Most Biblical scholars interpret passages regarding the iniquities of the father being visited upon his sons and grandfathers to mean a patriarch’s lack of sound moral guidance will potentially allow his progeny to follow his bad examples and repeat his mistakes. This is a most pertinent question for Horst von Wächter, the massively in-denial son of a high ranking National Socialist official.
In contrast, Niklas Frank, the son of the senior von Wächter’s direct superior, has no trouble condemning his father’s crimes against humanity. International law expert Philippe Sands will revisit the sins of the fathers with their two very different sons in David Evans’s “What Our Fathers Did: a Nazi Legacy,” which opens Nov. 6, 2015 in New York.
"What Our Fathers Did" is a documentary with real intellectual heft, but there are very personal stakes involved.
