Jews parachuting behind enemy lines to wreak havoc, bring an end to the war and take revenge on Nazis – no, I’m not talking about Tarantino’s film, this one is a documentary by Min Sook Lee. The Real Inglorious Bastards will be shown tonight, Sunday, January 20, 2013 on IBA Channel 1 at 21:00.
“We were dedicated to killing Nazis…that’s what we volunteered for,” says Fred Mayer, who was team leader of an operation “deemed so dangerous” that the Royal Air Force refused to fly them in. Mayer, whose family managed to escape Germany, along with Hans Wijnberg, sent from Holland to the US at age 16 with his twin brother, become close friends and comrades in arms.
Their first person accounts, along with recorded interviews with their third teammate, Franz Weber, a German officer who deserted for reasons of conscience, are the heart of this compelling true story. The film also employs dramatic re-enactment, CGI, archival material and commentary from historians to tell the full story of Operation Greenup and the men who made it happen. As their commanding officer in the OSS describes them: Fred, who was “willing to play it rough” and Hans who “had this purity of soul.”
It’s a thrilling story, from the moment they parachute into the Austrian Alps, land on a glacier and realize they have no skis, but most fascinating, is to hear these men tell the story in their own words, years hence. Describing the events of that first day, when the men, having trekked some distance in snow, were able to borrow a sled and plunge down the icy mountain, Fred says with a smile, “It was the scariest ride of my life, but we made it.”
The Real Inglorious Bastards will be shown on IBA Channel 1 at 21:00.
Links: The Real Inglorious Bastards official site, facebook
IBA Channel 1 site
Fred Mayer HERO.
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