TV review: The Last Nazis

SOME of the world's most wanted war criminals were uncovered in part two of the compelling documentary series The Last Nazis. Instead of attacking them with pitchforks, director Charlie Russell and his German-speaking interpreter, Izzy, offered these soon-to-be-dead men the opportunity to articulate their version of events, and even to see whether they could convincingly justify their actions. But really, they wanted to find out how these alleged (bear with me, I'll be using that word a lot) criminals have dealt with their guilt for so long, and whether they are at last willing to admit their sins. It was possibly the only documentary in which young film-makers repeatedly bothering frail old men could be seen as in any way acceptable.

Remarkably, the (alleged) crims were happy to entertain their British interrogators. Milivoj Asner, 96, a suspected Nazi collaborator, welcomed them into his sparse flat. Asner has avoided trial by claiming to be too senile to remember anything, to which a collective "hmm" could be heard reverberating among his accusers.

Although it was only 10am, Asner cracked open the whisky and forced it upon his startled guests. What followed was a rambling, awkward encounter, during which Asner became increasingly more confused and evasive. Was he craftily using booze as an excuse for his befuddled recollections? Or was it a way of erasing them? Either way, they got nothing out of him, other than that he was "only for remembering good things".

There were more drinks and diversionary conviviality at the home of Sandor Kepiro, a former officer in the Hungarian gendarmerie accused of sending hundreds of "undesirables" to their death as a part of the appalling Danube massacre. Kepiro is officially the world's most wanted war criminal (although Hungary is unwilling to try him), and yet – when the film-makers eventually adopted a more challenging approach – he refused to admit culpability.

His was the classic Nazi excuse: I was only following orders. Kepiro claimed that, because he hadn't killed anyone with his own hands, he wasn't responsible for any deaths, even though he was in charge of rounding up the victims. His carapace of denial had been solidly in place for some 65 years, and it wasn't about to be destroyed now.

By far the most dispiriting encounter, however, was with far-right spokesperson and former Hitler youth leader, Ursula Haverbeck. She was the only contributor to express allegiance to Nazi ideology, whereas it was just about possible to accept the others as footsoldiers compromised by the insanity of Hitler's regime. But Haverbeck is a vile old Nazi and Holocaust denier happily willing to spray her poison wherever a group of German protesters are available to shout at her. Haverbeck is far more dangerous today than the likes of Kepiro or the similarly welcoming (and booze proffering) Josef Scheungraber, who was recently sentenced to life imprisonment following what looks to be the last Nazi war trial.

These men committed unspeakable crimes, for which no amount of blinkered self-justification can atone. But, this uncomfortably thought-provoking programme asked, what would you have done in their situation? Follow orders or revolt?

It sought to understand fealty to the evilness of Nazism, and only failed because there is no rational explanation, aside from fear, indoctrination and craven human instinct. Chilling.