Frederic Bohbot's documentary film, Once A Nazi, follows former Waffen SS member, Adalbert Lallier as he testifies in a war crimes trial against his superior officer.
In 1997 Concordia University Economics Professor, Adalbert Lallier stunned his students, colleagues and friends by admitting that he had been a member of Hitler’s Waffen SS during World War II. One of his students, Frederic Bohbot was so struck by Lallier’s confession that he set out to make a documentary film. His film, Once A Nazi is a provocative, yet heartbreaking story about a man whose experiences in the Waffen SS have left an indelible scar.
Lallier was drafted into the SS when he was 17 years old. In 1944, he was assigned as a guard at Theresienstadt, a concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. On March 20th, 1945 while on guard, Lallier watched as his commanding officer shot and killed seven unarmed Jewish prisoners in cold blood. Lallier did nothing to stop the murders, nor did he speak a word about what he had witnessed for five whole decades.
It took fifty-two years of silent shame and the burden of a guilty conscience for Lallier to come forward and confess to what he had seen. The film follows Lallier as he prepares to travel to Germany to testify against the commanding officer responsible for the senseless murders. Bohbot uses the trial as a forum for probing into Lallier’s motivations and his experience with the Waffen SS. By interweaving World War II archive footage with a series of point / counterpoint interviews with historians, prosecutors, and Lallier’s friends, family, & colleagues, Bohbot exemplifies the conflicting opinions that many hold towards Lallier.
Once A Nazi functions as a moral compass, provoking audience members to consider what they would have done if they were in Lallier’s shoes. Viewers of the film will feel torn between sympathizing with Lallier or resenting him for waiting so long to come forward. The film asks some very difficult questions about individual responsibility, conscience, and forgiveness, while illustrating that it is never too late to atone for past wrongs.
If you want to screen the film, stay tuned to Canal D, Access Alberta and SCN. Once A Nazi will air in early 2007.
