relieve you from the monstrous
hands of a dictator--
Mother, I just need some fresh air.
ANNOUNCER [ON RADIO]: --who convinced you he would
free Germany, and instead--
Leyna.
ANNOUNCER [ON RADIO]: --has broken it.
She's a negro.
Leyna.
HITLER YOUTH: [singing in german]
Leyna?
That's your name?
Why did you come?
You could get into a lot of trouble.
SS OFFICER: Heil Hitler!
I wanted to see what it's like.
ALL: Heil Hitler!
See what he does here.
Koen.
He's my brother.
I know.
I have seen him with you.
Were you spying on us?
Only once.
He's German.
Of course.
SS OFFICER: [speaking german]
I've seen a lady that looks like you.
In a photograph.
Well not really a photograph.
My father, he has a gramophone.
He hides jazz records, but I've heard them playing quietly.
Sometimes, late at night, when I'm in my room,
if I press my ear to the floor, I hear.
Negermusik.
Isn't that what it's called?
It's not allowed.
[SINGING] When we're in a friendly situation,
my conversation might not be smart.
But if we're to have a perfect understanding,
let's call a heart a heart.
On the cover of one of the magazines there's a lady.
She's like you.
Kind of beautiful.
You'll get into trouble singing those songs.
I'll just have to be careful.
Like my father.
Come on.
Have you ever been up there?
Into those hills?
It's the quietest place on earth.
I used to go up there to collect caterpillars,
with my father and my mother.
You can see all of Berlin from that one place.
[geese quacking]
Did you run away?
Run away?
It's just your mother, she is--
She's not Jewish.
No, I know, but--
your father.
He-- He's a negro.
LEYNA: Have you ever swam in the night?
You know, when it's so dark you can see nothing.
I always thought it would be so wonderful.
Then why have you never done it?
In Rudesheim I'd swim every week.
There were many Jews.
They were told they couldn't use the pool.
And then-- I was told I couldn't use it either.
It's been a long time, that's all.
I have dreams that I'm drowning.
You just have to get used to the water again.
[laughter]
You can jump in with me.
Now the next--
[giggling, splashing]
SS OFFICER: Heil Hitler.
Leyna.
Leyna!
Leyna?
Leyna!
Leyna.
[heavy breathing]
Here.
This bit you need to know where you're going.
[chuckle]
I can't believe I lent you my bike.
My mother had them made for us.
For me and father.
Does she have one too?
She's dead.
Oh, I--
I'm sorry.
Is that why you come here?
To think of her?
Sometimes.
Mostly I think of what would it would be like to fight.
To stand up for Germany, like my father did.
Do you think you could take a life?
Kill a human being?
Of course I could.
I could kill a Russian soldier with ease.
LEYNA: Ooh, my mother will think I've been up to something.
Use my jumper.
It's easier.
Aren't you afraid?
Of what?
Fighting.
War.
Does the war frighten you?
Yes.
My father fought in the war.
He did?
For Germany?
Of course.
BBC PRESENTER [ON RADIO]: Here is England.
Here is England.
Here is the BBC midnight news.
[door closes]
The Allies' advance into mainland Europe continues.
British Elite Forces, along with US troops--
Did my father fight for Germany?
Beg your pardon?
BBC PRESENTER [ON RADIO]: --have today captured
the French port of Cherbourg--
He fought for the French.
A Tirailleur Senegalais.
BBC PRESENTER [ON RADIO]: --from the western front.
The victory included--
You told me he was sent here to fight.
You didn't tell me he was sent here to fight us!
It's his language!
He was part of the Occupation by the time we met.
He didn't fight you.
Or me.
Of course he did.
I am German, even if you want to pretend you are not.
Even if you want me to pretend I'm not.
I loved him.
It was from that place that you came.
A place even Koen cannot claim.
You have made me an enemy twice.
If you think I've made you the enemy,
Leyna, then look around you!
Look, Leyna.
And the next time you are with that son of a Nazi,
you know this--
If his father catches you with his boy, he'll kill him.
Before he comes and kills us!
[chatter]
I've forgotten my gloves.
I'll wait.
No, you go on.
I'll be just a moment.
It's your choice, Leyna.
You're always here.
Outside the factory.
Are you cold?
No.
Are you?
Yes, it's the coldest summer.
I've lost my gloves.
I told my mother I left them.
[heavy breathing]
[planes flying overhead]
I have to go.
I don't want my mother to be more upset with me.
I wanted to give you something.
Cheese.
Maybe you could enjoy it with Koen and your mother.
I thought you had gone.
My mother didn't wait for me, Leyna.
And that's just how I became your mother,
chasing the same impossibility you are chasing.
The first time your father looked at me,
I thought my heart would never beat again
unless he loved me forever.
He was ripped away from me, Leyna.
And all I had left was you.
The best of everything.
So you think I could ever leave you?
For each of us there is someone.
For me it's you, Leyna.
The gift from your father.
Koen is my heart, you know that.
But for me, that someone is you.
[gunshots]
[germans shouting]
SEBASTIAN: An unwashed Englishman.
[chuckle]
[gunshot]
A French baboon, black from head to toe.
Black like your sister.
[chuckle]
Black as coal like Leyna.
[laughter]
[gunshot]
HITLER YOUTH COMMANDER: Get in line!
HITLER YOUTH: Move!
[groans]
Used to it, aren't you?
Dirt in your mouth?
A good soldier should have honor.
Koen!
Are you all right, Koen?
Koen!
What?
Do you still love me?
No.
I hate you.
You're a girl and I hate girls!
[heavy footsteps]
[man shouting]
[glass breaking]
[banging on door]
[germans shouting]
[banging on door]
GESTAPO SOLDIER: [inaudible]
FRAU NAGEL: [inaudible] I have not [inaudible]
These are not old papers!
Don't take those!
Where are you taking me?
You have Jews here?
It's just the three of us.
My son is asleep, in the bedroom.
Where are her papers?
Go fetch them, Leyna.
It's all right, Koen.
They'll go soon.
GESTAPO SOLDIER: Born in Rudesheim.
German.
You are a Negro, but you say you are German.
[sobbing]
We will have them replaced.
You, er, won't be reporting to SS Leiber.
He thinks you'll be of more use elsewhere.
Fighting?
We need every man we can get.
Oh, so you do realize that our men are freezing to death
on the Russian front?
They are dying with honor.
It's not for nothing.
No, it's for blind delusion.
Are we finished?
May I go now?
Lutz, wait.
Your mother fought for her life with every part of her being.
She wouldn't want to see you throw away yours.
You wear the mask that gets you through the war,
that helps you survive.
Why did you fight for Germany if you don't love it?
If you weren't prepared to die.
Don't judge me, Lutz.
You are just as I was.
I would have died for Germany 10 times over.
Others made that sacrifice then.
And they will make it now.
Let them.
Lutz, I am your father first of all.
Do you understand?
[ANGRILY] No, I don't.
You want me to feel as you feel, but you don't want
me to fight like you fought.
You want me to have an independent mind,
but not if it goes against yours.
Who should I be?
Should I be you or not?
You are not a hero.
And neither am I.
[car accelerating]
[germans shouting]
We can't go to the hilltop today.
I have to try to get back home.
You should wait.
They'll be everywhere.
LEYNA: Wait?
Put this on.
Come on, quick!
Leyna!
Where are we going?
Somewhere safe.
Until things calm down.
My father, he left for Munich yesterday.
Sit down.
Are you hungry?
No, thanks.
Thirsty?
Me neither.
Thank you.
What for?
Being my friend.
I will have some water.
Your mother, she looked kind.
You must miss her terribly.
My father, he used to cry a lot.
That was the worst.
I only have one photograph of my father.
I want to show you something.
What are you doing?
I told you.
This one he likes to play most often.
[MUSIC - BILLIE HOLIDAY, "LET'S CALL A HEART A HEART]
[SINGING] When we're in a friendly situation, my
conversation may not be smart.
But if we're to have a perfect understanding,
let's call a heart a heart.
After she died I would hear this music
and I would tell myself if I looked hard
enough through the crack in the door
I would catch her in here, dancing with my father.
[SINGING] If I tell you what my dreams have been demanding,
let's call a heart a heart.
We can dance.
[SINGING] Can I prove how I yearn
just by the turn of a phrase?
Can I keep my control when all my soul is aflame?
Maybe you would call a true confession and indiscretion
on someone's part.
But if I'm to say how madly I adore you, let's call a heart--
[banging on window]
[gasp]
Shh.
It's Jann, the furniture maker.
It's all right, he can't see you.
He's almost blind.
Its only shapes, or if you're really close.
What do you think he wants?
LUTZ: My father gives him work.
He probably left some tools in the back.
He's leaving.
Berlin is supposed to be clear by now.
I think that's why there's so many actions today.
You don't have to be scared.
"Clear?"
Of all Jews.
I heard my father talking before he left.
For the Fuhrer's birthday last year,
Berlin was to be clear of Jews.
But the Jews married to Germans and the half Jews,
they still remain.
Where do they "clear" them to?
LUTZ: Poland, I think.
Camps for labor.
Better they work for Germany than sitting here plotting
and planning against us.
It's hard, you know.
The Gestapo come looking for a Jew and they find me.
Not for long.
It can't stay like this forever.
Germany will be calm again.
It will be all right.
[heavy breathing]
LEYNA: What do you think America is like?
Why?
That woman you showed me on the magazine--
she's American.
So?
Do you think she's happy?
They hang people like you in America, Leyna.
They show us in books at meetings.
People hanging in trees, set on fire.
Did you ever do that before?
Do what?
What we just did.
Of course.
When?
When was the first time?
I don't know.
A few years ago.
A few years?
Be quiet, Leyna.
I don't think that you ever touched anyone the way
that you just touched me.
LUTZ: Here, put this on.
What time is it?
It's after 9:00.
What?
Lutz, the curfew.
SS OFFICER: [speaking german]
[vehicle accelerating]
[gasp]
[metal bins rattling]
SS OFFICER: Halt!
Heil Hitler.
SS OFFICER: What are you doing?
I'm-- I'm collecting some books from Treptow.
I'm preparing for a meeting tomorrow.
SS OFFICER: And you couldn't do it in daylight?
Just skulking around in the dark?
LUTZ: I just returned from training exercise.
Where do you live?
Hey!
Koppenick.
I live in Koppenick.
Weissmuller's boy?
Go on, get on your way, before you get arrested.
[engine turns over]
[SOFTLY] Leyna!
Leyna!
I'll wait until you get inside.
Lutz.
What we did today--
did you ever do that before?
No.
[chuckle]
[metal hitting pavement]
[children laughing in distance]
From here on, you will not leave
the house unless I'm with you.
You've shown you can't be trusted.
You could have been arrested.
I'm not Jewish.
No.
And nor are you Aryan, Leyna.
We'll all have to pay for your mistakes in the end.
Me, you, even Koen.
We'll all have to pay.
You speak of nothing but mistakes,
but who's paying for yours?
[gasp]
And that's why I will not watch you throw your life away.
You will not go near that boy again.
[grunt]
I apologize.
Excuse me.
SS OFFICER 1: You!
Stop.
Halt!
Now!
Stop, Leyna.
We have to stop.
Stay here.
SS OFFICER 1: Both of you!
Mother, I have no sterilization papers.
No identity papers.
I will explain.
Your bastard?
My daughter.
Your Negro bastard.
You're at the factory?
Papers?
Yes.
Quickly.
Yes.
KERSTIN: Here.
SS OFFICER 2: Her papers?
Yes.
SS OFFICER 1: Tell me--
What was in your heart when you were shaming Germany?
I have never shamed Germany.
SS OFFICER 2: Her papers!
SS OFFICER 1: You are Germany's disgrace.
You and your bastard.
[sobbing]
SS OFFICER 2: Close your mouth.
Black man's whore.
You're lost.
Forgotten what it is to be a good German woman.
Do you think you are lost?
I am not lost.
Perhaps not forever.
So then, how do you become a good German woman?
You lose your monkey.
Mama.
[inaudible]
What?
SS OFFICER 1: We take her or we take you.
[sobbing]
No, no, no! LEYNA: Mama!
Please! Please!
Please, I beg you!
No, please!
Please!
Please, take me!
Be quiet!
Take me!
[screams]
No!
Mama!
KERSTIN: No!
You don't cry.
You do not cry.
[sobbing]
Mama.
[truck driving away]
Mama!
KOEN: Why didn't she tell me?
She didn't even say goodbye.
She told me to say goodbye for her.
This work, it will pay her good money and it won't be for long.
How long?
I don't know.
But she loves us.
And you can't be away from people you love for very long.
So I know, right now, right this minute,
she's working as hard as she can to get back to us.
I could have gone with her.
No, you couldn't.
Excuse me, Herr?
Herr Engel.
I was going to visit Lutz and his father.
I wasn't sure if he was still in Munich.
He's back.
Oh.
Lutz you missed already.
He was summoned to duty.
One day ago.
Duty?
Thought he had one month but they came for him
early yesterday morning.
Sent him to the east.
No warning.
It was his time.
Wish it was mine again.
Nothing in Berlin except women and old men.
Huh.
And hiding Jews.
[vomiting]
Is it true you can't be away from people
you love for very long?
Of course it is.
[knocking on door]
Koen?
Come.
SS OFFICER: Papers.
Identity papers.
[WHISPERING] What's happening?
I think they're moving us to the engine factory.
SS OFFICER: Papers.
[chatter]
[woman shouting in german]
[inaudible]
WOMAN: What is it?
What's happening?
Who are they looking for?
Take her away.
[screams]
[chatter]
SS OFFICER: Papers.
WOMAN: They're checking everyone's papers.
Look, look!
A woman is running away!
SS OFFICER 1: Get her!
SS OFFICER 2: What are you doing?
What are you doing?
[scream]
Quickly.
[inaudible] Get in.
SS OSTERHAGEN: Shut up.
Shut up!
Next.
Hurry up.
Come here.
You're a mischling?
Yes.
My mother is Aryan.
Sterilized?
Yes.
I was sterilized in Rudesheim--
The Rhineland.
Your mother did you no favors.
She rendered you a Neger.
Don't cling to her purity because she
didn't care to make you pure.
Gypsy?
You a Partisan?
No.
I love Germany.
But they took my mother and my papers.
They say there is no such thing as a Negro of the Fatherland.
And what do you say?
I say--
I say I am German.
[chatter]
Stand here.
[door closes]
SS OSTERHAGEN: I am going to do for you
what your mother couldn't.
I am going to give you a chance for life,
because it was not you who defiled the German race.
You are merely the sickening produce.
You will work in the kitchen.
You will eat the food you are given and no more.
If you take advantage, you will die before your time,
as your mother should have.
[coughing]
You are in my bunk.
Oh, hush, Negro.
[ANGRILY] You think you are better than me?
Spare your energy.
You are only lucky you are not in the rat house over there
like--
You think I am Jewish?
All I want is to sleep near my sister.
But an African savage like you wouldn't understand.
You would eat your own mother to keep alive.
Only a fool sleeps down there where they piss and empty
themselves on you from above.
Well you can sleep in my bunk.
LEYNA: Where are the girls that sleep here?
HERMINE: Infirmary.
They won't be back.
Those shoes will cause you trouble.
I know but they are strong.
Down there is ripe for typhus.
I'm tired of being pushed out.
[SOFTLY] Your stomach is round.
I've seen it in the wash barracks.
Do you know what happens in there?
Where?
The Jewish rat house.
I can't breathe with this air.
[chatter]
[wind gusting]
[leaves rattling]
LUTZ: [SINGING] How can I prove how I yearn
just by the turn of a phrase?
Can I keep control when all my soul is aflame?
But if I'm to say how madly I adore you,
let's call a heart a heart.
[groan]
Here, take mine.
Take it.
I ate in the kitchen.
Your feet are rotting, Hermine.
When I can, I'll bring you a potato.
You can use it to buy shoes.
OK?
HERMINE: Last night, I ate ice cream.
Sweet vanilla ice cream.
I was asleep in my mother's arms.
I smelt her skin.
I felt her heart beat.
They took her instead of me.
I will never forgive myself.
[coughing]
I have said that I am sterilized.
Hermine, it hurts.
You will get used to it.
SS GUARD: Halt!
Where are you coming from and where are you going?
Sir, I'm returning from kitchen duty to my barracks.
You carry food from the kitchen.
Hand it over.
Sir.
Take off your clothes.
Hurry up!
Come on.
Do you want to be shot?
Take off your clothes.
Now.
Hey!
What has she done?
Negermischling.
You seen one before?
Thieving from the kitchen.
See how she shakes.
She's hiding food.
I should like to deal with her.
She-- She is miserable.
Let me take her.
I want to search her barracks.
Go ahead.
If you can stand the Neger's stench.
Leyna.
Wait.
Stop!
Where do you sleep?
We have to walk.
Where is your block?
We sleep in the same barracks.
Can she return with me?
Do you have food in there?
Come.
You look pale.
Are you sick?
No.
HEINZ: You stay away from the prisoners.
Camp is riddled, we can't keep up.
Why did you bring me here?
Was it just to be with you?
Well is that so bad?
Right now, the Jews are bribing each other with food just
to be close to a loved one.
Whether you fight or you are here,
you are surrounded by death.
At least here you're not being shot at.
And no one can doubt your loyalty
if you wear the uniform.
"You wear the mask that will get you through the war
and allow you to survive."
[coughing]
[SOFTLY] It's cooked.
I will get you good shoes.
I think I should look after it for you until tomorrow.
Have a small bite.
But just one or you'll be furious with yourself.
[sobbing]
[chatter]
He needs someone young and strong.
Go with him.
LUTZ: You have to talk to me.
How did you get here?
What about your mother?
Brother?
What about Lutz?
What happened to him?
I was called.
I had no time.
I didn't know how to get word to you.
I thought they would send me to fight.
Instead they sent me to a camp.
East.
All day the smell of skin and bone.
[SOFTLY] I can't bear it.
You have worked in a place like that?
No.
But I have seen Jews selected to work in them.
In the killing rooms.
To kill other Jews?
But there will be none left.
The smoke never stops.
No, it doesn't.
I want to make it stop but I don't know how.
Why are you staring at me?
You look changed.
The latrines.
I'll be on duty nearby tonight.
Meet me.
I'll bring food.
No.
You need to eat, Leyna.
SS JUTTNER: I haven't received the order from you.
Which order?
Clearing the children.
In the absence of the Commandant,
it needs your signature.
I've had more urgent concerns.
In case you haven't noticed, we're 60
tanks short of losing the war.
Yes, and I'm not interested in leaving diseased corpses
for the Americans to find.
Are you?
Do you know why you were always the cause of so many rumors?
Your inability to say what's going on in your mind
and your choice of company.
Dubious, always.
Your friend, Bismarck Schonhausen,
has been arrested in Berlin--
plotting against the Fuhrer, with 15 others.
He should be hanged like a dog.
So should his son, if they have any sense.
Sins of the father and such.
How many times would you say he visited your home?
About as many times as you, Juttner.
[gasp]
You didn't come yesterday.
I brought you this.
And some food.
PETER: Sir, this was found in the camp,
amongst jewelry from the prisoners.
It is a Weissmuller ring, isn't it?
Thank you, Peter.
You can go.
[door opens and closes]
I'm filthy.
Let me hold you.
[heavy, labored breathing]
Why do you breathe like that?
I'm cold.
Leyna?
Yes.
I last held you six months ago.
Leyna, you are afraid of me?
Did someone hurt you this way?
Did we do this together?
[truck driving away]
[chatter]
[child crying]
[footsteps]
Walk with me.
[hammering]
This isn't war.
Harming ordinary people.
It isn't what a soldier does.
Hm.
You think so?
That is precisely what a soldier does,
whether he wants to or not.
That is war.
I told you your choices would keep you alive or see you dead.
You came here, so you're alive.
Those were your options.
Choose life or choose death.
LUTZ: You told me we are not heroes.
What you should have said is that we are cowards.
[scribbling]
[door opens]
BLOCKLEADER: Up.
Up!
Get up!
Now!
Come on!
HERMINE: Where are my shoes?
Where are my shoes?
Did you take my shoes?
LEYNA: Did you take her shoes?
Did you take my shoes?
LEYNA: Did you take her shoes?
[FRANTICALLY] Where are my shoes?
LEYNA: Hermine.
HERMINE: Where are my shoes?
Hermine, stop it!
She's dead!
Betz, Leyna.
Do you know what he will do to me?
He's a murdering pig.
I saw my family go to the place you call the rat house.
Where, one by one they disappeared.
My mother, she told me never admit you are a Jew.
That is how to stay alive.
[sobbing]
I'm alive, Leyna.
I missed the smoke and came here for labor.
Hermine.
And now, I will die because I have no shoes.
You will not die.
[coughing]
Shoeless?
Why?
Sir, my shoes were taken in the barracks during the night.
Weissmuller.
Join me, will you?
Shoot her.
[gunshot]
[gasps]
[thud]
Do you laugh?
You find her insolence amusing?
Do you?
Eh?
[woman sobbing]
LEYNA: You should have killed her.
Then I might understand who you are.
She had no weapon.
That's not how I wanted to fight.
She was a Jewess.
She told me.
[sobbing]
Germany told us the world is against us,
and yet all I see is Germany killing its own people.
Leyna, we need to go somewhere where
nobody would ever know us.
Away from Germany, away from--
Lutz, when you look at me, what do you see?
I am not a gypsy.
I'm not a Jew.
Even in this camp they tell me I have no place to belong.
I see a German girl, loyal and dutiful to the Fatherland.
But I was never allowed to love it.
You are not supposed to love me.
But I do.
Hermine died, forced to deny who she was.
And now I must live for both of us,
declaring every day who I am.
Here, in my country.
They will kill you and our child.
If the baby has survived all of this,
then so can I. They didn't want me to have a child.
But she and I will be the evidence of all
that she and I are and all that they try to deny--
that I am a German Negro.
Love me where we both belong, Lutz.
[sobbing]
We have to at least get out of here.
Hide somewhere until the war is over.
I can steak a car or bike, anything.
We-- we can't stay in this.
Please.
We will never make it out alive if we try to escape.
You can't save me.
Can you save me?
I want you to breathe properly, and to eat morning and night
without the fear that you will be murdered in this place
that-- that tells me that I should be a murderer.
I don't want you to be afraid anymore.
[door opens]
[sigh]
It will be over soon.
For all of us it will be over.
Once the prisoners are moved, I'll make arrangements for you
to go back to Berlin.
Moved?
How?
The railway lines are bombed, the roads destroyed
and dangerous.
They'll walk.
We'll move them.
Little by little.
They'll die.
Most of them can barely make it to relieve themselves.
Or perhaps you want to go now?
No.
I'm not going, not yet.
They're coming at us from both sides.
I don't know who will reach here first but I can't protect you.
I don't want you to protect me.
And this?
You want me to put it back in the prisoners' barracks?
Don't make me choose for you.
[door slams]
[plane engine humming overhead]
[heavy breathing]
LUTZ: Leyna.
You will have to do this quickly.
They will start moving the camp in days.
I have a uniform for you.
I can't walk through the gates.
I can't!
We will use a motorcycle.
I will get one.
I promise
Lutz, we will die.
Leyna, we will have a life.
A life.
[germans shouting]
[explosions]
[airplanes flying overhead]
Come on!
The bombing is getting closer!
[inaudible]
[heavy breathing]
LEYNA: I can't!
[explosions]
[germans shouting]
[dogs barking]
PRISONER 1: Where are they taking us?
PRISONER 2: Where are we going?
PRISONER 3: Where are we going?
What's happening, Kapo?
I don't know.
SS GUARD: Go!
Hurry up!
The women's camp, what's happening?
You're moving them already.
We have to.
You and me leave today.
And when were you going to tell me?
I'm telling you now.
[loud crash]
I won't go!
Then it will be you, the thieves, and the Jews.
How do you rate your chances?
Do you know yourself, Lutz?
Do you?
Yes, I know myself.
And you!
You know what she means to me.
And if you take her away, you will kill me.
And you think planning a future with a Negro
will keep you alive?
I refuse to let you be arrested and tortured because of her.
Germany will not let you survive.
You will not survive!
Father, she is having our child.
We have to survive!
We have to.
They will hang you.
[chatter, screams]
A
Sir, we have to go.
There is no time.
[chatter]
LUTZ: Leyna!
Leyna!
Lutz!
I'm here!
Leyna!
Lutz!
Leyna!
Lutz!
LUTZ: Leyna!
Leyna!
[gunshot]
[thud]
[melancholy music]
[car accelerating]
CAMP WORKER: Please, I'm going to try to help all of you.
Please have the full name, age, and occupation of the relative
you are searching for.
If you know the last camp your relative was taken to, please
have this information ready.
AMERICAN SOLDIER: Hi.
Leyna Schlegel.
Ah.
WOMAN 1: I'm looking for my aunt.
WOMAN 2: Can you help me?
I'm looking for my brother.
WOMAN 3: I'm searching for my family.
WOMAN 4: I'm looking for my sister.
She was last known in Flossenburg Camp in 1943.
WOMAN 5: She was last seen in Camp [inaudible]
CAMP WORKER: If you know the last camp
your relative was taken to, please have this information.
You'll ask me for all last known information on the person
you're searching for.
Please have this ready.
WOMAN 6: Excuse me.
[inaudible] I'm looking for my daughter.
Mama!
Look!
Leyna!
[laughter, sobbing]
[music playing]