#Franz jaggerstater trial#

Even his own lawyer who defends him in the military trial tries to force him to change his mind. He’s told that his moral stance is meaningless, that he is going to lose his life for nothing, and that all he needs to do is take the oath and say a few insignificant words to be set free. In prison, he’s repeatedly interrogated and pressured to change his mind. Friends and neighbors turn on him, mock him, and shun him. The mayor aggressively argues that he’s shaming the entire village. His friends tell him that he will be executed and leave his children orphaned - he’s abandoning his family, they say. In Malick’s film, as Franz debates whether he’s going to take the oath or not, he’s subjected to peer pressure from every direction. His neighbors weren’t bad men, they were only trying to survive, but their complicity left Franz isolated and alone. Radegund, every other man took the oath and fought for the Nazis. I would have somehow convinced myself it was justifiable, that I was doing it for my family, that it’s okay to lie to evil men, that I was being forced to do it and it wasn’t my fault. Here’s what bothered me, though, as I sat in that dark theater at the end of the movie: I’m pretty sure I would have taken the oath. I’m independent-minded and self-confident to a fault, but would I have been as principled as Franz ? How is it that I react to peer pressure? Looking back, it’s easy to claim I would have acted as Franz did, that everyone knew Hitler was evil and no one with an ounce of moral fiber would have cooperated with him. For his courage, he’s thrown into prison and eventually executed.Īfter viewing the film, I sat through the credits deep in thought. He will not betray his inner convictions. In the film, while men line up to his left and right before the commanding officer, raise their right hands, and make the oath, Franz stands with both arms at his side, lips unmoving. Franz was willing to find some way to serve in the army if he had to, perhaps as a hospital orderly, but was absolutely decided that he would not swear personal allegiance to Hitler. Even worse, every soldier in the army was required to take an oath of loyalty to Hitler. Even though the horrors of the Nazi prison camps hadn’t yet been revealed, he was quite sure the war was wrong. Terrence Malick’s new film, A Hidden Life, out in theaters this month, is based on the true story of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian farmer and married father of three who was conscripted as a soldier into the German army in 1943.