Pastor Hall – 1940 | 95mins | Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Stirring wartime drama based on a real incident from the Boulting brothers. In the remote German village of Altdorf in 1934, oppression by the Nazi regime causes Line (Lina Barrie) to commit suicide. The pastor, Frederick Hall (Wilfred Lawson), denounces the Nazis and urges the village to resist. He is arrested and sent to a concentration camp where he is humiliated, beaten, and tortured. A former villager, Heinrich (Bernard Miles), helps him to escape, but the pastor returns to his church to preach a last sermon to his congregation. As the pastor leaves storm troopers shoot him – for allegedly trying to ‘escape’.

This film is based on Ernst Toller’s 1937 play Pastor Hall, the true story of Protestant minister Martin Niemuller, who was interned at Dachau concentration camp for criticising the Nazi party. When originally released in an isolationist America the controversial film was heavily criticized and censored.