March of millions

This film deals with the plight of Germany's former eastern population at the end of World War II. Most Americans are unaware of the brutal and criminal expulsion of some 14 million Germans from their homes in what is now Poland. Millions of innocent men, women and children were murdered by the advancing Red Army. The Germans tried to flee, but their treks were rolled over by Soviet tanks and they were mowed down by a hail of machine gun fire. We will not discuss how the Russians treated German women. Those Germans who did not flee were forced to either become Polish or leave their homeland. Most of them decided to leave since they were already being treated like second-class citizens (examples: German language forbidden, economic sanctions, etc).

Many people have been waiting for a film like this to break the silence. For years no one dared mention the expulsion of the Germans. German war crimes got plenty of air time, but the evil that was brought down on innocent German civilians never seemed to be of much importance.

The film is about a woman who, at the start, is living in West Germany. She has a daughter, and after hearing that her father is sick, she moves back to East Prussia to help him. As the story moves forward, the Russians are getting closer and closer to Eastern Germany. The family decides to build a wagon and flee, which is against the law. The Nazis did not want the people to show any signs of defeatism, so they forbade the population any type of retreat.

The film could have shown more Soviet atrocities to show what hell it really was for these poor people. The film shows some of the horror, but a couple of times it focuses back on German crimes, which we hear about every time we turn on the History Channel.

That should suffice for a general idea of what the film is about. No spoilers are needed here. Spoilers really do ruin a film.

Watch the movie and learn something about German history.

In 1933 Germany elected Adolf Hitler as Reichschancellor, and with him came the downright criminal Nazi-government. Among many other atrocities, Hitler started the most devastating war in history of mankind: his campaign against Stalin's Communist Soviet Union. The year was 1941.

Inspired by genuine racism, the Germans behaved terribly in the part of the Soviet Union occupied by them. Consequently Soviet revenge was equally terrible when in January 1945 Stalin's victorious army invaded East Prussia, Germany's most Eastern province. To make things worse, Hitler stubbornly refused to evacuate East Prussia's civil population.

'Die Flucht' (= German for 'the flight, the escape') is about this invasion. I am impressed by the historical correctness applied by the German filmmakers: after all, for many Germans the loss of East Prussia still is a highly emotional issue. Add to that the excellent quality of its shooting and acting, and all these ingredients make 'die Flucht' an epic and excellent film.

My comment is more directed to the previous comments from Mr. Rob Ogan.

Mr. Ogan's comments are very accurate however there is a simple explanation as to why the Soviet war crimes where not more accurately depicted. A national shame for the crimes committed by the Nazis is still carried and will be carried by the German people for as long as Germany is a nation. Nazi war crimes are taught and discussed from the fifth grade on, with one common thought: We will never forget/It must never happen again.

I agree with Mr. Ogan when he says "The film could have shown more Soviet atrocities to show what hell it really was for these poor people. The film shows some of the horror, but a couple of times it focuses back on German crimes, which we hear about every time we turn on the History Channel".

However it is simply unacceptable to depict the Soviet Military accurately without making references to how the German Wehrmacht treated the Russian peasants during the initial invasion and the following pullout, of Russia. Natually such a thing would require adding another 20 or more minutes to an already lengthy film.

My final word is this, most everyone here in Germany where shocked and at the same time pleased that Arte and BR had the courage to produce such a film. If the reader is a History fanatic, you will enjoy the opportunity to glimpse a most personal perspective of the second world war.

All of my family were part Die Flucht and the film captures much of their experience in a fair degree of accuracy. I managed to watch the film with my mother before she died and she felt it was true to the story though because she was in the Poznan, their escape was on train in January 1945.

One of my aunts was on the roads in January 1945 with her parents and grandmother. The were caught by the Soviets. Her father, my grandfather, was shot of out of hand. She said the story was accurate in the portrayal of the events.

The one thing my mother and aunt did not like in the film was the added love story between Maria Furtwangler's character and the French POW. They felt it added nothing to the film was only a pointless distraction

You see, it is different to be an American than to be a German. Americans won the war. Germans lost it. I've had to deal all my life with my father's flight from Silesia to South America running away from the Russians. You never had bombs falling on your head. You were not an East Prussian, A Silesian... You didn't live in Dresden when the bombers came. You didn't loose your home, your parents, your sons, your neighbors, your country. But my family does know because it was there.

When I read your words, as well intentioned as they may be, I understand why the History Channel shows so many American and British WWII aces shooting down German pilots to bring peace and order to the world. Because they were right. Because they were good. Because there's no doubt that their goodness and rightness was the real goodness and the real rightness that, thank God, won over evil and reigns victorious in the world today...

Because that's what you think, isn't it? It gives you peace and so does it to many millions more. How good you can sleep at night and teach those that were directly underneath your bombs how to behave today. Because, that's all too clear, they have still a lot to learn, a lot not to forget. Keep your righteous words coming. The world needs them. We Germans need them. We are eager to hear them. Thank you so very much! By the way... I loved the film. Though it saddened me deeply to watch it.