Hans Fallada's "Every Man Dies Alone" was published posthumously in German in 1947 and was praised by Primo Levi, writer and survivor of Auschwitz, as "the greatest book ever written about German resistance to the Nazis".
It is based on the true story of a working-class husband and wife who, acting alone, became part of the German Resistance. It was made into the film " Jeder stirbt für sich allein" in 1962, and again into the war drama film "Alone in Berlin" in 2016 which is the one we watched last night on SBS.
It was not an easy movie to watch. It gripped you by the shoulder and whispered in your ear: "This is how it was. This is what happened." And, more to the point, this is what could happen again. If it did, would any of us have the courage to do what Otto and Elise Hampel did?
