"This little village is Schabbach, in the Hunsrück the way it looked in the 1930s." "It's all quite different now." "These are the grandparents, parents, children uncles, aunts, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law and friends." "The whole Simon family." "The Hunsrück is our home." "Only one of them couldn't stand it in the Hunsrück." "When he was 28, Paul Simon just walked off and left them all in the lurch." "His father Mathias, his mother Katharina his two little boys, Ernst and Anton and his young wife, Maria." "His brother Eduard and his sister Pauline might have wanted to leave the poor Hunsrück village as well." "But the Hunsrück kept them there." "His sister, Pauline married the clockmaker Kröber from Simmern and became a businesswoman." "His brother, Eduard, went a bit further and became district mayor." "He married Lucie, from Berlin and they built a villa." "The new motorway built in one go straight across the countryside." "It linked the Hunsrück with the outside world." "The youth enjoyed themselves in those days." "We went to the cinema and the motor races at the Nürburgring." "That's the cinema again." "That's Zarah Leander." ""A woman's made lovely through love" That's what she sang." "There's Maria with her Otto Wohlleben the engineer from the roadworks." "She looked so lovely then." "And then the letter came from America." "After 12 years, the first sign of life from Paul when nobody knew he was in America." "Nobody even knew if he was alive." ""We've been hearing so much about Germany", he wrote and said he wanted to come over." "Mathias could hardly believe his eyes." "From the time the letter came Mathias was almost blind." "And Maria clung to her Otto." "She didn't want him to go, she didn't want to give him up but she couldn't help it." "She didn't know then that she was expecting Otto's baby." "That's the last picture of Otto in peace time." "Ernst was up in the glider when the war broke out." "That's four years later." "Her boys have become men." "On the left, Ernst." "On the right, Anton in uniform." "That's Anton in Russia." "In Schabbach there were days you forgot there was a war on." "THE HOME FRONT" "Nice mess." "All from last night?" "What an air battle." "Our fighters brought down 16 bombers." "They're scattered between Kirchberg and Kastellaun." "Near Sohren we found six charred English bodies." "This size, they all fitted into one coffin." "Our fighter pilots are first-class." "Another Gypsy-Major propeller." "Why another?" "Wilfried, stand still." "The Führer's H.Q. broadcast a special radio message for the Hunsrück." "Yes, of course, Karl." "Isn't Ernst a pilot?" "Yes, but he's still training." "Now get ready." "Some of you, look out of the cockpit." "Our fighters need only lie in wait." "Enemy bombers have to cross here." "Sometimes they try to fool us by seeming to head for Frankfurt but only some go there." "The rest head for Kassel, the main target." "Our fighters aren't fooled." "When will the line be working?" "In about two hours." "It's vital for Schabbach." "We can't remain cut off." "Airmen are the true heroes." "They don't suffer." "Stop the engine." "I'll go and check." "Stay in the car." "And don't start the engine." "You saw him?" "Yes, an English airman." "Here he comes." " He's not holding his pistol now." " But there was a shot." " The Englishman didn't shoot." " Then Herr Wiegand shot." "You were right, boys." "An English terror pilot." "He can be taken away." " Is he dead now?" " Yes, unfortunately." "I had to shoot him when he tried to escape." "To what do we owe the honour?" "I have a report to make." "Four kilometres North West, on path W16 about 200 metres to the right near some basalt rocks there is a dead Englishman." " Dead?" " He tried to escape, so I shot him." "Wonderful!" "We must report it to Kirchberg at once." "Specht!" "Bring us a mug of coffee." "You'll know the place by the parachute caught in a tree." "You lot at Kirchberg are said to be great at retrieving parachutes." "You must be Martha, from Hamburg." "I'm your mother-in-law." "I've been with the Post Office for four months." "Didn't Anton tell you?" "I'll take you on my round." "Let's look at you." "You're really lovely." "Anton's picked himself someone very nice." "What month are you in?" "The sixth." "Things could start soon." "Whoever sits by the fire" "Wasting his time" "He'll save his energy" "But get nothing done" "But whoever asks no questions" "And sets off undaunted" "For him there's no question mark until his job is done" "Yes, gentlemen!" "That's how we like it." "From today, the world belongs to us." "Yes, gentlemen." "Worries are gone" "We do what we like" "And whoever bothers us" "Before he knows what's happening" "He'll have been dealt with by us" "Yes, gentlemen, you can bet on that" "Why are you crying?" "I was thinking of Anton out there somewhere in Russia." "It's so horribly far away." "In that vast, terrible country." "Our boy." "My Anton and your Anton." "You know he doesn't fit at all into the war." "He was always a sensitive boy really gentle." "If you'd known him as a child..." "Two missing." "Where are Roger and Marcel?" "Gone to eat." "Oh, have they?" "And where, may I ask?" "Today we've done a lot." "Good travail." "Now we'll have a decent meal." "A bit more viande?" "And a bit more for camerade, yes?" "What's up with Wiegand now?" "He's overseeing the French prisoners." "This is incredible." "Really, Aunt Kath, you stab me in the back." "Corporal, you'll make good this food that belongs to the German people." "Half rations for a week for those two." "What's happened to you?" "Do you know what you've become, Wilfried Wiegand?" "A really dirty dog, that's what you are." "It's disgraceful what's happened to the children in the war." "He's the one I mean." "Watch your tongue!" "You've no pity for people." "I saw that from the start." "When you lot took things over, with those boots of yours." "You dont know what you're saying." "I hope you're a prisoner abroad one day with nothing to eat and you meet someone like you." "Else, know what he did?" "He forbade Marcel and Roger to eat after work." "You all know they're enemies, not people." "And that personal contact with prisoners is strictly forbidden." "You, Kath you could be charged with malicious gossip, watch out." "There's no peace and quiet!" "Wilfried, you're a shirker and a coward." "All you can do is order women about." "There's a war and this is the home front." "Look around, Aunt Kath." "Marga's husband was killed at Leningrad." "Hermine's husband's plane crashed at Kharkov." "Else's lost her brother and her husband." "And I want you now to keep quiet." "You're not being shot at here." "You act like the lord of the manor and if your father weren't so old and doddery he ought to tan your arse!" "I've been digging up potatoes all day with Marcel and Roger." "Two quiet, hard-working chaps." "One has a wife and four children in France." "Now you'll meet us all." "This is our mother." "This is Martha from Hamburg." "What's the matter?" "Nothing." "I just lost my temper." "What month is she in, then?" "This is our parlour." " Father!" " What is it?" "Martha's here from Hamburg." "Look, grandad!" "To think you can still see all that." "I can imagine it." "Our grandad has bad eyes." "What a sweet boy." " Is that Anton's little brother?" " Yes, my Hermann." "My child from Otto." "Then he's my brother-in-law." "If he only knew he's a brother-in-law." "Father, greet Martha." "All in due course." "Go up close, Martha, so that grandad can see you." "I'm not shortsighted." "I saw you, I'm farsighted." "It's just the one eye that won't work proprerly." "My grandfather had a cataract too." "When I look outside, I see everything." "But so foggy." "That's how it is when you get old." "Sit down, Martha." "See my damaged thumb?" "I hit it in the forge." "I can't see well." "After forty years, I hit my thumb." "Yes, after forty years." "Anton, a good lad." "Always so interested in the forge and the work." "Just like his father." "Has he told you about Paul, his father?" "My daughter-in-law." "It's as though Anton has sent me a greeting with you and the child to come." "Paul is American now." "But he's not fighting against us." "Where's mother?" "Didn't she come in with you?" "Look, grandad and mama." "A lovely, mysterious stretch of water." "Deep, too. 1,000 metres." "A bomb crater, too." "A volcanic crater." "A crater like that has a narrow funnel down below." "And inside is a cork, a very small cork." "And below that, all flaming hell." "10,000 landmines are a warm fart by comparison." "The cork is a wobbly thing." "If anyone touches it carelessly..." "If I throw this stone into it now it could be just the one gram too much." "What they've waited for below for 500,000 years." "Better not, Herr Wohlleben." "We may be lucky." "Nothing again." "It might have been." "I mean, the whole Reich might have exploded." "Then the Allies would suddenly have won." "Just like that." "This morning when I defused that unexploded bomb I sat on it, unscrewing the fuse bumping it a bit and I noticed a text beneath the church clock." ""One of these days will be your last."" "I don't get it." "One of these hours, it meant." "But I thought about my bomb all the time." "A bomb, the last thing I could ever wish for." "Or my last bomb." "Then I unscrewed a bit and thought give it a try." "And?" "Nothing." " My name wasn't on it." " What a sense of humour." "If I thought about all that, I'd get the shits." "Then squat down and press your arse hard against your bomb." "Then nothing can happen to you." "You'll be absolutely watertight." "Thank God, you're here." "The bomb's right in front of the hangar." "The whole training programme has been stopped." "Pieritz, a perilous situation." "It must have come from back there silently, not a sound." "Scared you last night, eh?" "Pieritz, the compass." "Why a compass?" "Lance-Corporal Pieritz will trace magnetic currents." "Extremely magnetic." "You must remove it at once, Lieutenant." "Magnetic pistols, damn dangerous." "The theory, later." "Your pistol is magnetizing our tools." "Are you trying to kill us all?" "I need a No 17 left-handed spanner." "Mine's broken, and Luftwaffe supplies are erratic." "Get a No 17 left-handed spanner!" "And take away my magnetic pistol!" "Lieutenant, get the hangar cleared." "Probably a triple-five." "We've had them before." "Or a British triple-six." "We had one in Kaiserslautern." "Dented, remember?" "Gurgling away, not nice at all." ""Quiet", I told her." ""You'll soon be relieved."" "She kept gurgling so I gave her a kick that shut her up." "Then she quietly let herself be defused." "We'd better take a look at the lady." "Very kind of you, Lieutenant." "With such gloves, he defuses bombs." "You can hardly believe it." "Pieritz, take the left-handed spanner or we'll lose it." "Otto Wohlleben." "Bomb disposal squad 241 stationed in Nürnberg." "Unusual name, isn't it?" "Uncle Otto, don't you recognise me?" "Ernst!" "You taught me flying with the Viking glider." "It's still in our attic." "How tall you've grown." "You remember Pieritz." "That's Ernst Simon." "Are you two still together?" "Time to take cover." "Does he do it alone?" "Yes, but afterwards we'll talk it over." "How long has he been doing that?" "When I joined the squad in 1941 he'd been there a year." "Do you defuse bombs every day?" "It depends." "We usually explode them, but not here because of your aircraft." "Did she officially report whose child it is?" "No, not to anyone in the village not even the mayor." "If anyone asked, she said "It's a child." And that was sufficient." "Of course, we know you're the father." "I always wanted a child." "Only not in times like these." "What does he look like?" "When I look at you, he looks like you." "Those English are real mechanics." "Look at these components." "Precision work." "They can be proud of that." "But they didn't consider that the better the work the easier it's dismantled." "If I stick to the same technique then I can rely on their precision." "Let me hear his name again." "Hermann, and he's four." "If their mechanic's sloppy, or grumpy I'll be blown into the stratosphere." "We've often talked about you." "Get in touch with mother." "She'll be so happy." "And you're a pilot as you've always wanted." "My training's almost over." "We're on terrestrial navigation now." "We fly over Bitburg, Delmenhorst and back over Kassel." "You land drenched in sweat." "Is that the marriage certificate?" "Yes, Anton's signed it at the front." "What's the book?" "It's Hitler's Mein Kampf." "Are you reading it, too?" "I don't know yet." "Now the wedding photograph, with the bride." "Get into the middle." "Eduard, a permanent souvenir." "Herr Specht and Herr Huch..." "Can I come in too?" "A marriage without God's blessing." "I can't get it into my head." "Fancy not going to church, Martha." "You can't do that." "Glasisch, help me." "Stand still." "Don't exert yourself, you're ill." "I tell you, Martha." "Marriage is directly connected with God." "Well done, Glasisch." "Ursel, don't dirty your coat." "Martha, the church is over there." "It wouldn't take five minutes to go in and say a prayer." "Let me be in the picture too." "Martha, I implore you." "Don't do it without God." "It could bring a curse on you." "Good God!" "How much longer, Eduard?" "That was a lovely one." "They're only bothered that nobody should miss lunch." "Don't keep kicking my shoes, Robertchen." "Pauline, tell him to behave." "It's a proxy marriage, not a children's party." "Take your scabby hands off." "Nobody here thinks about our Anton." "He's the bridegroom, at the front starving and freezing." "You've never had to go through that yet." "Don't start that again." "I can't help being ill as a child and having had lots of operations." "Our boys at the front aren't starving." "Or freezing." "You've no idea." "And not dying, either?" "You mean that?" "They're not dying either." "It's a pleasure to be at the front." "I'll ring later." "Don't tell me stories, Wilfried Wiegand." "That's atrocity propaganda." "Do you listen to enemy broadcasts?" "If I catch you, there'll be no pardon never mind being related." "You were a fool as a child and you've remained one." "I've got a telephone call laid on his unit in Krimskaya." "I shouldn't tell you Anton's there." "But it may ease your mind." "Then I'll ask him if he's starving and freezing." "You won't touch the telephone if you're going to ask that." "Look at the cake!" "It's Anton to the life." "My call to Propaganda Company 421 Sector Sebastopol-Krimskaya." "I am ready to take the call." "Yes, it's the proxy marriage." "Please ring us back." "Fine, we are waiting." "I'm going to church to pray Our Lord to bless you." "You and your Anton." "I don't understand why you won't come, Martha." "Edu, you're coming with me." "Horst, you stay here." "Dear bride dear mothers dear friends soldiers, comrades dear children..." "It is my duty as the only man still at home..." "The only man!" "Somebody has to be, Aunt Kath." "What if no one kept order here?" "My duty to say a few words to you so that we appreciate the significance of this hour." "At this moment countless telephone girls in the whole Reich are feverishly occupied at the telephone exchanges consummating a minor miracle of our technology." "Consummate!" "These are not empty words, Aunt Kath." "As so often happens, war is the mother of invention." "Our indefatigable German diligence and inventiveness have made it possible for every soldier between Bordeaux and Kharkov..." "And Schabbach." "Aunt Kath, someone must be here to look after food supplies for comrades at the front." "Agriculture's an important war effort." "Shirker!" "Between Narvik and Salonika whether in the air or underwater whether in trenches or staff bunker every fighting German soldier can be reached from home by telephone at any time." "And thus we can unite our bride here with her bridegroom, our dear Anton fighting far away." "Who would think crossing the fields from Schabbach that these telephone wires are part of a network covering the whole of Europe." ""We regret that our dearly beloved son..." ""...nephew and grandson..." ""..." "Grenadier Hans Betz..." ""...has lost his young life on the Eastern front." ""Schabbach, 15th January, 1944." ""We ask for your prayers."" "The basket-maker's boy, Hans." "Yes, this is Schabbach." "Is that you, Anton?" "This is your grandad Wiegand." "We're here in the parlour all together because that's where the telephone is." "I'll tell you who's here so you can picture it." "Besides me sits your grandmother." "Over there is your mother, both very excited." "But you must speak to your wife." "If you could see how she looks you'd look too." "We've kept a place here for you and your mother-in-law has come." "You don't know her?" "She's come specially from Hamburg." "Oh, after the war." "Soon, then." "The room is full of people." "And an enormous spread on the table." "Anton, here's your wife." "Anton, are you all right?" "Yes, it's really nice here in your home." "I've got my blue outfit on." "You know, the one I had on when we first met." "Yes, it still fits just about." "Yes, I said "Yes" and they read out your "Yes" to me." "What's that?" "I didn't understand." "Anton says he's being filmed by the newsreel unit at the front." "Just a moment." "Don't all sit there like dummies." "Anton, your whole family's here, looking and nobody's saying a word." "You must wait a moment." "My comrades are lighting me." "They've got spotlights here." "I'll explain later." "You must wait a moment." "Your mother's so nice to me." "Tell our comrade Simon he looks so stiff." "His face is too stiff." "Understand?" "As you say, Captain." "Please smile for our film expert." "Now, completely natural." "Speak up." "You mustn't be sad, Martha." "Make sure nothing happens to you." "Adolf Hitler's standard is right beside us so nothing can happen to us." "I'm so relieved." "Want close-ups, Captain?" "We ought to film the bride at home." "That would suit an old hand like you." "Pity." "It's Ernst!" "He's crazy." "He could have hit the church tower." "He's set up a long-distance record." "Training for three months and he's flying a 190." "How lovely, Gabi." "We'll send them to papa at the front." "I hope he doesn't crash." "He's firmly in the saddle." "Martha, all good things come from above." "That's how our Ernst is." "Now you've met him too." "You're all so nice to me." "Cadet, to the C.O. at once!" "Trouble, he's fuming." "Stand to attention." "What do you think our meagre fuel supplies are for, Simon?" "My brother's proxy marriage..." "Rubbish!" "Proxy marriage!" "Did you at least hit them with your bouquet?" "It wasn't that easy, was it?" "1,000 metres off, throttle back flaps out, slide in at 50 metres." "100 metres from our roof toss out flowers." "Bang on target, Major." "A training manoeuvre." "By the way, report to Captain von der Heiden." "Tomorrow you fly your first sortie." "This music!" "This divinely gifted artist!" "What culture!" "We were in Munich station and this man in uniform comes up." "Says, "Girls, have you ever seen our Führer?"" " He did, didn't he, Erika?" " Yes, Erika." "Of course we said no." "So he laughs, goes and telephones "In five minutes, a car will be here." ""If you like, the Führer will receive you."" "You went with a complete stranger?" "He wasn't strange." "He showed us his identity card." " He was a "Gauleiter"." " Gauleiter?" "We thought he was having us on." "Then we found out he was a Gauleiter." "We drove to Rudolf Hess's house in the Luitpoldstrasse." "And the Führer came to the door and shook our hands." "And gave us each five marks." " Didn't he, Erika?" " Yes, Erika." " When was it?" " I'll never forget the date." "It was 26th January, 1938 and I was 17." "And he gave us each a signed photograph, didn't he?" "Yes, Erika." "And we didn't care that we'd missed our train." "That I believe." "So where did you sleep?" "I normally only invite officers to the house." "But this common soldier, Herr Zacharias he's got a sort of nobility, I saw it." "While others at the field kitchen wolfed their food down he, the artist he ate slowly just morsels with his spoon." "As a man eats, so he is." "You have taste, dear lady." "Bravo, Helmut!" "Once again, you were divine." "I can't find words." "Divine!" "War has its good sides." "It brought you into my house." "Isn't that right, Edu?" "Please be kind and play some more." "The final solution is being executed mercilessly." "Between ourselves, we all know anyway." "Up the chimney..." "What does "Up the chimney" mean, Wilfried?" "I mean the Jews." "I can't explain in detail with children here." "My comrades suffer greatly over this matter as one can imagine." "A very, very unpleasant task." "Mama, who goes up the chimney?" "Be quiet, Robertchen." "Why do you keep blinking one eye?" "What are you blinking for?" "I keep thinking of the basket-maker's boy, Hans." "He might still be alive if I hadn't taught him that." "What did you teach him?" "THE HOME FRONT" "Put that light out!"