Kirmes (1960)

The film is set in 1944 and 1959 in a village in the Eifel region. A fair is held in the village every year, and a carousel is set up on the fairground. While it is being anchored in the ground, a skeleton is found, along with a Wehrmacht helmet and a submachine gun. The skeleton also brings the story of the young Wehrmacht soldier Robert Mertens to the surface. In 1944, Robert had deserted and sought help from his parents, friends, and the villagers in his hometown. At first, he hid in his parents’ house. When he was discovered, fear spread through the village. No one—not even his parents or the village priest—dared to help the desperate young man. In the end, he saw suicide as his only way out. His family buried the young man’s body in a bomb crater. When the skeleton reappears in 1959, the village’s former Nazi Party local group leader is its mayor and does not want to be reminded of the past. The rest of the village, too, would rather let the whole matter be forgotten. The name “Robert Mertens” is listed as missing on the monument honoring those who fell in the war. That place of honor is not to be sullied by his desertion at the time.