The North Star (1943) *

Lillian Hellman was well known for condemning ordinary Germans for their passive acceptance of the Nazi regime. But she was equally guilty of turning a blind eye on the horrors of Stalinism by presenting a naively optimistic view of life in the Soviet Union. Her script for "The North Star" is a case in point. It presents Ukrainian peasants living happily on their collective farm and heroically resisting the Nazi invaders. The historical truth was far more disturbing: having suffered under Stalin's genocidal policies, starving Ukrainians often welcomed Germans as liberators.