On the 26th of January, SFERA International organized a movie night. Two Dutch volunteers organized the movie night by showing a Dutch movie about the Second World War. The movie is called “RIPHAGEN” and is based on a true story about Bernardus Andries Riphagen. He is a war criminal from the Netherlands. During the war, he worked with the Nazis. He betrayed the Jews and blackmailed many people. He has earned a lot of money through his criminal acts. Riphagen was never brought to justice.

The movie itself portrayed how confusing the war could be. There was this resistance group, and there was a Jan. Jan, who worked for the resistance while also working for the Dutch police, and another girl worked for the Nazis while also being part of the resistance group. It was hard to know who you could trust. At the end of the movie, Jan wanted to bring justice by arresting Riphangen. However, he was killed by him.

When the movie ended, we had a short discussion about the movie with everyone who attended. We talked about what they thought they would do in certain situations. For example, if a person threatened to kill somebody you love, would you “prevent” (you can never know if the other person will keep their word) their death by betraying other people?

Although the movie could be a little confusing at times. It was a really interesting movie to see the side of a war criminal and not a hero.