“If things are not so bad (…), thank in large part those who faithfully lived a hidden life and who rest in tombs that no one visits anymore. Signed by the novelist George Eliot in 1871, this quote could not better shed light on the long-forgotten destiny of Franz Jägerstätter (1907-1943). She comes by upsetting epilogue of the feature film A hidden life in which the American filmmaker Terrence Malick pays this humble Austrian peasant an admirable tribute.
The feat of arms of this native of Sainte-Radegonde, a verdant town in Upper Austria that looks like a little paradise on Earth? Never having wanted to swear allegiance to Hitler when he enlisted in the Wehrmacht.
From the mayor of Sainte-Radegonde to the Catholic authorities of his country, he was urged to consent to more “wisdom”, so as not to soon leave a widow and three young orphans in the village. But the conscientious objector does not reconsider his decision. Sentenced to death, he was beheaded in the prison of Brandenburg (Germany) on August 9, 1943.
Proud stubbornness? Suicidal intransigence? None of that. More like a fascinating mystery of inner and spiritual resistance, which Terrence Malick’s film never tires of questioning and magnifying, rightly rewarded with the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival.
“Franz Jägerstätter had a conviction that prevailed over all the rest: we cannot serve Christ and Hitler at the same time”, summarizes Father Sylvain Gasser, writer and journalist. This Assumptionist priest publishes with Bayard editions Being a Catholic or a Nazi . Letters from a conscientious objector : the translation, unpublished in France, of the writings of Franz Jägerstätter motivating his commitment.
Reading them, one is struck by his double clairvoyance, political and spiritual. “He only obeys his conscience, enlightened by the light of the Gospel”, continues Father Gasser. Prayer, fasting, Eucharist and reading the Bible nourish his faith, even if Terrence Malick does not dwell on the purely religious dimension of the character.
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“Terrence and I agreed not to sum up my character to a pious and self-confident man. We wanted to show someone who doubts”, confides the German actor August Diehl – Franz on screen –, who recognizes that the experience of filming was for him like an “intense inner journey”.
Rehabilitated and beatified
The film also shows how much the faith of the Austrian resistance fighter was carried by the love of his daughters and his wife Franziska. Until the end, this one accompanied Franz in his choice. A hidden life celebrates the almost mystical union of the two beings, a luminous counterpoint to Evil, an antechamber to the Passion soon experienced by Franz, from his ostracization by the villagers to his death by the Nazis.
Franziska, who died in 2013 at the age of 100, was able to attend in 2007, under the pontificate of Benedict XVI – a German pope – the beatification ceremony of her husband. The first step, late but highly symbolic of his rehabilitation. Here it is now complete. And that’s only fair.