Inheritance (2006)

Inheritance (2006)

Inheritance is another documentary that was recommended by my sister-in-law, and it features one the women interviewed in Hitler's Children: Monika Hertzwig.

Helen Jonas (née Sternlicht,
now Jonas-Rosenzweig).

Monika is the daughter of Amon Goeth, former commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp.  She was raised by her mother, Ruth, who was Goeth's mistress, to believe that her father simply ran a work camp.  As she got older and learned more, and saw her father portrayed in Schindler's List, she struggled to come to grips with the reality of her family history.

She got in touch with Helen Jonas, one of her father's Jewish maids at his Plaszow villa when he ran the camp, after seeing her interviewed on TV.

Helen agreed to return to Poland for the first time since emigrating to the United States to revisit Plaszow and meet with Monika.  Helen's life is still haunted by what she witnessed and experienced.  Her parents, her boyfriend, and many friends died (her boyfriend shot by Goeth within earshot), and she discusses how her husband of 20 years, a fellow survivor, had committed suicide, unable to live with survivor's guilt any longer.

Monika is very distraught when she meets Helen, and Helen tries to console Monika to a certain extent, but she is suffering greatly with her own memories.  Helen's daughter observes, "I think my mom was sympathetic to Monika, but she needed to limit it for her own preservation."  Monika seems to need some sort of forgiveness or validation from Helen, but Helen needs to grieve for what she went through.

Monika Hertzwig.

Monika grapples with guilt, with the fear that she is like her father, with the ambivalent feelings she has about her parents, and the struggle to come to terms with what her father did, so that she can have, as she says, “A life where I am able to live with the truth.”  Her mother, who was devoted Goeth's memory, eventually committed suicide, and Monika viewed video footage of her father being executed, which must have been disturbing for her (I've read that new evidence leads historians now to believe that the footage of the hanging (very disturbing, it is shown in the documentary) is actually of Dr. Ludwig Fischer, and not Goeth: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2296911/Amon-Goeth-Did-executed-Nazi-murderer-Schindlers-List-escape-justice.html).

Still, it is Helen who experienced the camp and all its horrors; in particular, the brutality of Amon Goeth.  Helen (with her daughter Vivan along for support) meets Monika at the camp, and they speak very emotionally:

Monika: Am I better than my father?  She [Ruth] told me “You are like him, and you will die like him.”  And so I was looking in my life and maybe I am really like him.  But I am not Amon.
Helen: You have a choice.
Monika: Yes, I know.
Helen: And those people here died because of one man, Amon Goeth, in a cruel way.  We just can’t be silent.  We just can’t push things away.  They’re there.  And you see they disturb our lives...we are traumatized people.  And that’s why I made this trip to find that little piece here.
Monika: I know.  Do you know what people tell me in Germany?  I went to school to speak to some children.  “Oh, God, you’re a strong person.”  I’m not a strong person.
Helen: You will become.
Monika: When the children are gone, and the teachers are gone, I break down.
Helen: You break down, you have a right to break down.  It’s good.  But you have a mission.  Look at those monuments.  What do they mean?  There are bodies here, innocent bodies.  Good people.  I don’t think God wants it.
Monika: I know that, and suffer, you know?  When I see Vivian, I feel like Amon…I’m Amon.  And she will look at me and say, “Oh, Goeth.  That God-damning daughter.”  And if she would be his daughter,  I would think the same, you know?
Helen: But my daughter doesn’t feel that way.

At times, Monika does display a bit of a lack of empathy that does ring of her father, which I hate to say.  Her insistence on bringing the attention back to her own sense of suffering rather than focusing outwardly on the pain of those around her irked me.  I wanted her to shift her focus to not only Helen's pain, but to the devastation of the loss of those lying under the ground around her as Helen tries to describe to her their horrible fate.  Also, her hostility towards other children of Nazis felt excessive.  Monika says, "If those children of perpetrators suffer, let them suffer.  I hated all the other children of perpetrators, you know?  The daughter of Hermann Goering was living near our house.  When I saw that girl, I didn’t like that girl.  I thought about her father.  She was the daughter of Herman Goering.  The children are innocent but I still see their fathers and I can’t help myself.  But I never would have any pity with children of perpetrators.  Never."  Still, she is making the effort to reach out, and her sense of guilt feels very real. 

The villa.

Amon Goeth on the balcony of the villa.

You can see the strain that talking with Monika has on Helen, and she says goodbye abruptly, later recalling, "I had a difficult time meeting with Monika, because I felt bad for her.  At the same time I kept seeing him.  Remembering all the horrors that I experienced being in the villa."

But she then seems to change her mind and invites Monika to accompany her on a visit to the villa where she once lived with Amon Goeth.  It is at the villa that Helen really breaks down as she remembers the terror she felt in that house, and the abuse she suffered at Goeth's hands.  Everything seems to come rushing back to her, and she vividly recalls the details of her life at the villa, down to where every piece of furniture had been.

Through tears she recalls: "I used to stand here and look out.  This was the window, I used to envy people.  They walked to work, and I was all alone.  They were marching to work.  The camp was over there.  Now I can understand...This was my room, and I heard his footsteps.  I shivered when I heard his footsteps...You see those steps, Monika?  I never went one step at a time.  I always run like this to be fast.  As fast as I can climb them.  And he pushed me down those steps."  Later, she elaborates: "I fear those steps.  I heard those steps upstairs.  He wouldn’t sleep.  He would walk around first thing in the morning.  He would walk out of the villa, 6 o’clock, and I would hear shooting.  He had the urge to kill, like animal."

She grows very angry (understandably) hearing Monika repeat the excuses her mother and others had given her for the murders, and when Monika implies that her mother may not have known the extent of what was going on:

Monika: Not –not seeing.
Helen: Don’t say that.  She saw us downstairs.  She –she heard the shots.
Monika: She heard?
Helen: I mean, it was very obvious.  You could hear, I mean, they were –they were shooting like no tomorrow.  You know how many thousands of people died?
Monika: Now, when you talk, when you tell me.  But what I heard, when I was a child –he only killed some Jews because of –
Helen: Because they were Jews.
Monika: No, because of sanitary problems.  Because they-
Helen: Because they were just Jews.  Monika, they were just Jews.
Monika: They wouldn’t go to a bathroom.  They wouldn’t use a bathroom.
Helen: Really?
Monika: And therefore, there was disease, and then when he saw some men–
Helen: Monika, please, I have to stop you right now.
Monika: That was my history.
Helen: Yeah, but from now on you can see that it’s the ignorance.  It was just simply we were  tortured and killed because we were Jews.  That’s it.  Nothing else.

Both women recall Oskar Schindler, who saved 1,200 plus Jews by employing them at his factory.

Oskar Schindler.

Helen says that while he was friends with Goeth and the other Nazis, "there was something different about him."  She tells how he reassured her that she would be okay:  "He pointed with a finger, he said, “You see those people working there?  Remember the story of Egypt?  There were slaves,” he says.  “They were freed, right?  Remember they were freed?  You will be freed, too.""  And remembers what happened when Goeth was arrested, and she was left at the villa, not knowing what to do: "And all of a sudden, somebody rings them bell.  And who is there but Oskar Schindler.  Standing on the step.  And he said, “You’re coming with me.”  And everything he told came back to me.  “You will be safe.  You will be all right.  You’re coming with me to my factory.”  He kept his promise."

Monika met Schindler after the war, and his words, as he called her by her father's nickname, made a powerful impression her: "I met him in Frankfurt with my mother.  And he looked at me.  He clapped on my shoulder and said, “Hi, Mony.  You can’t deny your father!  You’re looking quite the same.”"  Indeed, you can see some similarities -she certainly inherited his height.

A photo of Monika next to a photo of her father, Amon Goeth.

After the documentary was released, Helen was interviewed by Voices on Antisemitism (http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/antisemitism/voices/transcript/?content=20090226), and reflected on meeting Monika:

"Monika, she accepted the fact that her father was a killer, but she still wanted to defend him.  She said to me that, "They all were doing it."  I said, "But he was the one that gave all the orders."  So, it's just like she still protected…"They all were doing it."  It just, like, annoyed me, you know?  It's hard for me to be with her because she reminds me a lot of, you know…she's tall, she has certain features.  And I hated him so.  But she is a victim.  And I think it's important because she is willing to tell the story in Germany.  She told me people don't want to know, they want to go on with their lives.  And I think it's very important because there's a lot of children of perpetrators, and I think she's a brave person to go on talking about it, because it's difficult.  And I feel for Monika.  I am a mother, I have children.  And she is affected by the fact that her father was a perpetrator.  But my children are also affected by it.  And that's why we both came here.  The world has to know, to prevent something like to happen again."

Henry 4 or Henry of Navarre (2009)

Henry 4 or Henry of Navarre (2009)



Henry 4 covers a lot of the same material as Queen Margot, though it is told from Henry of Navarre's perspective.  I think I liked it a little better, mostly because it covered more historical information.  Like Queen Margot, there is a lot of nudity and a lot of sex -I am getting a little tired of seeing naked French people.

Henry of Navarre and a portrait of the real Henry IV of France.

It begins with Henry as a young boy meeting Nostradamus, who tells his mother, Jeanne d'Albret: "What a brave countenance.  He is the one.  He is still but a child, yet he has more power than any other living person.  Protect your son.  He has the mark of a King.  Of the King of France."

Nostradamus and a portrait of the real Nostradamus.

Then it becomes a bit like The Godfather, with people calling hits left and right -stabbings and poisonings all over the place.

Portrait of the real Jeanne d'Albrett and Jeanne d'Albret in the movie.

Henry's mother arranges for him to marry Marguerite of Valois of France (Margot), sister of King Charles IX and the Duke of Anjou and daughter of the formidable Catherine de' Medici.  As in Queen Margot, Margot does not want to marry Henry, but in this version she has wild sex with him when he arrives anyway.  Charles IX, just as crazy in this version, but with a little less innocence and a little more ire, remarks on this:

Charles: Already been under my sister’s robes?  Everyone knows what’s underneath.  D’Anjou, my brother, was the first.  We are a magnificent family.  You couldn’t have done better.  Welcome, brother in law.  As you see, I am healthy.  You’ll have to wait awhile for my death.
Henry: But I do not wish your death.
Charles: Then you are alone in that.  Everyone else wishes for my death.  Even my mother, my brothers.

Charles IX and a portrait of the real Charles IX of France.

After the wedding, we witness the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, when Catherine manipulates the weak-witted Charles into ordering all the thousands of Protestants in Paris murdered (including Admiral Coligny, a man he views as a father-figure):

Margot marries Henry.

Catherine: Get up.  Your throne and life are at stake!
Charles: The Admiral, is he dead?  I will avenge him!
Catherine: He lives.  And you will do nothing.  Guise merely fulfilled my wish.
Charles: You ordered it?
Catherine: Desired.  I have no power to order.
Charles: What luck that he still lives.
Catherine: What bad luck.  Now you must order his death.
Charles: Never!  Never!
Catherine: Then he will destroy us.  You and me!  The whole city is arming itself.  The people are crying out for action.  The admiral must die.  Give the order!
Charles: I cannot!  I cannot!  Never!
Catherine [To Anjou]: Come.  We must save our lives.  The King is a pathetic coward.
Charles [Losing his cool and throwing things, screaming and sobbing]: I’ll kill you.  I’ll kill you all!  All of them.  Huguenots.  Protestants.  All of them!  Burnt!  Quartered!
Catherine: The Admiral as well?
Charles: Him too, my father.  Away with him!

Henry survives, but is imprisoned and forced to convert:

Henry: Do you sleep peacefully, Madame?
Catherine: My sleep is good and bad, befitting my age.  All this killing disgusts me.  The mob too.
Henry: Do you expect me to believe you?
Catherine: Why do you think you are still alive?  Because it was my wish.  Convert to Catholicism.
Henry: You take me for your fool?
Catherine: You lack the wit to be a fool.
Henry: In your presence, that is hardly surprising.
Catherine: What is your answer?  It requires no effort on your part.
Henry: It will cost me my friends.  And my beliefs.
Catherine: Foolish prattle.  You are not your mother.  We both believe in the same God.
Henry: I thought you were Catholic with heart and soul.
Catherine: With heart and soul, I am the Queen.
Henry: You sacrificed thousands for that?
Catherine: It had to be so.  For the sake of millions.
Henry: For your sake.
Catherine: What’s the difference?

Catherine, Henry's sister, and a sketch
of the real Catherine de Bourbon.

He is disgusted by the celebrations after the massacre.  As Anjou dances and rejoices, Henry comments:

Henry: You show us how cruelty conceals itself.
Anjou: And you show us the opposite.
Catherine: The Admiral was our enemy.  What happened afterward was not intended.
Henry: You blame the dead to make your life tolerable.

Margot is even more enigmatic in this version, and not in a good way.  I don't think that the writers knew what to do with her complex character.  She's hyper-sexual and volatile.  She's prone to tantrums, and at one point her mother literally bites her on the butt when she's being disobedient, I kid you not.  Margot says she hates Henry, then after the massacre tries to convince him that the deaths need not be the end of their love.  Love?  Since when?  Anyway, he hates her too much to forgive her after he realizes that she did have some awareness that the massacre was coming (I don't know how much the real Margot knew):

Henry: I need to get out of here.
Margot: You can’t leave the Louvre.  That was the condition.
Henry: Condition for what?
Margot: That you stay alive.
Henry: So you knew after all?
Margot: Not everything.  Nobody could have foreseen that!

Portrait of the real Catherine de' Medici,
Catherine and Margot in the movie, and a
portrait of the real Marguerite of Valois.

Both Henry 4 and Queen Margot have skinny actresses with straight black hair playing Margot, which seems a little off as she was actually a more voluptuous woman with lighter, curly hair.  In general, the women in the show have more modern hair styles than they should, and only the actress that plays Marie de' Medici resembles her character's real life counterpart.

After the death of Charles, Henry manages to escape and return to Navarre, but as her sons die without fathering children, Catherine becomes more desperate:

Catherine: Your brother, D’Alecenon, is dead.
Anjou: Poor beast.  He was so insignificant.  We Valois die before our time.  Even those dogs might outlive me.  I am the last of the House of Valois.
Catherine: You must finally sire a son.
Anjou: It is not in my power.  I tried my best with a woman.  Who disgusted me!  To no avail.
Margot: I too cannot bear children.  Any simple pleasant girl can but I cannot.

Anjou and his mother and a real portrait of the Duke of Anjou, later Henry III of France.

When the younger brother of Anjou (now Henry III, but I will continue to call him Anjou so as not to confuse him with Henry of Navarre), dies, Catherine wants Henry to return to Paris.  She prefers to support him over another contender for the crown, the Duke of Guise.

Duke of Guise and a sketch of the real Henry I, Duke of Guise.

Margot is sent to try to coax Henry back to Paris, but he flatly refuses, not intending to once more fall into their clutches.  In response, Catherine and Anjou send their army to face that of Navarre.  Though vastly outnumbered, Henry's army is victorious, and after the death Catherine and the assassination of Anjou, he reaches Paris.  Trapped at the gates, unable to breech the walls, he finally agrees to convert to Catholicism once again:

Soldier: The siege is having an effect!
Henry: But not the effect I want.
Rosny: They’ll only accept a Catholic king.
Soldier: Let them starve!
Henry: I won’t be a king who lets his people starve.

Gabrielle d'Estrees and a portrait of the real Gabrielle d'Estrees.

And so he becomes Henry IV of France.  Along the way, he meets and falls in love with Gabrielle d'Estrees, and she becomes his mistress.  He intends to marry her after divorcing Margot, but Gabrielle dies, breaking his heart: "I loved her, Rosny!  I loved her as my one true love."  The scene where he flat-out negotiates with Gabrielle over what she gets for becoming mistress made it really hard to take their love seriously, however.

Dejected, he agrees to an arranged marriage with Marie de' Medici.  The match is loveless, not that he really puts any effort into the union.  He is devastated by the loss of Gabrielle, and only wants a son and heir out of his marriage, quickly taking on a new mistress, Henriette d'Entragues.

Portrait of the real Henriette d'Entragues and Henriette d'Entragues in the movie.

Henry's character was murky to me.  Sometimes he was so good.  He had great ideas for his people: "My country is poor.  We must make it blossom again!  In my kingdom, everyone will be free to think and believe as they please.  They will have enough to eat and drink.  And on Sundays, every peasant’s wife will have a chicken in the pot!"

He changed his religion, sacrificing his friends and his own personal feelings, in order to prevent a longer war and the suffering of his people.  He cared about his Frenchmen getting enough to eat and living free from persecution, and was known as a good king.  The religious freedom he offered was revolutionary for the time: "Ever since I was the little King of Navarre, uncertain of my future, a long way from France’s throne, I’ve longed for this great hour.  Now I am strong enough to declare that you shall be free.  Free in your beliefs and free in your thoughts...Nobody will be persecuted for different beliefs than the majority.  Catholics and Huguenots, all of you are my people.  I love you equally."

At the same time, he could be brutal.  He was pretty violent with Margot after the massacre (in a way that made me squeamish to watch).  He was very cold towards his second wife, particularly on their wedding night.  I know he didn't want to marry her, but it's not like she had a choice either.  He could have been a little discreet and respectful.  They end up enemies, and it is heavily implied that his eventual assassination is her doing:
Marie: The whole court, everyone says you’re a horny old goat!
Henry: Forbid them to say so.
Marie: I became your wife for a lot of money.  That’s all.  You don’t love me.  You never have.  Why?  I bore you a son.  It was so important.
Henry: That’s true.
Marie: I hate you!  I’ll hate you for my whole life.  I’ll cut your whore’s head off!
Henry: Not as long as I am alive, Madame.
Marie: That could change.  You have many enemies.
Henry: The worst sits in front of me.

Marie de' Medici and a portrait of the real Marie de' Medici.

The reason I've included so much plot detail in this review is that so much happened it was hard to keep track of, and writing it down helps me to keep it all straight.  Even so, a lot of historical detail was left out.  The time feels really condensed.  Anjou ruled as Henry III from 1574-1589, but the movie makes his reign seem very brief.  Also, Marie and Henry had 6 children together, and the movie makes it appear that they only had one (one of these children, Henrietta Maria, would go on to marry Charles I of England and mother Charles II).

I think the show would have been better if it were longer.  It ran 3 hours, and this didn't offer enough space in which to flesh out the complicated characters and events that span the 56 years of Henry's very full life.

Of course, a lot of things were also left vague, mostly because history still has a lot of questions.  Was Gabrielle d'Estrees poisoned, or did she die of Pre-Eclampsia?  Was Henry's mother poisoned by Catherine?  Did Margot know about the plot to massacre the Protestants?  We don't know, but the show always implies the most devious possibilities.

Henry 4 ends with Henry riding through the streets in his carriage before he is assassinated, contentedly calling out to a peasant woman:

Henry: Stop the coach!  What’s in your pot?
Woman: A chicken, Majesty.  Would you like some?
Henry: No, thank you.
Woman: Thanks to you, with bacon and beans!
Henry: [smiling] Another time.  You see?  Our efforts were not in vain.

See my review of Queen Margot for a movie set at the same time, with many of the same characters: http://www.kaleenasmith.blogspot.com/2013/06/queen-margot-1994.html