Krakow

A film treatment

 

Professor Meyers and other Jews are dumped off the train at Krakow after being forced out of other parts of the country side.

He and the others stand on lines to be evaluated, and when his term comes, he tells them he is a professor of history and literature, and is told he is not an essential worker -- and told to go to the trucks for transport.

Around him, the Nazis are beating and abusing people who do not do exactly what they are told when they are told.

At this point, Meyers sees the familiar face of Hattenback, a former student who is now a Nazi soldier. He calls out.

Hattenback is started at seeing the professor after so many years, and without thinking makes his way to Meyers, pulls him back to the clerks, and tells the clerk, this an metal finisher.

But this draw attention from other soldiers and Hattenback’s superiors, who eye him with suspicion.

Meyers asks what brings Hattenback to this place, does he like this duty?

No, Hattenback says, but I am ambitious, and I am told I can advance faster here than I might in other places.

But you were such a promising student, Meyers says.

Not promising enough, Hattenback retorts. My father was a poor worker and could not keep me in the university. So I joined the military, hoping I can find success through this. But here I’ve jeopardized everything for a Jew.

One of the officers comes over and asks how it is Meyers has come to know this Jew.

Hattenback lies and tells the officer he recognized the Jew from a factory in land and knew he was on the wrong line.

At this point, Meyers is pushed back onto the correct line for factory work, and Hattenback moves through the crowd, deliberately berating other Jews, drawing admiring glances from other soldiers, and indeed, a short time later the commander comes up to him and says he handles Jews so well, he will be reassigned to a new unit for special treatment.

The commander also says he will have new quarters and sends him to an apartment outside the ghetto which used to belong to a rich Jews.

Hattenback says, “This could not be better,” and dumps a Jewish icon into the trash basket.

“I won’t be helping any more Jews,” he says.

Meyers, meanwhile, finds himself in a crowded and dirty apartment in the ghetto, but is far less deadly than tales had led him to believe.

The Nazis are mean and ruthless, but with care a Jew can survive here, smuggling in the goods he needs when necessary.

And Meyers had a job for an industrialist that seems less ruthless than other Nazis, and doesn’t go out of his way to abuse the Jewish workers.

Recalling when Hattenback was a student of his, Meyers decides to thank Hattenback and asks a black market man to smuggle out a note to him.

But the Gestapo arrests the black market man during a deal in the church, and then confronts Hattenback about it.

Why is a Jew passing him a not? How close were the two of you? Did you know that Meyers was a socialist?

Hattenback explains that he knew Meyers from the university, but did not stay long enough at the university to know what the man’s politics were.

The Gestapo apparently satisfy let Hattenback go.

But Hattenback knows that he is now under a cloud and that his commander will be watching him closely.

He assures his commander that there is nothing to worry about.

The commander tells Hattenback not to get to attach to any of this, ghetto or Jew. Things will soon change.

“We are not here to babysit the Jews,” the commander says. “The Fuehrer has a more permanent solution in mind.”

The warning, however, fills Hattenback with horror and he rushes to the ghetto to warn his professor, but when he gets there, the ghetto is in an uproar with the Nazis clearing the place out, streets filled with suitcases and bodies, and the place where his professor lives is empty and stained with blood.

“This is my fault,” Hattenback tells himself. “I should have done something sooner to help him.”

He starts to search for Meyers to see if the man is even still alive.

Meyers is on a truck rolling out of the ghetto. He stares out at the dead and dying as the Nazi’s shoot anyone who is lame or too slow to obey orders.

“What do they want from us that we haven’t done already?” he asks. “This makes no sense.”

The truck arrives at Płaszów concentration camp, where he and the other Jews are greeted with barbed wire, guard dogs and guns, people being shot or beaten for new good reason.

“How can Hattenback be part of all this?” he wonders and decides Hattenback isn’t, and when he is in the barracks, he writes another note, bribing a guard to get it out to Hattenback so that his former student knows where Meyers is.

Then he settles into the routine, hoping to lose himself in the Jews, hoping that somehow Hattenback might find a way to help them.

After all, Meyers thinks, I’m not alone. The Nazis can’t kill us all, can they?

Hattenback gets the note just as he gets news that a new batch of Jews are coming in from Hungry and that number of the Jews from the camp are going to be sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in the town of Oswiecim for disposal.

Disposal? How did all of this get so far? How does anyone stop it?
Hattenback goes to his commander only to enrage the commander.

“You want to save a Jew? Are you crazy?

To avoid any more suspicion, Hatttenback volunteers to transfer to the prison camp, saying he didn’t want to save the Jew, he wanted to kill him.

“I want to personally send off the socialist son of a bitch to the final solution,” he says.

He doesn’t know what he’s going to do when he gets there, but he knows that he must do something to make up for the harm he has already caused.

He goes to the manufacturer that employed Meyers, begging for his help.

The manufacturer has a fit, saying he isn’t going to be trapped into any criminal activity.

But when Hattenback assures him this isn’t a trap, pleading for the man to help, the manufacture says if Hattenback can get Meyers to the factory, he’ll give the professor sanctuary.

Meyers and others are rousted by the Nazi guards for the selection process. But they seem to have a list of those they want in particular, and Meyers’ name is on the list. They are loaded into a train bound for Auschwitz and inside the train car, Meyers concludes that his student has abandoned him.

Just as the train starts to move, Meyers hears his name being yelled from outside, Hattenback is calling him and so are several Nazis, and Meyers calls back.

The Nazis stop the train.

Hattenback and the Nazis pull Meyers off the train, and the Nazis make Hattenback sign the list.

“So you’re not like them after all,” Meyers says to Hattenback as they hurry away.

“But I am. We all are just like them. That’s the problem,” Hattenback says as they climb into a car and drive off back to the factory.

The Gestapo is waiting for them when they arrive.

They intend to take Meyers back to Auschwitz and Hattenback for trial in Berlin.

Hattenback pleads with them to let Meyers stay.

“He’s done nothing wrong,” Hattenback says.

“He’s a Jew, isn’t that enough,” the Gestapo says.

Meyers says that if they are going to taken Hattenback, they should take him, too.

“Stop talking nonsense,” Hattenback yells at Meyers. “If you die now, then everything is wasted.”

The manufacturer comes out and says Meyers is his worker, and essential worker.

The Gestapo, not at all happy, leaves with Hattenback,

Meyers and the manufacturer stare after them.

“He’s a good man,” Meyers says.

“I agree, now come inside before they change their minds about you and come back,” the manufacturer says.