He objects to war generally, but this one in particular. When he’s called up again-in 1943, at which point he and his wife have children, and Germany has conquered several countries, killed millions, and begun to undertake a campaign of genocide that the German people were either keenly or dimly aware of-Franz decides his conscience won’t permit him to serve in combat. Franz is drafted into the German army but doesn’t see combat. Radegund with his wife Franziska, nicknamed “Fani” (Valerie Pancher), and their younger daughters, eking out a meager living cutting fields, baling hay, and raising livestock. Franz lives in the small German Alpine village of St. The film begins in 1939, with a newsreel montage establishing Hitler’s consolidation of power. Franz Jägerstätter was inspired by Franz Reinisch, a Catholic priest who was executed for refusing to swear allegiance to Hitler, and decided he was willing to go out the same way if it came to that. There was only one way that this story could end, as fascist dictatorships don’t take kindly to citizens refusing to do as they’re told. As a result, he suffered an escalating series of consequences that were meant to break him but hardened his resolve. Living a life that oddly echoed Herman Mellville’s short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” this was a soft-spoken Catholic who refused to serve in the German army, swear a loyalty oath to Hitler, or respond in kind when people said “Heil Hitler” to him on the road. He just had a set of beliefs and stuck with them to the bitter end.

He wasn’t a politician, a revolutionary firebrand, or even a particularly extroverted or even verbose man.

August Diehl stars as Franz Jägerstätter, a modest, real-life hero of a type rarely celebrated on film.

Bartleby the scrivener sparknotes