My Opposition: the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner
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My Opposition: the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner is a 2007 documentary film by Abella Entertainment Ltd. of Toronto, Canada, produced and directed by Fern Levitt and Arnie Zipursky, with executive co-producer Leonard Asper, and distributed by CCI Entertainment.
My Opposition: the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner | |
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Justice Inspector Kellner |
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Directed by | Fern Levitt Arnie Zipursky |
Produced by | Arnie Zipursky Fern Levitt Leonard Asper |
Music by | Alex Khaskin |
Cinematography | Bill Metcalfe |
Distributed by | CCI Entertainment, Toronto |
Release date(s) | 2007 |
Running time | 68 min. |
Country | Canada |
Language | English, German |
The documentary tells the story of Chief Justice Inspector Friedrich Kellner and the ten-volume secret diary he wrote during World War II in Laubach, Germany, to record the misdeeds of the Nazis. The movie uses reenactments and archival footage and interviews to recount the lives of Friedrich Kellner, who risked his life to write the diary, and of his orphaned grandson, Robert Scott Kellner, who located his grandparents in Germany, and then spent much of his life bringing the Kellner diary to the public.
The documentary begins with Friedrich Kellner as a political activist for the SPD, the Social Democratic Party of Germany before the war, campaigning against Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Through reenactments, we see Kellner struggling to stop the mindless rampages of Kristallnacht, and as a consequence, being brought before a tribunal and threatened with imprisonment in a concentration camp. The film explores both his active and passive resistance against the Third Reich as he distributes Allied leaflets and risks his life to write the diary. When World War II comes to an end, Kellner helps to restore the SPD and becomes the chairman of the party in his region. Interwoven with the story is the tale of Kellner's grandson who has been abandoned as a child, and goes to Germany in search of his family.
The documentary is filmed in Mainz and Laubach, Germany.
Prior to the production of the documentary, the Kellner diary was on exhibit at the George Bush Presidential Library to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VE-Day, Victory in Europe Day (May 8, 1945). Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, will publish the diary.
[edit] External links
- My Oppostion: the Diaries of Friedrich Kellner at Telefilm Canada movie catalog.
- Diary of Friedrich Kellner
- George Bush Presidential Library - Kellner exhibit
- Justus Liebig University - Kellner Project
- University of Massachusetts, A Promise To Keep
- Holocaust Museum Houston - Kellner exhibit
- Heimat Museum, Laubach, Germany - Kellner exhibit