by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Der Kampf (The Battle) was produced in Russia by a group of German expatriates, victims all of Nazi oppression. It should not be surprising, then, that the story, tracing the rise of Naziism during the 1920's and 1930's, takes a strong anti-Hitler stance. The film's "money scene" is the burning of the Reichstag, which Hitler blamed on the communists but which is here firmly pinned on Der Fuehrer's stooges. A degree of verisimilitude is added by the casting of George Dimitroff, one of the real-life defendants of the Reichstag trial. Dimitroff is in fact the hero of the piece, shown living a full and rewarding life under the benevolent eye of the present Soviet regime.
