Inspired by a true story, and dedicated to “all who suffered and sacrificed,” Lost Transport fleshes out an intriguing footnote of World War II. Saskia Diesing’s Dutch feature film, which is now available on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform, is set in Germany in April 1945 as the Third Reich crumbles.
In the waning months of the war, the Nazi regime devised a scheme to trade Jewish inmates in the Bergen-Belson concentration camp for German prisoners of war. In pursuit of it, the Nazis crammed thousands of Jews into three trains for the exchange. None of them reached their final destination.
The first train was liberated by U.S. troops. The second one was halted by the Red Army. The third one, having been abandoned by its German guards, ground to a halt in the eastern German town of Trobitz, which was occupied by Soviet soldiers.
This absorbing low-key film begins as hungry and confused Jewish prisoners pour out of the train. Among them are two Dutch Jews, Simone and her sick husband, Issac, who are advised by Red Army soldiers to walk to nearest town, Trobitz. Heeding their advice, Simone (Hanna Van Vliet) reaches Trobitz, breaks into an empty house to rummage for food, and requisitions a bedroom for herself and Isaac.
The house belongs to Winnie (Anna Bachmann), a young German woman and fervent Nazi whose mother was fatally shot by a Soviet soldier. As she wanders through the village, she is accosted by two soldiers. Vera (Eugenie Anselin), a compassionate Soviet sniper, intervenes on her behalf, saving Anna from rape. Vera may be Winnie’s enemy, but she is also her unexpected savior.
All three performers acquit themselves well in these difficult roles.
The film reaches a new level of intensity when Simone, Isaac and several of their Dutch acquaintances decide to cycle back to Holland, a distance of about 700 kilometres. Their trip is cut short by a Soviet roadblock. They cannot proceed because typhoid fever rages and a quarantine has been declared in the area.
When they return to Trobitz, Simone and Isaac go back to Winnie’s house. Shortly afterward, Isaac, having contracted typhoid, is admitted into a Soviet field hospital.
At this juncture, the film feels somewhat tenuous. But in short order, its overarching theme emerges. Lost Transport is not really about liberation or survival, though these are important themes, but rather about the power of friendship that crosses the boundaries of racism, ethnicity and ideology.
Having been randomly thrown together in Trobitz, Simone, Vera and Winnie find common ground amid mutual suspicion and an epidemic. In telling scenes, Vera invites Simone and Winnie for an alcoholic drink, Simone shares a loaf of bread with Winnie, and Winnie is conscripted into a job cutting the hair of Jewish women infected with lice.
Although human barriers break down incrementally, the old poisonous prejudices still fester, as illustrated by a scene during which Winnie’s friend expresses fear that Jews are spreading typhoid in Trobitz.
As the film heads toward its denouement, a German radio broadcast discloses that Adolf Hitler has “fallen,” and news of Germany’s surrender to Allied forces is announced. Amid these landmark events, the personal ties that bind these three women together, if only temporarily, intensify.
Lost Transport underscores a universal point. Even people initially antagonistic toward each other are capable of connecting and showing empathy if the circumstances align.