The Legacy of Courage – Sons and Daughters of the Resistance
Today, the July 20 plotters who tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler are seen as heroes who paid for their courage with their lives. But to their children, their untimely deaths were a calamity that has haunted them through to the present., On July 20, 1944, a group of German military leaders failed at an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler and were executed as a result. Revered as heroes today, at the time of their death they were considered traitors to the Nazi regime. As a result, life was made so difficult for their children that some are still haunted by the memories. This report by Christian Wiesenborn includes unsettling accounts by the children those who plotted to kill the Fuhrer. Axel Smend is still visibly moved when he recalls how his mother came home from a parent-teacher meeting at his school with tears in her eyes. Referring to Axel’s poor grades in Latin, a teacher remarked that nothing more could to be expected from the son of a traitor. His father, Günther Smend, was among those executed in 1944. Weisenborn also looks back at his own family history – his father, too, was a resistance fighter put to death for treason. His documentary captures emotional moments from the lives of the children of the resistance and pays tribute to the courage of their parents, thereby allotting them their rightful place in history.
