‘MOVIES

‘Frozen

By CHARLES DUKES

“7~\SLO Report” was the code
name for vital informa-
tion which reached the

British Intelligence {n London in

1989. This document, meticu-

lously compiled by the anti-

fascist German scientist Dr.

Kummerow, was smuggled out

of Germany at great risk under

the nose of Hitler’s Gestapo.

This dispatch revealed for the
first time the existence of a full-
scale Nazi rocket research cen-
tre at Peenemuende on the Bal-
tic Sea coast. Thousands of per-
sons were employed in_ this
heavily guarded establishment,
including later very many forced
laborers deported to Germany.

After seeing “Frozen Light-
ning,’ an authentic anti-war
film on this subject, released in
April by the German Democra-
tic Republic’s DEFA studios the
question rises: how many lives
could have been saved if the
“Oslo Report” had been heeded
at once? In fact, British intel-
ligence played down the report
which it considered exaggerated
speculation.

In “Frozen Lightening” (over
which negotiations have already
started over possible screening
abroad) we are confronted with
the Peenemuende rocket centre
whose director: feels that his
rockets can be decisive in the
German war effort. He bluntly
describes them as means of
mass destruction of materials
and manpower. The deputy di-
rector, Dr. Grunwald, who is a
central figure in the film, is first
and foremost a scientist whose
private dreams include moon
rockets and missile trips to
other planets. Initially he fails
to understand that rocket tech-
nology employed by the Nazis
can never do any good. Later on
his own experiences compel him
to change his opinion.

Although the “Oslo Report” is
not followed up in London, anti-
fascist resistance groups in
French, Czechoslovakia, Poland
and Germany concert their ef-
forts to spread word about
Péenemuende.

The Polish partisan Borawski
(played in the film by a Polish
actor) succeeds, with the help
of German anti-fascists, in gain-
ing entry to the Peenemuende
research centre. He obtains ac-
cess to essential blueprints and
passes this information on. In
Paris the legendary ‘Marco
Polo” resistance group, headed
by renowned physicist Professor
Dalattré and the Catholic priest
Peter Mollard, obtains top sec-
ret information on the construc-
tion and location on Nazi rocket
Jaunching pads.

Naturally great difficulties
were encountered by the inter-
national resistance. Throughout
this period, lasting several years,
the “Oslo Report” remained un-
opened in the British capital. As
more and more facts trickled out
of occupied Europe, the British
authorities returned to the re-
port. However, they had already
given Hitler a lead of several
years in which to develop his
missiles. It was not until August
17, 1943 that British bombers
blasted the Peenemuende site.

Although damage and loss of
life were considerable, Hitler’s
V-2 rocket architects remained
unmoved. Their sole preoccupa-
tion, we discover in “Frozen
Ligtning,”’ was to secure alter-
native means of production. In
the Peenemuende raid Dr..Grun-
wald sees his wife die in his
arms, leaving him stunned, hor-
rified and distraught, not know-
ing what to do.

The V-2 production is restart-
ed at Kohnstein, close to the site
of the “Dora” concentration
camp. Speed is essential for the
Nazis to make up for lost time

SS
IS

“Here's your ring back. You are now free!”

—Vie Nuove (Rome)

June 16, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 6

lightning

and bring “their precious
weapon” into the front line as
quickly as possible. The 18,000
“Dora” inmates are forced to
engage in underground rocket
construction under the most ar-
duous conditions. They _in-
clude German anti-fascist Albert
Kuntz and Professor Dalattré
whose clandestine Paris ring was
betrayed to the Gestapo.

Recent GDR_ investigations
have confirmed that permanent
sabotage was carried out during
rocket production. By way of re-
prisal the SS selected at least
20 inmates daily for hanging.
This mass murder was carried
out in front of all other inmates.
Twenty percent of the 3,500
V-2’s launched against London
and Amsterdam developed a
failure at the start. Many others
went off course.

Hitler intended the V-2 to

break up the Anglo-American, ..

Belgian and French anti-nazi co-
alition in order to pave the way
for a renewed German offensive
against the Soviet Union.

Dr. Grunwald, who had not-
iced the sabotage carried out,
sided with the concentration
camp inmates and helped to sec-
ure the capture of a Nazi spy
sent in among the workers. Iron-
ically enough the Nazis even
hanged their own spy during a
reprisal action.

In the GDR film “Frozen
Ligtning,” we see how the Eu-
ropean wartime resistance move-
ment even managed to capture
a V-2 rocket and organize the
transport of its vital parts to
London. In an exciting episode
a Dakota stages a lightning mid-
night touch-down to pick up this
vital consignment. Following ex-
amination, the British High Com-
mand admits to not possessing
an effective defense against the
Nazi missile.

The front against the V-2 re-
mains in Europe manned by an-
ti-fascists from Germany and
many other states. There is no
doubt that but for the existence
of this “unseen. front’ — so
heroically depicted in the film—
the figure of 35,000 British
deaths and other V-2 casualties
would have been far higher.
There is also reason to believe
that in the absence of the re-
sistance movement Hitler would
have been able to develop inter-
continental ballistic missiles cap-
able of inflicting heavy damage
on the United States and
Canada.

An essential element of the
GDR production “Frozen Light-
ning,” produced by Harry Thuerk
and directed by Janos Veiczi, is
its international cast. which in-
cludes professional and ama-
teur actors. The author is one of
these amateurs. Leading roles
are played by Elliot Sullivan and
Mark Dignam (Britain), Alfred
Mueller (GDR) and Wieslaw

Golas (Poland).

Anti-fascist German scientist Dr. Kummerowr
Report” is interrogated by the Gestapo. Scene from

“Frozen Lightning”.

Fahrenheit 54 |

AHRENHEIT 451 is thematic-
ally reminiscent of The
Tenth Victim. Both films

present a Clinically cold, alienated
world of the near future; hostile
to human values and traditions
jn ways which are direct extra-
polations of disturbing elements
of present bourgeois society. The
chilling predictions are not pre-
sented approvingly or with reac-
tionary purpose like the word,
1984, but rather is object exam-
ples of what must be avoided by
correct action now. They are
satires by negative example.

Thus directed against terrible
enemies of the human spirit,
such films (aside from any artis-
tic merits) are ideologically use-
ful. Unfortunately they also
carry with them the negativity
of petty bourgeois despair. One
would prefer a presentation of a
better world to come which, by
its very example~ of human
warmth and abundance, would
condemn the poverty of spirit
and opportunity in dying capital-
ism. An approach such as is en-
countered in Soviet science fic-
tion or in H. G. Wells (whatever
his technocratic miscalculations)
encourage yearning for change
into the future rather than a
sense of dread about changing
what we have for what we
know not of.

Francois Truffaut has advanc-

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