The Young Lions

German ski instructor Christian Diestl hopes Adolf Hitler will bring prosperity and social mobility. When war breaks out, he volunteers as a lieutenant and is sent to the North African campaign. There, he witnesses how the war corrupts his captain and the captain's wife, leaving him morally queasy about the conflict.

Michael Whiteacre and Noah Ackerman befriend each other during their U.S. Army draft physical examination. Michael’s show-business background contrasts with Noah’s clerk life, and their bond grows through shared hardship. This friendship threads through the rest of the story.

Margaret Freemantle dated Christian in 1938 in the Bavarian Alps. On New Year's Eve, she leaves him and returns to Michael, setting up personal tensions that echo through the war years. Christian's heartbreak foreshadows the broader costs of the conflict.

Noah falls for Hope Plowman at Michael's party and begins to dream of marriage. Hope invites him to Vermont to meet her father and reveals that Noah is Jewish. After a conversation, Hope's father accepts him.

Noah and Michael enlist on the same day and enter basic training together. Noah endures harassment from his platoon but earns respect by standing up for himself, despite suffering injuries. The officers eventually court-martial the abusive leader.

Michael spends much of the war in a safer posting in London, far from the frontlines. He experiences a detached, comfortable home-front role while others fight. The separation sets up later decisions about his volunteering to return to combat.

Christian is torn between hatred for what the war has done and a dutiful sense of obligation. He despises his comrades’ crimes yet remains bound to his role as a soldier. His internal conflict drives his actions as the campaign continues.

While visiting a seriously wounded captain in a hospital, Christian is tricked into bringing him a bayonet. He later learns from the captain’s wife that the captain killed himself with it.

Thanks to Margaret’s pressure, Michael abandons his comfortable London post and volunteers for combat. He uses his influence to rejoin his old unit on the German front and reunites with Noah there.

Amid the front-line chaos, Noah risks his life by swimming across a canal to rescue a fellow soldier who had abused him earlier. The act shows his courage and humanity under fire.

Christian stumbles upon a concentration camp and overhears the commander's talk about mass exterminations. The revelation exposes the true horror of the Third Reich to him.

The camp is liberated by American forces, including Michael and Noah. A local mayor proposes a 'clean-up' before reporters arrive, while Captain Green rebuffs him after a rabbi pleads for a religious service.

Green instructs Noah to walk with Michael as they approach the post-liberation scene. Christian, dazed and furious, screams and smashes his machine pistol on a tree stump, drawing Michael’s attention. Michael shoots Christian, ending his tormented life.

After the war, Noah emerges from a subway and is greeted by Hope at their apartment window. He sees their baby daughter and hurries upstairs to embrace his family, stepping into a quieter postwar life.