I Was Nineteen

Gregor Hecker and his small Soviet squad arrive in Bernau during the westward advance. This marks his return to his homeland since leaving as a child, and he feels like a stranger. He is quickly named commandant and begins enforcing Communist Party authority to restore order.

They encounter the German Etappenmajor Behring and the German Army Inspectorate. Behring wants to surrender properly, but his phone call to superiors is believed to be a prank. The moment underscores the chaotic endgame of the war.

In Sachsenhausen Hecker and Sascha Ziganjuk meet their leader Wadim Gejman. He is trying to save a German soldier from revenge by a Soviet soldier freed from a concentration camp. However, Gejman cannot save the soldier from being shot as they return to the camp.

Inside the camp a former prisoner shows Hecker and fellow officers the full extent of Nazi brutality, pointing to gas chambers and the Genickschussanlage. The officers witness the horror firsthand, deepening the moral complexity of the occupation.

On 30 April 1945 Gejman receives the order to negotiate the handover of Spandau Citadel and takes Hecker as interpreter. They approach the barricaded gate where the fortress commander Lewerenz and his adjutant descend to meet them. The Germans discuss surrender and the code of honor.

Gejman emphasizes the hopelessness of the situation to the German officers. Hecker joins Gejman and is allowed to climb into the fortress with the officers. The fortress commander Lewerenz explains the code of honor and stands firm amid the negotiations.

Inside the fortress, an SS-Obersturmbannführer honors a Hitler Youth who destroyed a tank. The adjutant blocks him from shooting the parliamentarians and from fleeing. The scene highlights the moral disarray at the moment of surrender.

On May 1, the driver Dsingis detours around wrecked trucks along the destroyed Autobahn. In a ruined van, Hecker meets a blind German soldier who mistakes him for a German. Despite his injuries, the soldier remains hopeful about the future.

That evening a May Day celebration unfolds. A drunk Hecker falls from a ledge and imagines hearing his mother’s voice criticizing him for rushing ahead. A liberated German communist demands that Nazis be hanged, but the General counsels that revenge is not the best advisor.

The next day they head back to Spandau to support headquarters. They bring two of the communists; one is installed as mayor in an abandoned place while the other talks with Hecker before they split at a checkpoint. The sense of normalcy remains fragile and provisional.

German troops break out of the Berlin basin disguised as Soviet units and try to head west. Hecker and his team barely escape a surprise attack as front lines collapse around them. The danger persists even as victory seems near.

They settle near a small river crossing and use loudspeakers to persuade German soldiers to lay down their arms. Initially the effort fails, but Hecker gradually wins over a growing group of reluctant surrenders. The prisoners are then transported under the Soviet officers’ oversight.

Hecker forms a bond with Willi Lommer, a Berlin-based German NCO who chooses to fight alongside the Soviets. When marauding SS troops attack, Lommer takes up arms to defend the prisoners. The assault forces the SS to withdraw and leaves Ziganjuk fallen, fueling Hecker’s anger and grief.

Before the prisoners are transported, Lommer hands Hecker a letter for his family. Hecker promises to deliver it, underscoring the personal stakes of the liberation and the costs borne by those who fought.