Rassenschande: When Love Was a Crime

(Kiedy miłość była zbrodnią)


1968   >   war/ feature/ drama

The film shows the functioning and consequences of one of the demands of the fascist ideology concerning race purity. The rule was valid for all those who from the point of view of the criminal ideology did not present characteristics associated with the Aryan race. Intimate contacts and any relations with German women were, in the thought of this rule, tantamount to imprisonment, stigma, and even death. All kinds of such relations were by definition treated by the terror apparatus as a serious crime against the nation. The film is interspersed with fragments of original German chronicles.

Forced laborers must focus solely on work. Any forms of establishing relations with the local population are prohibited; male-female relationships as well as relationships between German women and workers are treated particularly restrictively. In the name of racial purity, they are absolutely forbidden and severely punished. We are witnesses to a trial for this type of “crime”. The accused are: A Pole, Władysław Olkiewicz - suspected of having contacts with the widow Badke and her daughter, Linda; Roman – suspected of having an affair with a waitress Margarita; an American prisoner Robert who had a relationship with Inga which resulted in a child being born. The men will be punished with a death penalty whereas the women will be sent to a concentration camp.


Crew:

director
Jan Rybkowski
script
Jan Rybkowski
d.o.p.
Marek Nowicki
designer
Tadeusz Wybult
editor
Krystyna Rutkowska, Anna Maria Czołnik
music
Tadeusz Baird
cast
Ewa Pflug, Magdalena Zawadzka,
Helga Sommerfeld, Ann Smyrner,
Sabine Bethman, Irena Karel
Materials: SD
Length: 92’

Media