A Love in Germany

" A Love in Germany"

It is only safe to state that as the human race evolves so does the way of life, and there are numerous factors to take into consideration. The ways our customs and laws have changed throughout time have been mostly imposed by our instinct of survival. However one of the major factors affecting the way of life of humans has been the human race it self. In the movie "A Love in Germany" directed by Andrezej Wajda we can perceive a major change in Germany's way of life, affected entirely by the human race and its laws. Enforcing laws such as The Nuremberg Laws, Nazi Policy, and the group of people enforcing them in this case the Nazis, played a major role in the way the German people's lives were molded.

The movie takes place in a small German town where Paulina, one of the main characters, is involved in a forbidden love affair during World War II. In the movie, Paulina is seen as a "role-model", and as a beautiful woman according to this era and Nazi standards. Paulina is the wife of a Nazi soldier who is away at war, they have a young son together and she is managing his grocery store while he is absent. All of Paulina's characteristics and duties mentioned above were common during this time, German women were expected to be housewives, mothers, and they had no say about the war, the laws, or anything of importance during this time. In fact the behavior of Nazi men, which can only be described as machismo, was heavily enforced upon women. This is a clear example of how the way of life of these people during World War II was severely affected by humankind and it's laws. The fact that women were seen as not so important to the purpose of war and loyalty towards the Nazi's mission had one big consequence. They soon realize that they could get away with certain situations that men could not, due to their stance in the shadow during this time. This is when Paulina finds herself lonely and begins to find a strange attraction towards this young Polish man, who was a P.O.W. (prisoner of war). Stani is the name of the P.O.W. who is mutually attracted to Paulina, who is old enough to be his mother. Even though Poles were classified as Aryan, due to some of their physical characteristics including blonde hair and blue eyes, they were still considered inferior to the Nordic Race; in fact they were only above Jews in terms of privileges. As the movie unfolds and the couple begins to take shape into a more intimate relationship, we can appreciate up to what extent women are able to get away with certain crimes. According to The Nuremberg

Laws, it was prohibited to commit adultery, and committing such a crime with an inferior race such as Poles was even more severely punished. The Nuremberg Laws were created for the sole purpose of protecting the Aryan race. Even when they were mainly directed towards Jews, others such as Poles were subject to the laws as well. This supports the fact that Nazi's had control of how the population lived, and pursued day-to-day activities.

Nazi officials were in charge of enforcing the law, the mere sight of these official was so strong that Nazi power began to have a negative effect on the people and the community. Soon Germans began to feel animosity, jealousy and betrayal amongst fellow countrymen and women began to occur. This is in part how Paulina and Stani get caught by the Nazi Officials. However, Paulina and Stani also found themselves in a love relationship. They were so infatuated with each other that they did not care