Timely warning as film breaks taboo on Germany’s neo-Nazis

Kriegerin (Combat Girls) is the first movie to deal with the taboo theme of far-right violence that mainstream society often ignores. But its release could not be more timely.

It has come in a week when a survey of young people found more than 20 per cent of them had not heard of Auschwitz or the crimes committed there, and as a new government report said antisemitism was continuing to blight German society.

Kriegerin tells the story of a gang of hard-drinking, heavily tattooed, Hitler-worshipping racists in eastern Germany who listen to Third Reich marching songs, in between harassing immigrants and buying weapons.

Marias, the main character, drifted into the embrace of extremism through the influence of her grandfather, who told her Jews had been the root of all Germany’s problems in the 1930s.

Covered in swastika tattoos, Marias runs down a pair of Afghani brothers riding on a motorcycle, only to become gripped by remorse, and she eventually helps one of them to escape asylum life to travel to relatives in Sweden.

David Wnendt, the director, said he had been pleased with the feedback that audiences feel unsettled by the story unravelling on the screen, and the violence against immigrants.

He decided to research the film after travelling to blighted eastern towns where youth feels left behind and gravitates towards the politics of the extreme.

He chose to call it Combat Girls because women are assuming increasing importance in the hierarchy of the Nazi gangs.

“Recently, the number of women involved in the far-right organisations has grown extensively. Women are no longer onlookers; they’ve taken on important positions within these organisations,” he said.

The film, for all its graphic violence, also highlights the disconnect between the youngsters and their parents, in much the same way as the Baader Meinhof generation lost all sense of roots to its elders back in the 1970s.

“The film is meant to educate without being too obvious. It should be provocative and entertaining and make its point without resorting to stereotypes or cheap visual effects,” Wnendt said.

“The extreme right’s issues and views are finding their way more into mainstream society,” he said, adding that he believes people are losing their faith in government; a view underlined by statistics that show nearly every second person in eastern Germany believes democracy is no longer the best form of government.

The backdrop to the film is stark. On Thursday, a survey was released showing 21 per cent of people aged 18-30 who were quizzed about the most infamous extermination camp of all had not heard of it.

Fewer than 70 per cent could name the country it lies in.

Berlin, which is concerned about a rising tide of neo-Nazi crime and sentiment in Germany, is dismayed by the survey, which highlights the belief that ignorant youth, in particular, is vulnerable to the far-right propaganda that the Holocaust is a myth. A study sponsored by the German parliament officially showed this week that some 20 per cent of Germans harbour “latent” antisemitic views.

Dana Schoenberg, a social worker who has seen Kriegerin, said: “We still have some way to go as a society to recognise this danger to society.

“We stick our head in the sand and pretend it isn’t there, but it is growing.

“I felt uneasy watching the movie and I hope that my countrymen do too.”