People in the world are bound by very strong ties to others that are important to them. Whether or not this be family related or friendship, these ties are very strong and very often, commitment goes both ways. The world wars definitely put many of these relationships to the test as it strained them to their furthest extent. Some give up these ties and abandon the other while some strive on to carry out the commitment which the wars put upon them. I intend to show this through a recent interview with the charming Helmut Lemke, a German World War II veteran that served on the eastern front in the later stages of the war. His experiences after the war really shows the concept of self sacrifice.

Helmut Lemke, a German World War II veteran, has  his share of achievements and Rambo moments. In the later stages of World War II he was called away from his family to join the fight at around 17 years of age. His first deployment would be his last. He destroys tanks with Panzerfausts (German anti tank weapon) and scares a Russian tank crew to abandon their T34 tank after he threatens them with a Panzerfaust. He is then wounded and sent back to Germany to recover. The war ends and he is taken is a prisoner of war in his hospital bed in Germany. After he is released he has a choice to start a new life elsewhere, or fulfill his commitment to his mother who he believes to be still at their family home. He says that a nagging feeling in the back of his head forced him to go and find his mother. He journeys across Germany back to his home on the most eastern tip of Germany prior to the war. Along the way, he is met with many near death situations as he is hitchhiking his way by train with no proper travel documents. Many encounters with Russians at gunpoint and situations led him to have to dig deep in this craftiness and he got out of these messes every time with the friend he was travelling with. Some examples include pretending that he was a cripple (he was only injured) to escape being shipped off to Siberia after he was discovered on a train by Russians. Another example is when he was stealing potatoes from the Russians to eat (they had no money) and a Russian discovers them and holds them at gunpoint. He pretends he is French and a nearby group of Frenchmen save him and his friend. He makes it to his mother who was stricken with typhus in their home. He says if he had not gone back to her mother. She would not have been alive any longer.

Helmut Lemke in a German army uniform in WWII 1944.

What I took away from this interview was how much Mr. Lemke was willing to sacrifice all for the sake of his mother and for duty to his country.  While defending a defensive position in the Eastern front of World War II, he performed his duty without question and stayed to fight the enemy even when his comrades fled or retreated in the face of superior enemy numbers. His willingness to follows his orders let him have a couple of close brushes to death but that is what the concept of self sacrifice is about. Being willing to be killed in order to impede the enemy and going out to do it again and again shows his patriotism and most importantly, his willingness to sacrifice himself for others.

He crossed Germany has a man who was basically a criminal because he had no money, and by luck, got to her mother before she would be killed by typhus. He could have left his past behind him and continued down a more safe path to the future but he decided not to for sake of a relationship that is deeply rooted into his DNA, something that he has a commitment to and it must be completed. Even after he gets to mother healthy again, his commitment to keep his family safe from the Russians leads him to move the entire family to West Germany. Him going by himself would have been so much easier but he takes the entire family because is such a selfless man.

Helmut Lemke today in Vancouver, BC and was a school teacher for a long time.

The concept of self sacrifice is seen everywhere everyday. People still do it in the military simple acts such as a doing a favor or simply helping others shows people how this concept is an important and fundamental piece in society and human nature. This is because of no one helped each other only did things for gain. The human race would be a bleak and miserable people.

Below is a podcast that I did with my other PLP friends Luciano and Spencer. This was our first blog post so things were quite awkward while working out how to record it. I thought I was going to be good at it because I can talk a lot about these things but I figuratively choked throughout the whole podcast. Definitely not one of my best works but the others did great. Title card and editing by Stanfield.

This must be the biggest project that I have ever undertaken in my life. After our studies on the Shakespearean play “Macbeth”, the teachers assigned the entire class to make a movie based on “Macbeth” that would be set in World War II. Full of doubts and pessimism, we began our production. To this day, the movie is still being produced and filmed.

Scene with a main actor and his supporting actor on a great day.

Pre Planning

One of our teachers Mr. Hughes laid out a production structure that was similar to a real movie production crew. There would be a producer, director, their assistants, and all the other departments needed for a movie. Roles were assigned and I got the producer role. I had to lay out the general direction of where the movie was going to go and cast roles. The script writers promptly got to work and wrote. Props and costumes were given a rough idea of what ideas were needed so they could be prepared to make them. My director (Marley Harman) cast the actors. This process went on for several days which had deadly consequences for the production of the movie. The process did not go over well with the director as respect dropped off when her suggestions were sometimes not taken into account.

Filming.

Production

After at least 2 weeks of planning while the script writers wrote the script, a production schedule was written up by Marley and I. Production started with many glitches which included figuring out camera angles, plot holes in script, unconventional language in the dialogue of the script, and respect for leadership during the filming process dropped off. Numerous scheduling conflicts with the actors and crew made filming impossible during some days. Around an act was filmed on the first day of filming but the production rate dropped hard on the next filming day. It was a severely under crewed production day nothing got done in which I was not present for. Eager to find what the problem was excluding the reason of being under crewed, I went on the next day of filming when I was available. Production went very roughly but achieved a many scenes were filmed. After that, there was one more productive day where I went to which was a good day. Soon, we fell behind too much for the movie to be completed on time so the teachers stepped see if we wanted to scrap the project. The group decided to persevere with the movie so we cut down on details and are now trying to film all the main ideas to piece the movie together.

Scene captured using multiple camera angles of an actor inside of a tent.

My Opinion

The Bad (The Venting)

Never before have I experienced such a dismal performance by all the people in any project (including me). There were many contributing factors to this that I want to say in order for people to learn from in the future. As a producer, I had a lot of the deciding authority but found that authority meant really nothing as I had not earned the respect from many of the existing PLP students. Requests and orders were issued and followed tentatively at best. Some of these decisions may have not been the best for the group in which I was to blame but things like simple plot adjustments and equipment acquisition were not carried out. Many of the special equipment that Marley brought in did not make an appearance in the filming process. Another major key point that I found that is key to success of a production is authority. At many points of shooting where I was present, most of the crew and cast simply stood talked while others did most of the labor. Even when a scene was being filmed, they were still loud. Between scenes, there seemed to be a great rest break for everyone as it takes nearly an hour to get the next scene set p when it could have been much quicker if everyone concentrated on what they were doing. Repeated direction from Marley and I were ignored most of the time and filming took place a very slow pace which destroyed the production schedule. At some points, I tried to arrange a quick film shoot that involved an actual pub which Spencer had acquired some time from so that we could film. In the end what really sank our precarious boat that is our movie was the endless scheduling conflicts between actors and scenes. It was extremely difficult to schedule some scenes where maybe we had only one day to shoot and some were impossible to shoot which required me to recast the a character so that the movie can move on.

The director and associates look on as the props department set up ever present tent.

The Good

I have to say, the acting of all PLP students in the production was excellent and beyond my expectations. The crew drew from their experience some excellent filming ideas and camera angle ideas as well. If not for them, the film would look very boring with many static shots. Some of the crew were willing  to work on the project and accept direction without hesitation albeit with lack of effort.

The End Result

The movie is still being filmed but it has become a much more streamlined process thanks to Maria. In reflection to this project, I should have enforced and updated a production schedule much more. I felt that some of the the crews enthusiasm showed before filming but it disappeared as they waited for a scene to be set up for filming. If this project were to be assigned again, the class would probably give up immediately. This was a great learning experience for coordination and leadership. It really gave me an insight on how things work in a big team and I would hope to do this again with big changes made.

I still think Ms. Willemse should savage and roast whoever was not there for the first BBQing of the unlucky few who didn’t take the math contest.