Review of The Axe of Wandsbek

I haven,t read Arnold Zweig,s novel,originally published in Hebrew in 1943,on which this East German film is based,so can,t say how close an adaptation it is.The thinking behind the script-that Communists were blamed for a 1930s era crime and unfairly punished,but that their ideas would eventually triumph over Fascism,and that there was a strong resistance movement against Hitler-seems to line up with the ideology promoted during the new DDR government.The setting is Hamburg,which is portrayed as a city reluctant to embrace Hitler,where flags are put up only belatedly when the Fuehrer comes for a visit.At one point in the story,streetcar workers gather and make anti-Nazi comments.A crippled boy who has unallowed books in his apartment left by a previous tenant,is part of a group printing anti-Nazi leaflets.A woman doctor with a leftist past who attends to the four convicts about to be executed (one of whom is Jewish) expresses sympathy for them and tries to reopen their cases.And when the main character,a butcher turned state executioner,is made known for what he has done,people in other aspects of the community turn against him,leading him to try to get rid of the axe of the title,symbol of his guilt.The film builds to a climax reminiscent of Greek tragedy,but its most memorable scene is the execution,shown from the point of view of three women,watching from a high window,in the still early and quiet hours of dawn,an act so terrible that it is not made public.