Nazi war crimes: fact or fiction?
In the week I had two interesting conversations regarding the Nazis. The first was with an old cultivated friend and brother of a distinguished historian, who said that non-fiction was more reliable than any fiction in understanding history. The second was with a highly knowledgeable, well informed friend, one of those who – however much you think you know on almost any subject – always seems to know more. His conclusion was much the same …
Yesterday I watched an episode of Bergerac titled Son of Forgiveness which happened to be centred upon a Nazi war criminal living on Jersey.
He and his daughter were proficient musicians and were playing in an international festival of music organised by that loveable rogue Charlie Hungerford.
An Israeli agent called Aaron Rosenbaum leads a Mossad group to kidnap and bring the ex-Nazi to trial (he has been tracking him for 40 years). Bergerac gets drawn in and unofficially offers his assistance to the agent.
The programme raised a number of issues:
- the róle of the daughter, who becomes aware of her father’s past;
- Bergerac is conflicted regarding prosecution of an old man who committed war crimes many years ago;
Rosenbaum’s defence is – firstly – that his victims all died horrifically and cannot bring a prosecution; and – secondly – that a crime against one person might be investigated but those against a regime that murdered 6 million is highly improbable (Rosenbaum is played by actor John Bennett, whose accent and adoption of orthodox Jewish ritual was perfect. I recognised his face – a rather cadaverous one with dark protuberant eyes – but could not place him as an actor);
- whether the Police service has a moral duty eclipsing its professional one.
The Mossad team show some ingenuity in out witting the Bureau des Etrangers in which Bergerac is a sergeant and he is hauled over the coals by his boss for going out on his own.
I mention all this as popular drama can sometimes deal with difficult issues more movingly than any work of non-fiction.
I felt it did so in this Bergerac.