By Max Musson:

There has been a mixed reaction to the recent broadcast on German TV of a three-part series entitled ‘Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter’ (‘Our Mothers, our Fathers’), depicting the effect that the Second World War conflict had on the lives of ordinary German citizens, and on the lives of five young Germans in particular.

The five young friends are; brothers Wilhelm and Friedhelm; a young nurse Charly; aspiring singer Greta; and her Jewish lover Viktor.

Their story begins on the eve of the German attack on the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941. The five friends meet in Berlin for a farewell party, and plan a Christmas reunion, unaware that their lives will soon change dramatically as the war unfolds bringing about the end of the world asthey knew it.

While Wilhelm, a young Wehrmacht officer and his younger brother Friedhelm go on to serve in the same platoon on the Eastern Front; Charlotte volunteers to serve in a military hospital close to the front; Greta tries to enlist the help of a Gestapo officer in establishing her career as a singer and her Jewish lover, Viktor, is eventually deported to a concentration camp but escapes and joins the Polish Partisans.

The three 90 minute parts of the series are entitled, ‘Eine andere Zeit’ (A Different Time), ‘Ein anderer Krieg’ (A Different War), and ‘Ein anderes Land’ (A Different Country).

Wilhelm (played by Volker Bruch) is the narrator of the story. He provides the opening monologue for the episodes and when the plot jumps in time, he summarizes