It Happened Here
Story
### Story

Set in 1944–1945, the story focuses on an apolitical Irish [district nurse](/wiki/District_nurse "District nurse"), Pauline. Following an upsurge in partisan activity in her area, she is forcibly evacuated from her village by the Germans and their collaborators and witnesses an attack on German forces by a group of British partisans, during which a number of her friends from the village are killed in the crossfire. The attack (and more particularly the deaths) influences her subsequent views and decisions.

She is evacuated to [London](/wiki/London "London"), where she reluctantly becomes a collaborator, joining the medical wing of the Immediate Action Organisation (IAO), a quasi\-paramilitary medical corps, and is re\-trained as an ambulance attendant. Although at first reluctant and intent on remaining apolitical, Pauline begins to show the effects of fascist [indoctrination](/wiki/Indoctrination "Indoctrination") in her behaviour. It is a reunion with old friends (an [antifascist](/wiki/Antifascism "Antifascism") doctor and his wife) that gives Pauline pause, and when she subsequently discovers they are harbouring an injured partisan, she reluctantly agrees to help.

Gradually Pauline learns more about the impacts of the German occupation, and she sees her friends arrested. The discovery of her association with the antifascist couple by her superiors in the IAO leads to her demotion and transfer to another part of the country. She welcomes the move at first, as her new job appears to have less of the paramilitary trappings. However, Pauline discovers that she has unwittingly taken part in a [forced euthanasia programme](/wiki/Aktion_T4 "Aktion T4") and killed a group of foreign [forced labourers](/wiki/Forced_labour_under_German_rule_during_World_War_II "Forced labour under German rule during World War II") who had contracted [tuberculosis](/wiki/Tuberculosis "Tuberculosis").

The film ends with Pauline being arrested after protesting and refusing to continue; but before she can be put on trial, she is captured by the resurgent British Resistance and agrees to work for them as they fight to liberate the country with the help of arriving American troops. In the finale, Pauline tends a group of wounded partisans while, out of her view, a large group of soldiers from the "[Black Prince](/wiki/Black_Prince "Black Prince") Regiment" of the [British Legion](/wiki/British_Free_Corps "British Free Corps") of the [Waffen\-SS](/wiki/Waffen-SS "Waffen-SS") who had surrendered are summarily shot.


How did Pauline's views change over time?