Insight: Bloodlines
Their relatives were some of the most influential leaders and decision makers during the Second World War, and in this special two-part edition of Insight, they come together to reflect on the legacy left behind by their bloodline.
The series features descendants of Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin, US President Harry Truman, Japanese war time Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, occupied Poland's Hilter appointed Governor General Hans Frank, revered Australian wartime surgeon and prison camp hero Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop and the descendants of two extermination camp survivors, George Grojnowski and Adek Stein.
Part one of Insight: Bloodlines is available On Demand now and part two airs on 8.30 Tuesday on SBS.
My Enemy’s Enemy
In 1942, Klaus Barbie was the head of the Gestapo in Lyon, France, and the person responsible for countless atrocities. Directed by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald, documentary My Enemy’s Enemy tracks Barbie’s war crimes as an SS commander before fleeing to South America and finally being discovered and tried.
Barbie died in prison aged 77 in 1991 after being the last high ranking German war criminal to be brought before a tribunal. Nicknamed “the butcher of Lyon”, he was involved in the torture and killing of Resistance leaders and condemned hosts of people to Auschwitz.
Leningrad
One foreign journalist fails to escape before the Nazis lay siege to the Russian city of Leningrad in 1941. She’s left to discover the horrors that take hold during the savage winter and Leningrad follows her journey of heroism and sacrifice.
Over one million civilians died in the 900 day siege of Leningrad – modern day Saint Petersburg – that saw residents desperately struggle to establish a supply line out of the city after the German’s severed all roads.
Purple Butterfly
Set in the decade before World War II, Purple Butterfly tells the love story between a Chinese woman and young Japanese man who find themselves on either side of the political struggle. As he is called up for military service, she joins resistance group Purple Butterfly which is pushing back against Japanese occupation.
In the early 1930’s Japan invaded and occupied Manchukuo in China’s north east, with tensions between the two nations escalating until the second Sino-Japanese war broke out in 1937.
Female Agents
Female Agents, or Les Femmes de l’ombre in French, highlights the role women played in Day-D’s Normandy Landing. It follows the story of female French Resistance fighters who are recruited by the British Secret Service and tasked with retrieving a captured geologist before he reveals any information about the planned invasion.
The Normandy landings saw around 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops begin the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control and were one of the largest and most extensively planned seaborn invasions in history.
Max Manus
Max Manus is based on the true story of Norway’s most celebrated WWII hero and saboteur who returns home to fight the Nazis during the German occupation. With the uncanny ability to survive as everyone around him falls, he is pushed towards to alcoholism and nervous breakdowns.
Manus was part of anti-Nazi group Oslogjengen, or Oslo Gang, who are credited for destroying a number of Germany warships and planes. He was a figure who buoyed Norwegian spirits during the war and German occupation and died at age 81 in 1996.
The Counterfeiters
Awarded Best Foreign Language Film at the 2008 Academy Awards, The Counterfeiters is set around the Nazis’ Operation Bernhard and tells the tale of an expert Jewish counterfeiter before he is sent to Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.
Operation Bernhard was the codename for Germany’s economic warfare operation aimed at destabilising Britain through the production of counterfeit pound notes.
