Movie Review - Land of Mine (Under Sandet)

         Following World War II Hollywood has produced countless films dealing with Nazi Germany.  Entire libraries can be filled with the books written about this period.  Hollywood has shown an almost total lack of interest in the mass murder record holder of the Soviet Union and mainland China.  There is even less interest in the postwar events that bring into question the virtues of the western allies.  The movie Land of Mine (Under Sandet) is a rare event.  The film deals with a Danish sergeant commanding a troop of former German soldiers as they clear land mines.  It is based on the use of over 2,000 German soldier to clear mines on the Danish coast.

         This in the Atlantic article and the comments associated with it reveal how effective the wartime and postwar propaganda have been. The author claims Denmark, “may have violated the Geneva Convention of 1929.”  She states, “the country committed what could be considered a war crime.”  There is no question that the Geneva Convention was violated and that it was a war crime.  However, Denmark was not responsible.  Certain Danish, British, and American officials were.  ‪Jean Mailer commented, “‬there is nothing wrong using the people that planted the mines to remove the mines.”  Jean may have a point.  However, these boys were not the one who planted them.  Joe Forest suspects, “few of the German soldiers were injured doing this work.”  Joe, you might do some research before you opine.  (Anne Thompson in her review in Indiewire estimated 300 fatalities)  Charles A Smith claims, “they got payback,” and “guilty Nazis and other Germans got away with their crimes.”  Unfortunately Charles is half correct.  The guilty often escaped and the innocent got the payback. Norman Feinberg might want to research how many American and British POWs returned after the war compared with the Germans.  Greg Thompson (“rape their bitches “) would have made a great Bolshevik.  The Morgenthau Plan and the Yalta Agreement authorized the use of slave labor.  There will be more groundbreaking movies.  Their creators will be accused of being Nazi sympathizers.  The accusers are certain that if they were alive at the time they would have behaved like Sophie Scholl who died because of her anti-Nazi activities.  More likely they would have behaved like George Soros.