Stielke, Heinz, fünfzehn... (1987)

Heinz Stielke, a fifteen-year-old fanatical member of the Hitler Youth from Berlin, has just been promoted to squad leader when it comes to light that his father, who died in the war as an officer and a hero, had Jewish ancestors. Because of this Jewish ancestry, Heinz is expelled from the Gymnasium, and his former friends avoid him. But Heinz is not yet willing to accept that his appearance reveals a non-Aryan past, and the next day he goes to the school for an athletic competition. There, his former friendships with his classmates come to a definitive and violent end. Fleeing from his pursuers, he finds shelter in a garden allotment with a disabled man. When a bomb hits the man’s garden shed, he is killed, and Heinz has to flee again. When Heinz gets home, he discovers that his mother was killed in the bombing raid, and afterward he hides in an allotment colony. The police find him there. The inspector takes pity on the former squad leader and sends him to his brother at a Catholic orphanage in Thuringia. On the way, an SS man intercepts him and orders him to report for training at an SS elite school. Heinz escapes and reaches the orphanage, but the SS man catches up with him, takes him back, and puts him in a juvenile labor re-education camp. A sadistic camp commandant and his deputy are in charge there. The deputy takes Heinz to bed with her, and for some time he is spared the hard labor. She paints a picture of him, and the boy thinks it is true love. When a new young man is sent to the camp, the commandant loses interest in Heinz and casts him aside. Without her protection, he is beaten by his fellow prisoners. Heinz escapes again and is now on his way to a labor service camp. Along the way, he meets a girl named Gabi and her grandfather and wants to stay with them. At the camp, the young people are trained for the final call-up, as the English are already nearby. The SS enters the area and arrests several farmers willing to surrender, intending to hang them for putting up white flags. Heinz fires a panzerfaust into the farmhouse room that has been converted into an office, where the SS commander is dictating the death sentence. The ensuing shootout with the SS enables the arrested farmers to be freed. After a brief period in English custody, he returns to Gabi.