Is This Progress, Or Regression?

With World War II now more than 60 years behind us, a long-enduring taboo may be starting to show signs of a crack. But surely it can’t really be the case that filmmakers are beginning to create sympathetic depictions of Nazis? Well, not exactly. But “the sheer horror of German civilian suffering, and the despairing heroism of its shattered armies” now seems to be fair game, as do “scenes of numbed Germans shuffling through the Third Reich’s ruins.”