Spring of Life

Redemption

R0 DVD

Spring of life aka Pramen Zivota is based on a little known aspect of Nazi life during World War II, the creation of the Lebensborn, breeding farms for creating racially pure Aryan children. It is based on a true story from a well respected novelist, Vladimír Körner.

Released in 2000 and directed by Milan Cieslar, this is a sensitive exploration of a little explored aspect of the Third Reich. It could have so easily slipped into exploitation yet it is presented as a moving historical dream, superbly filmed and beautifully acted. It is filled with poetic yet at times chilling images which will stay with you long after watching it.

Gretchen is a very young Czech peasant woman who lives a difficult life. Her mother has just died and she lives with her father in poverty in a small village. In 1939 the occupying Germans begin to look among the local girls for “Aryan stock”. Before she knows it she is recognized as someone special. At first she is flattered as her work load at the local factory is reduced and she is treated differently to others. While is uncomfortable with some of the resentment she sees among her friends, the honor of her professional overwhelms any doubts. Soon she is given the “racial all clear” to go to a Polish spa town for education and development. It all seems so exciting and everyone tells her she is so privileged, but as she sees hints of brutality around her she begins to wonder the true motivation behind the offer.

In the “Lebensborn” she is groomed to give birth to the master race and it is here that we are given a fascinating insight into the strange worldview of National Socialism. It is the first film I have seen exploring the bizarre pagan-Christian amalgam that was the basis of Nazi belief and which was the foundation of the Lebensborn program. It is visually stunning and really captures the strange pagan rites used to celebrate this fertility program.

Gretchen becomes more and more concerned with the brutality and injustice she sees around her and when her escape attempt is thwarted decides to undermine their program. Having taken a shine to a local Polish lad she develops a relationship with him and falls pregnant. Sadly she does not realize that her assigned partner is well aware of this dalliance and uses it to his own advantage. Leo is killed and her chance at romance destroyed as she is assigned to a work camp. Even when freed she cannot find her child and returns to her village, older, sadder and definitely wiser.

This is an intelligent exploration of the seductive power of the Third Reich. We take a journey with Gretchen, who being poor and uneducated, sees the Nazis as a ticket out of her village. The more she compromises herself, however, the more she realizes that she is losing who she is. This is not a simple “black and white” film with easy answers; it explores the complexity of what occurred in small community where National Socialism seemed to offer an answer to their difficult lives. It also examines the various motives of those involved in the Lebensborn program.

The cinematography is simply stunning and the film is loaded with symbolism and imagery. The spring of life, for example, is the limited water supply in the local village, while later; the image is transformed to become the fertility of the girls in the Lebensborn. The figure of the Virgin Mary (in image, prayer and reference) is used throughout to compare the legend of a virgin giving birth to the divine with the Nazi program of selected “Aryan virgins” giving birth to the master race. The only fault I can find with the film is the slightly ponderous score used throughout; a lighter touch may have been a little more successful.

There are some great extras on the DVD including an exclusive documentary on the Lebensborn program by Michael Leapman, author of Master Race and Witnesses to War and a series of archives offering rarely seen Third Reich and Lebensborn documents.

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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.5 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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