In certain situations all the rules change. At times the world switches its favor from survival of the fittest to survival of the cunningest, especially in extreme circumstances such as war and political upheaval. This is remarkably apparent in the state of affairs surrounding the protagonists in Europa, Europa, Mephisto, and somewhat in Man of Marble. The choice that is then left to the characters is whether or not to adhere to their original high ideals or to allow themselves to be manipulated into behaving a completely different way. But no one would ever simply choose to abandon what they formerly believed and permit themselves to be manipulated by a political system or by the rules of war; they only do it if it is a matter of survival. This is the choice that these characters have to make. They must choose between fidelity to ideals and fidelity to survival.

In Europa, Europa, Solly must continually choose between fidelity to his Jewish faith and fidelity to his physical survival. He knows that if it is discovered that he is a Jew, some terrible fate will befall him. He is ignorant to what this might be (he is misled to believe that Jews will be sent to Madagascar), but knows that he is in danger. Therefore, throughout the movie he continually tries to cover his ethnicity and religious background. For example, he tries to hide the fact that he is circumcised in all sorts of ways and tells different lies about his background, depending on with whom he is talking. When he speaks with the Russians, he tells them he is Jewish because it is to his advantage; when he talks to the Germans he does everything to hide this fact.

Solly did whatever it took to survive. Yet his fate was affected less by what he did and more by simple luck. For example, when a German officer discovered that Solly was Jewish, he helped him and protected him because he was a “different kind of German” and had certain affections for him that made him want to help. When Solly was fighting for the Germans and decided to surrender himself to the Russians, he accidentally attained hero status by showing the German forces where the Russians were and “leading the attack. And at the end of the film when the boy had yet another brush with death and was about to be shot by a concentration camp refugee, his brother happened to be there to save him. These examples show how Solly had very little control over his situation. The irony in the movie is that through what appears to be his great skill and intellectual prowess the protagonist averts danger and death many times, yet his good fortune has less to do with how sly he is and more to do with luck.

Another theme in this movie is that when someone stands up for their beliefs, they are ostracized and ultimately killed. The Christian boy in the Communist orphanage is a perfect example. Solly had no more than finished a speech on the greatness of Communism, thereby once again denying his ideals, when the boy stood up and forcefully asserted that religion was not the opium of the masses and that there was a God. His reward for his outburst of faith was to be persecuted by the other children in the room and the teacher. In contrast, Solly was praised for his speech, which had nothing to do with what he had been taught in his youth but instead conformed to what the authorities wanted to hear. Later, the boy that stood up for what he had believed in was killed. The movie seems to be trying to tell us that it is better to have fidelity to survival and therefore deny what you believe in than it is to uphold your ideals and fight (and possibly die) for what is right.

Like Solly in Europa, Europa, Hendrick in Mephisto faces a decision between fidelity to ideals and fidelity to survival. However, even though he does face the possibility of losing his life, the type of survival that he must try to preserve is less physical and more political, professional, and even artistic. Throughout the course of the movie, Hendrick goes from a man that is concerned with being able to depict his own political views through his acting to a man who compromises his integrity bit by bit to aid his own success until he realizes he is simply a pawn in the hands of the State. At first, he is very concerned with the essence of his work; he accepts roles that capture the political stance that he takes and even runs a small theater that is working on a play that embodies revolutionary themes. His fervor for the beliefs that he has in this play is demonstrated by the fact that he gets very frustrated that he cannot find any “real actors” to be in it, thereby not doing it justice. However, when a chance arises to go to Hamburg to seek his own good fortune, he leaves to pursue it. Like Solly, Hendrick is naďve to what the totalitarian authorities have the power to do to him. However, unlike Solly, the protagonist in Mephisto has a way out of his situation. One of his fellow actresses approaches him about the possibility of going to America and warns him about the danger in which he may find himself. She also points out that under the present political system, his artistic liberty will eventually be taken away. But Hendrick cannot conceive the idea that these things could be true; besides, if he left for America he would have to forfeit the success he has found by now in Hamburg and start over. Through the Nazi official who appears to befriend him, even though he does some favors for Hendrick, power is gradually taken away from the actor until he is simply the puppet of the government and at the mercy of it. He is strongly warned not to interfere by the example of the man who was shot because he was behind a petition against the authorities. He even makes public appearances and speeches for the Nazis.

By the end of the film, Hendrick has to enforce scripts that are tailored to fit Nazi propaganda standards. He has compromised himself totally, and finally realizes that he is a puppet of those in power above him. A powerful image of this in the movie is at the end when he is standing on a stage with bright spotlights on him so that he cannot see what he is doing, yet is the one that is in the public eye. He is completely manipulated.

In contrast to Solly and Hendrick who make decisions that compromise their beliefs, the protagonist in Man of Marble does everything she can to uphold what she thinks is right. She works very hard to uncover the hidden facts about revolutionary things that had happened, and because she is discovering things that the totalitarian authorities want to keep hidden, the communication medium she uses, film, is taken away from her. But she works very hard and with vehemence to keep the essence of what she was trying to say alive. She compromised nothing, and because of this the people in authority attempted to squash her. But she never gave up her integrity. Under any circumstances, people have trouble keeping their integrity. But in the face of extreme situations, when the importance of the decision is heightened, people often forego making the right decision in order to attain some other sort of benefit, which is sometimes survival. The protagonists in Europa, Europa and Mephisto are good examples of this; they decide that their physical and professional survival is more important than their religious identity and artistic integrity. However, the main character in Man of Marble shows us that there are some people in the world that are willing to sacrifice to say what they deem important and to never give up on what they believe.

Copyright © 2000 by Jan Rybicki.
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Last updated: 10/25/00.