Original subtitles

[Bells tolling]

KRAKÓW, SEPTEMBER, 1939

Karol, change up with Krystyna.

They destroyed our air force. 500 planes pulverised before they could take off.

I heard it before they bombed the radio station.

I'm taking Wislawa to Wadowice and then I'll join the army.

Wislawa, you're Jewish.

Jews should leave Poland if they can.

Wadowice is a small, quiet town. Jews won't be in any danger there.

Tomasz, will you look after my father? I want to join the army, too.

Of course. I'll take him to the rectory with me.

You always told me you could never be a soldier.

I never imagined anything like this.

What are you going to do, Wiktor?

All the last-year medical students have been asked to go to the hospital.

What do you think is going to happen?

If the world gets taken over by evil men,

we won't have any voice left or tears to shed.

But we must never lose hope.

[Air-raid siren]

- Karol! - Jerzy!

Jerzy!

I'm going back to Wadowice if I can find a train.

I'll pick up my father and we can join the army.

[Machine-gun fire]

[Screaming]

- Professor! Professor Wojcik! - I'm going to the university.

- The chancellor said to lock it up. - We have valuable books there.

I'll put them in the basement in case they bomb us.

- I'll go with you. - We're all coming.

What will happen to your sister, mother and grandma when you and your father leave?

The Nazis won't bother with women.

You Klugers are Jews. Jews are in great danger.

We are Poles. We'll kick the Nazis out of our country.

What's wrong?

- What's wrong? - I'm scared.

Please go and hide in Wadowice.

And be careful.

I'm so scared.

[Pounding artillery fire]

Listen to me. Come to the rectory with me.

There you are, Karol. You're late.

Tomasz, thank God you're here. I was...

- What's that? - What does it look like?

My old military jacket. I'm going to join the army.

No.

No, Dad. It's my turn to go and fight, not yours.

You will stay nice and safe with Tomasz in the rectory.

Please do as Karol says, Mr Wojty³a.

I want Mother to be proud of me.

Mother would have asked me to stop you.

Please... can't you try to talk some sense into him?

You know what he's like. Please.

Mr Wojty³a, listen to me. You are too old for this sort of thing.

No, but your body isn't as strong as your heart and soul still are.

- I'm ready. - What should I do?

Protect him and watch out for yourself.

- "Unum cor et anima una". - "Unum cor et anima una".

- Are you all right? - Uh-huh.

- Let me carry you. What's your name? - Jozef.

- Up you go, Jozef! - [Woman] Jozef!

- I thought I'd lost you. - I twisted my ankle.

- You don't have to carry him. - Leave his foot. Karol has strong shoulders.

My sister-in-law has a farm near Mielec. We are going there.

I'm going to herd the cows. My grandma has a piano, but it's out of tune.

Jozef was taking piano lessons with the priest at Saint Bartholomew's.

I'm honoured carrying a Chopin on my shoulders.

WADOWICE

[plays melancholy melody]

- [Door opens] - [Girl] May we?

Hania.

- And Karol? - He left with his father to enlist.

- Jerzy! I'm leaving. - So are we. We're heading for...

- I'm so happy you came. - So am I.

We're going through Myslenice.

Wislawa kissed me.

"[Jusek and Jerzy] Unum cor et anima una".

[Plays wistful melody]

Karol, will you give me some water, please?

Have you got a fever? Dad, you are burning up.

What are you talking about? I never had fever a day of my life.

[Car horns toot]

Jusek! That's Jusek.

[Karol] Jusek!

Excuse me, it's... Jusek, wait!

- Karol! - Jusek!

- What a surprise! - Jusek!

- We are going to Rzeszow to join up. - So are we.

- Do you have room for my dad? - I wish I did.

Have you seen Hania?

Sure, she arrived safe in Wadowice.

She talks about you all the time.

Karol, this storm too will pass.

Here. Keep this.

- For good luck. See you on the front. - Yes.

- "Unum cor et anima una". - "Unum cor et anima una".

[Cheering]

God bless you!

"Blinded by smoke, I see held on their shoulders

like a coffin along a colonnade

your piano falling, falling."

- What did he say? - Hello, Jozef.

- How is your ankle? - Fine.

I was quoting our greatest poet, Norwid.

During the revolt Russian soldiers were killing people and smashing things.

They threw Chopin's piano out of the window into a fire.

Some men picked it up and carried it to safety.

I would have given my life to save Chopin's piano, too.

I know. That's why the poet is telling us that our homeland can never be destroyed.

Never.

Father!

- This is the altar of your homeland? - Yes.

And this is where you celebrate the victory

of the Polish army over the Teutonic knights?

- And this is where Poles pray for freedom? - Yes, it is.

This masterpiece was crafted by a German.

Peter van der Rennen, from Danzig.

And these angels, they come from the masters of Augsburg.

We walk on German soil, priest.

You just met the Governor-General, Reich Minister Hans Frank.

His orders are to close the cathedral to the public. I'm sorry.

You're sorry?

We have to clear this place.

Where are you going?

- This church belongs to the people. - Kraków is full of churches.

This is the cathedral.

The cathedral is part of Wawel Castle. Wawel is my residence now.

It doesn't belong to the Poles any more.

So this is my church.

If you call yourself a Christian,

you should know that this a place for the soul, not for your boots.

Macke!

This Polish priest is starting to bore me.

Please, you have to leave now.

Oh, hello.

Do you have any medicine? My dad has a fever.

No, I don't have anything.

- I know somebody who does. - Really?

Yeah.

Here you are.

Jozef, thank you very much. Thank you.

I'm very grateful to you, young sir.

- It's cold today, isn't it? - Where's your jacket?

I gave it to my brother. He was very wet.

- Here. - Thank you.

- [Father] He looks like Edmund. - Who is Edmund?

- My older brother. - Is he dead?

He was a doctor. He died of a disease he was treating in a hospital.

- Do you miss him? - Yes.

- Very much so. I really loved him. - So, I will become a doctor one day.

- I thought you wanted to play the piano. - I can do both.

And your mother? Is she dead, too?

When I was about your age.

But I still talk to her.

And when I close my eyes, I can feel her hands stroking my hair.

Jozef!

Give the jacket back to the gentleman.

- Can I keep it a bit longer? - As long as you want.

- Until I'm grown up? - Yes, until you're a grown-up.

And I will give you this.

Oh. What is it about?

There's a story in there I like, about the snake and the clock-maker.

- Will you read it to me? - Yes. Yes, of course.

"One day, a starving snake went into the clock-maker's shop."

- "Finding nothing to eat..." - [fighter engines drone]

Jozef!

[Screaming]

Oh, God!

[Weeping]

[Sobs]

"[Hania] Karol, I don't know where you are".

{y:i}Whether you have enrolled {y:i}or have reached the Free Poland area,

"or if you are still alive".

{y:i}Wadowice, our dear Wadowice, "no longer exists".

"It's transfigured overnight".

"Continuous rounding up of people".

"Tomasz was right". "The Jews are in terrible danger".

"There is talk of closing them up in ghettos".

{y:i}The Gestapo has occupied the Kluger "residence, throwing the women out".

"I somehow helped to hide them".

Hania! I know where you're going.

I want to see Tesia. Take me with you.

Come on.

- Hania! - I have a surprise for you.

Tadek!

You shouldn't have come. You know what they do to Poles who...

Shh. I can't live without you.

Tesia, look!

It's hauka!

You are a good person, a good person.

Grandma!

Grandma!

Smell it.

[Sighs]

Tesia made me a present.

Let me show you.

[Hums wistful melody]

Mrs Rozalia, I would like to take Tesia out of here.

I will hide her at my parents' house.

You have to go with him.

I love you, but I can't leave my mother and my grandmother.

- Tesia, please. - No.

We'll leave this place together when all of this is over.

{y:i}[Hania] Were it not {y:i}for our unfortunate friends, Karol,

{y:i}I'd leave immediately "and find you wherever you might be".

- There. We made it, Dad. - Yeah.

Look. We're almost there.

[Father] Our best divisions are on the other side of the river.

That's where our liberation will come from.

Stay where you are! Go back! Go back!

The Russians have invaded our border.

Hitler and Stalin made a pact.

The Red Army has betrayed us.

They don't take prisoners.

Go back! Go back!

Dad, come on.

- Come on, Dad. - Leave me here.

Dad, we have to go now.

Go away to Kraków. Go on, go.

I told you to leave me here.

- That's enough. - Stop it, Dad.

Save yourself. Go on!

Get out of here!

Dad! Stop it!

Just let them kill me.

- Dad... - That's all...

- Dad, stop it... - That's all... That's all...

Stop it!

Take hold, Dad.

Mama wouldn't like to see you like this. Come on.

Come on.

You're back! What happened?

Mrs Antol, could you please come and help me?

I'm going to get Dr "Z"weig.

Mr Wojty³a?

- Have you seen Wiktor Milosz? - No.

- What's happening here? - Wojcik wants us in assembly.

Krystyna!

- Thank God the university is open again. - What happened to you?

I'm looking for Wiktor. My dad is sick and Dr "Z"weig wasn't in.

The Nazis took him. And some stinking Poles have moved into his apartment.

- Right. - Wiktor is working at the hospital. I'll take you.

- All right. - Karol.

They're organising an underground army. We all ought to join up.

Watch what you say. There are spies among us.

Spies? I can't believe anyone could do that.

Here we are in the very cradle of our history, our common roots, our language.

- Nobody betrays his own mother. - [Wojcik] Who is betraying his mother?

Oh, Professor... I was talking about our mother tongue.

You pay for freedom with your whole being.

That is why you will call freedom that which,

while paying for it, helps you to know and control yourself over and over.

You wrote that, didn't you, Karol?

Yes. I am embarrassed and honoured that you remember it.

Wojty³a is right.

We will pay for freedom with tears and blood.

The Reich Governor, Hans Frank, has moved into Wawel,

former residence of the Piast, the Jagiellon.

This Nazi intellectual has declared

Poland has a king and the Poles are his slaves

with no rights and only one duty, to obey.

You have to resist in whatever way you deem right.

Talk it over among yourselves. Decide according to your conscience.

But we have to resist!

- Long live freedom! - [All] Long live freedom!

Long live Poland!

Long live Poland!

Long live Poland! Long live Poland!

Long live Poland!

Three more shots like this, Mr Wojty³a, and you can play soccer again.

I have never played soccer.

I don't believe you. You've missed out on life's greatest pleasure.

Get better first and then you can find out.

Well said, Mrs Antol.

It's almost impossible to find quinine sulphate,

but for Wiktor Milosz nothing is impossible.

Give him a tablet three times a day until the fever goes down.

I'll come back tomorrow.

- How much do I owe you? - That's OK.

I'll charge you a fortune once I'm famous.

You take care, now, Mr Wojty³a.

Goodbye.

{y:i}[Karol] Hania, dear, I'm so anxious "to have news from you and Wadowice".

"I read and write all day long".

{y:i}My father is better, "but we are short of money".

"I seldom see Tomasz". "He's with those who have lost all".

{y:i}Kraków cries "with the tears of orphans and widows".

"A silent, suffering city".

I'm so scared.

{y:i}When possible, {y:i}we attend Professor Wojcik's lessons

{y:i}and hope to find out "what's happening in Europe".

{y:i}The German Governor, Hans Frank,

{y:i}called the entire faculty "to discuss their programmes".

{y:i}The university was closed to the students, "but Wiktor and I went all the same".

[Man speaking German]

No, wait.

Out this way.

I would like to have more time...

...a lot of time...

...an eternity, really...

...to talk with you.

You are Kraków's intellectual elite.

I'd like to discuss Plato with you.

I'd like to talk about Rome.

I studied in Rome.

I would like to read Nietzsche and Goethe.

But I don't have time.

I don't have time.

You know my dream?

To make Wawel an island of civilisation and civility...

...in the heart of Slavic barbarity.

[All shout]

But you Poles,

especially you intellectuals...

...are born conspirators.

No.

Poland will remain silent.

Like a corpse.

I have decided to close down all schools and universities,

newspapers and artistic associations.

And I will destroy Polish libraries.

What good are schools, universities and libraries to you?

You have no country. You have no culture.

[Frank] Children who look Nordic

will be taken from their families and raised as Germans.

The others will work hard and eat little.

And eventually they'll die.

And Poland will die with them.

Poland will never die!

Poland will live! Long live Poland!

If you try to escape, you'll be doing me a favour.

You'll be shot.

- Let's get out of here. - No.

How many of you are there?

187. Good.

You won't be handcuffed,

but you will go quietly to the trucks

and get in one by one.

[Wojcik] I see that your fists are clenched, Mr Frank.

You think that you hold life clenched in those fists.

Take a look again. They're empty.

You stand up there and you talk to us.

You have not yet realised that all life has left you.

When you do, it will be too late.

Then you will remember the words of Wojcik,

professor of Polish philology.

- Shoot him. - [Man speaking German]

{y:i}[Karol] Wojcik taught us that weakness "is only refusal of accepting defeat".

{y:i}The professors who were not killed "are now dying in the Sachsenhausen camp".

{y:i}We are surrounded "by madness and suffering".

{y:i}Hania, you've no idea "what hell prevails in the Kraków ghetto".

Either they starve to death,

die of tuberculosis, dysentery...

They die of every disease you can think of unless they commit suicide or get murdered.

This way.

Do you know what a rat hunt is? It's a Nazi expression.

There are holes in the ghetto walls

which only skinny little kids can squeeze through... little rats.

They pick through the garbage looking for something to eat

and the Nazis take pot-shots at them... for fun.

[Whistles]

You will see. A little rat is about to come out.

OK. Now.

- How are you doing, Simon? - Hungry.

- Ah! - Ah!

All I've got is medicine. I'll try to bring some potatoes tomorrow.

[Woman screaming]

[Soldier shouts orders in German]

[Soldier shouts in German]

That's Eli Singer the carpenter and his brother Chaim.

They won't need their clothes any more.

[Man shouts orders in German]

What's the matter? Where are you going?

- It's all right. Don't worry. - [Soldier speaks German]

Where is he taking you?

Pray to the Black Madonna for me.

This way.

[Clock chiming]

- And you are...? - I'm Father Tomasz "Z"aleski.

Hm.

I see that even handsome boys become priests in Poland.

Ah. The priest from the cathedral. Excuse me for being late.

I hear you have confessed some of my officers.

I would like you to hear my confession, too, "ja"?

But I promised my guests the deer we shot in Radziwillow woods.

One bullet, right between the eyes.

Please spare us the details. You will spoil my appetite.

So... you can hear my confession after lunch.

- What is your name? - Tomasz "Z"aleski.

"Z"aleski.

"Z"aleski will be joining us for lunch.

You can witness the sins of our gluttony with your own eyes.

No, thank you. I...

I'll wait outside.

I would never have a priest wait outside while I'm eating.

Please.

Will you do us the honours, my dear?

So, tell me, "Z"aleski.

How much Polish hatred do you listen to in your confessions?

- I listen to Polish suffering. - You want to know the truth, priest?

Where there's no culture, there can't be any suffering.

Only instincts.

The Polish people will eventually love us.

- Right now they're asleep. - I love you and you're asleep.

[Laughter]

They say that Polish women don't wash very often.

It's not their fault. They don't have any soap.

They can't use that excuse much longer.

We've found a way to make soap out of something that doesn't cost a pfennig.

Excellent soap with nice silky foam.

I've already put in a large order for these Polish ladies.

Soap made out of excrement.

You are not laughing?

- I can't stay here. - Sit down!

Come, now. Sit down.

You are going to make him mad.

Come, now.

I have ordered the families of the dead in the ghetto to pay for their funerals.

Hm. I'm sure the mortality rate will drop from one day to the next.

Exactly. It has dropped.

All Jews are sick.

Sick people have a tendency to wallow in filth.

Hm. Filth is their natural flavouring. They are a decadent race.

A bunch of degenerates,

incapable of raising and taking care of their children like we do in Germany.

Pigs.

Jewish children are not children.

What did you say?

German children are clean.

Jewish children are dirty.

German children have teeth.

Jewish children don't have any teeth.

German children sleep on mattresses.

Jewish children next to tables laid out with the dead.

German children play.

Jewish children in the ghettos don't know how to play.

They really are degenerate children.

Their only entertainment

is to go watch their parents, brothers and sisters being shot.

Their only fun is watching their mothers being murdered.

German children smile.

Jewish children don't smile.

German children walk. Jewish children don't walk.

You'll never teach them how to smile and how to walk,

even if you try to make them obey by whipping them!

Never.

Don't you know that Jewish children don't have legs?

Jewish children have wings!

You might as well have me shot.

Polish priests! How do they do it, huh?

They have wings?

Huh? Cheep! Cheep! Cheep!

Cheep-cheep! Cheep!

- What are you writing? - A play.

- About what? - Sorrow.

"[Hania] I'm leaving now, Karol, to reach you".

{y:i}If you can, meet me on the road "for Czestochowa".

{y:i}What I have to tell you is so atrocious,

"I don't have any tears left. No heart left".

[Men shouting in German]

{y:i}[Hania] You remember {y:i}the synagogue in Wadowice?

{y:i}We could see it "from the Klugers' hiding place".

[Grandmother] Tesia!

Tesia!

What was that?

Nothing, Grandma.

They blew up an unexploded bomb.

[Sobs]

Get out of here before they find you, my love.

Get out of here.

They are beginning to take away old people and the sick.

What for?

Where do they take them? Do they look after them?

I don't know.

I wasn't prepared for any of this.

Why doesn't anybody speak up in the rest of the world?

People who keep quiet while others are murdered

are just as bad as the murderers.

- Jusek's dead, isn't he? - No.

He promised to write me.

Maybe he did it, but his letters never reached me.

Will you give me a kiss, please?

{y:i}[Hania] Wislawa's unstaring eyes "frightened me".

{y:i}Those big, beautiful eyes of hers "were empty now".

"They had turned to ashes".

{y:i}When they started the deportations {y:i}to Auschwitz and Belzec,

"the Gestapo found the Klugers".

"I arrived there with Tadek that very day".

[Men shouting in German]

Don't touch her!

[Screams]

{y:i}[Hania] When evil is only imagined, {y:i}you can live with it,

{y:i}but when it's manifest before your eyes, "there is no way out".

- [Dogs bark] - [Men shouting in German]

[Screams]

Play something! Play!

[Plays melancholy melody]

[Screams]

[Sobs]

[Screams]

Why?

Why do these horrors repeat themselves...

...only they get worse?

What is it that makes eyes, hearts and minds...

...so incapable of feeling pity and respect?

Who are these human beings

who have mothers and sisters and children,

who have husbands and wives they hug at night?

Are these creatures made in God's image, Karol?

Where is God?

[People singing hymn]

[Krystyna] You, Mary, are queen of Poland

and God has made Czestochowa your throne.

Defend us, be our shield,

make us strong so that we can drive back the enemy.

Come to our rescue.

Bring us peace.

[Hymn continues]

{y:i}[Karol] Why don't I have an answer?

{y:i}Why does man force another human being {y:i}to live in absolute pain?

{y:i}Without hope?

How can we answer to all this?

How many millions of monsters are there on this earth, Tomasz?

Why must the innocent pay?

How many more innocents still have to be born just to be exterminated?

I was staring those Nazis in the eyes.

The evil I saw there was so radical...

...so incomprehensible... obscene.

And I felt like killing them.

And I'm a priest.

I feel guilty about that.

I don't want to hate like they do.

Love.

Love.

Only love can keep men from falling into an abyss.

Where were you today?

I was standing in line to get us some bread.

There was none left.

Every time you go out, I'm afraid you'll never come back.

I have to go out, Dad.

- We have to eat. We have to live. - Hm.

[Knock at door]

[Knocking continues]

- Who's there? - Tomasz.

What are you doing out after the curfew?

How are you feeling, Mr Wojty³a?

Back to my old self once again. Well, almost.

Karol, I've found you a job in a quarry.

Here. Without this they'll deport you.

Thank you.

Are those all work permits?

Work permits and forged baptismal certificates for Jews.

Bring us some of Wiktor's vodka, Karol.

A medical student brought it to me when I finished my quinine.

He said it would have exactly the same effect.

Thank you, but I can't. I have to go.

No, no, no.

[Both] "Unum cor et anima una".

You're strong.

- What quarry did you work in before? - I'm a student.

A student? Don't like students.

A bunch of smart alecs who don't know anything about real life.

All right, I'm a worker, then.

- You are late. - I'm sorry.

We're thinking about joining one of the armed groups. All of us.

I'm not. You fight with weapons, I want to fight with words.

Our theatre has to go on.

Where? What stage? What audience?

Our theatre has to go underground, in apartments, basements.

We must keep the word alive.

Poland's in the grip of terror and insanity and you want to put on plays?

You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

- The only thing left is to take up arms. - Yes!

The word's mightier than the bullet.

- Try that with a gun pointed at your head. - And you, Karol?

- We are going now. - Armed resistance!

Armed resistance!

Wait. Wait.

I understand and respect people who resort to weapons.

The Nazis exterminate people and want to exterminate our culture too.

They want to wipe out the Polish language.

But the only way we will be able to have a future is if we save our past.

But whoever chooses weapons has every right to do so.

Kotlarczyk is right, too.

We have to keep our culture alive.

Let's take the theatre underground.

Because remember...

...theatre is the conscience of life.

You will have your theatre and we will have our guns.

All right.

We are fighting the same battle...

with the same hope against the same evil.

- OK. - Come on.

- Come on. - "Unum cor et anima una".

"Unum cor et anima una".

I'm sorry.

Excuse me, I know it's late.

I am Karol Wojty³a. I have to speak to Miss Tuszynska.

I don't allow my lodgers to receive men in their rooms.

This is urgent and serious and I won't be long.

Tuszynska!

Tuszynska!

This gentleman apparently has something urgent and serious to say to you.

- Do you know him? - Yes, Mrs Bialek.

- All right, but leave the door open. - Thank you.

I know you're brave

and... I know that you have been hurt so much that you want revenge...

No.

The word you want is justice, not revenge.

Yes, you're right. Justice.

But I know you so well.

No matter how strong and brave you are,

how hard you think you are now,

you're the same little girl

who used to get all mixed up and depressed by people's lies and violence.

I'm not that little girl any more.

Your heart hasn't changed.

And killing won't come easily to you.

You and I aren't cowards, you know that. Just the opposite.

The truth is, we'd rather get killed instead of killing.

I don't want you to get killed.

Have you said what you came to say?

No.

Yes, he has.

She says you have.

Please.

Slow, slow.

That's good. Stop now.

Hey. Your book.

Books!

These are times for blood and rifles.

There's always time for books.

We're waiting for Hania. I knew it.

I told you she wouldn't come. Magda will play her part.

- Let's wait a few more minutes. - What's wrong? Don't you like my acting?

No, that's not what I mean. It's just that...

Here she is.

[Kotlarczyk] The music even louder grew and faster.

The suddenly false chord from the master.

Like hissing snakes or shattering glass

that chilled their hearts and with a dire foreboding filled.

And even louder grew the music roar and you could hear...

Wojty³a is my best friend.

What do you do?

- I'm a concert pianist. - Uh-huh. I break stones.

Soon they lifted up their hands again...

[man shouts in German]

And from trumpets to the heavens sped that march of triumph.

Poland is not dead.

[Shouting in German]

[Singing in Polish]

[Speaks German]

[Speaks German]

[Speaks German]

Engagement.

The little rascals went and got engaged.

"Nein, danke".

I'm the best man. Nowak's the name.

I was in love with this beautiful maid once, but she chose him instead.

So, what I mean is... I would like to say... congratulations.

And good luck.

[All sing in Polish]

RESISTANCE

RESISTANCE

[men shouting in German]

[Soldier shouts in German]

In another life...

...Krystyna.

[Gunshot]

[Gunshot]

They caught Wiktor and Krystyna.

They shot them on the spot.

I'm asking you to rid yourself of any compassion you might have.

We must exterminate Jews wherever we find them, every chance we get.

And we must eliminate Poles who help them, starting with priests.

Höss is up to 10,000 eliminations a day in Auschwitz. An excellent result.

- Why are you looking at me like that? - Like what?

Like someone who's not listening!

I was listening very carefully, Governor-General.

Good.

Very good.

[Man shouts]

Where do you think you are going?

You want to get yourself shot in the street?

- Who are you? - Jan Tyranowski.

And who are you?

You're going to burn your fingers.

One goes out, another lights up.

If you feel you have to talk,

I can keep this up for as long as you like.

You...

You haven't told me your name yet.

Karol.

I have to go now. I'm looking for my friend.

- He's a priest. I need a mass said. - A mass for the dead?

We will win with love, not with guns.

How can you say that with Nazis outside the door?

The Nazis will disappear because evil will devour itself.

But...

But if love doesn't win out,

the Nazis will just come back under a different name.

- Is that what you mean? - Exactly.

St John of the Cross. For you, a surprise.

It will become your bedside reading.

Thank you.

[Karol] You're giving absolution to a Nazi?

History makes good people face terrible choices, too.

They feel like the walking dead because they've been forced to kill their souls first.

I'm here for them more than I am for you.

They killed Wiktor and Krystyna.

I know.

Don't go to their funerals.

The Nazis are just waiting for something like that to arrest all of you.

I'll come join you to celebrate a secret mass.

Tomasz...

But where is the line?

Where is the line that divides those who pay too little from those who pay too much?

And what side am I on?

I don't know.

You're on the side of those who have to hope.

The theatre... My life's dream is all over.

What do you mean?

I can't see anything any more for all the pain.

Everything's so... dark. So dark.

The world is blind and deaf.

Defending culture's not enough.

There's always a gun, but I'd never be able to kill anyone.

I told you,

you must never, ever lose hope.

You must never lose the marvellous meaning of life and love,

despite everything evil men are capable of.

{y:i}[Karol] To get to where you are not,

"you have to pass through where you are not".

{y:i}To reach the place of possessing all, "desire to possess nothing".

{y:i}To reach the place of being all, "desire to be nothing".

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and may perpetual light...

I want to find the same reasons you have to believe and hope.

I want to enter a monastery.

Karol, in times like these, people need priests with them,

not shut up in some monastery.

I've been thinking about what I'm giving up.

I keep thinking about the choice,

the meaning of the choice I want to make.

And I wonder, is it because I want to hide?

Or because I feel guilty for all the pain I see?

Or is there something deeper?

Is God calling me?

John wrote in his Gospel that Jesus said,

"You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."

The door is open. It's up to you now.

[Tomasz saying prayer in Latin]

- "Per Christum, Dominum nostrum". - [All] Amen.

- "Requiescant in pace". - [All] Amen.

The loss of loved ones is always devastating.

The ancients used to find consolation

by saying that the gods called their dearest back to themselves.

But faith is not a consolation. Faith gives meaning to life and death.

Here's to your generous life, Krystyna and Wiktor.

Here's to your courageous deaths.

They give meaning to the dreams...

...that you won't be able to tell us about any more.

"[Karol] Faith is a dark night".

{y:i}Faith is found in the darkness,

{y:i}deep down in man,

{y:i}where the mystery of God and love "lies hidden".

Karol!

Karol!

The dynamite!

Oh, good Christ.

You're so stupid. You'd die for your books.

- Are you all right? - Yes. Books are worth dying for.

You're a worker here. Chisel that into your thick skull.

Here. Put these on before you go blind.

- No, you keep them. - Do as you are told.

We'll need men like you with good eyesight when we start over again.

Nowak...

Dad, Mrs Gedrynska made a nice supper for you.

Dad?

Dad?

[Mourners sing softly]

I remember sitting on your knees

and you used to tell me stories about our heroes.

I liked hearing about the painter, Adam Chmielowski,

who lost his leg in the January Uprising.

You told me

that he gave up art

because he realised that...

...God was calling him to other things.

So he went to live among the disinherited

as someone who'd come to serve those who suffer.

You've left me all alone.

You've left me all alone.

[Hania] Karol.

Have you been waiting for me in the rain all this time?

We're not made of sugar.

- What? - We're not made of sugar.

Karol would say that to me when I didn't want to play soccer in the rain.

I know. I was always there watching you.

Do you remember when we were rehearsing "Romeo and Juliet" for the school play?

Of course I do.

You were Juliet, and you Romeo.

- What else? The lead role. - And I wanted him to be Mercutio.

- Do you remember what you told me? - "I'd rather be a priest."

And I said, "But the priest is just a small role."

And I answered, "I'm not talking about the play. I'm talking about my life."

Having seen the full horror of these times,

everything has been pointing me towards something good.

The priesthood.

For the sake of every single person's dignity

and for the experience of knowing myself through the knowledge of God,

of living God from the inside.

I want to become a priest.

Out of the depths of this evil,

we must bear witness to the fact

that the divine meaning of life is more important than life itself.

That's why I'm here.

The Nazis have closed down the seminary. You're risking your life.

So not even your own mother is to know you'll be studying here.

You'll continue your life as usual but you'll study and meditate with us secretly

every free moment you have during the day.

Hey!

Young man... can you hear me?

Is there a doctor here? This boy's dying.

Ma'am?

- We'll handle this. - [Woman] He's not German.

- We'll get him to a hospital. - It's better you don't touch him. He's Polish.

Don't worry.

Come with me. Come along.

So I'm not dead after all.

Tomasz.

- Jan. - Welcome back.

- Your book helped me to make a choice. - What choice?

The darkness... the light.

You have to get better fast. Our performances aren't the same without you.

- [Tomasz] I know the officer who helped you. - You know him?

He's married with three children.

Right now he's in a lot of danger.

He's been given a command that he has decided to refuse.

[Soldier] I swore to die for the Third Reich.

I am proud to die for the real Germany.

Shame on you.

[Officer shouts orders in German]