For years, the aging film was just another home movie Duane Thomp son Jr.’s father would show on an old projector.
As the black-and-white film opens with a sign proclaiming 1938, a procession makes its way through an old German town, banners and flags flowing. As the camera pans up, a sobering sight emerges – the flags carry the Nazi swastika.
“When I was a boy, it was just an old film that had horses on it and people,” says Thompson, 57, of Centennial. “Now, of course, you notice the swastikas and realize that it’s not your typical parade.”
The film has created a bond between the Thompson family and the small German town of Stendal, where someone filmed a parade celebrating the 600th anniversary of the town’s Winckelmann prep school.
For the residents of Stendal, the film represents a piece of the small German town’s history, much of it lost in the destruction of World War II.
“We are very happy about the rescue of the film,” Simone Habendorf, Stendal’s city archivist, wrote in a recent letter to Thompson. The film “represents an important document of the Hitler era in our town, much of which had been destroyed after 1945.”
Alumni of the Winckelmann school, which is still standing, are reuniting, with plans to show images captured from the film that Thomp son’s father handed down to his sons, along with an old Zeiss Ikon 16mm film projector.
Stendal’s response has been a pleasant surprise for Duane Thomp son and his brother, Joe Thomp son, 54, of Colorado Springs.
For years, the siblings thought little about the 100-foot- long roll of film.
That changed a few years ago when Joe began researching his father’s service in the U.S. Army.
Sgt. Duane Thompson Sr., a medic in Gen. George S. Patton’s 5th Armored Division, never spoke about the war to his family.
“Dad never talked to anybody about the war,” Duane Thompson said. “And the film held little significance to us. In fact, when we were boys, we threaded the old projector with the film just as practice.”
Their father never told them where the old projector or the film came from. Through his research, Joe Thompson learned his father’s division rolled through Stendal near the end of the war.
Robert David, chief executive of The CinemaLab, a film-preservation company in Englewood, said home movies and films often are overlooked for years.
“When (Duane) brought the film in to us to look at, it didn’t seem like a big deal to him,” David said. “I started to look at it, and it was just very unusual. We can tell a lot by looking at the film. For instance, we can tell that it’s definitely a black- and-white original with very striking images and a very striking subject.”
The CinemaLab transferred the film to DVD.
The Thompson brothers are in touch with several foundations and film schools to discuss preserving the film.
The brothers hope the publicity in Stendal will lead to new details about their father.
“Chances are very slim that we’ll ever know exactly how he got the film, but maybe someone in Germany recalls having the projector,” Joe Thompson said.
Said Duane Thompson: “The fact that it means so much to the people in Stendal means a lot to us.”
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1173 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
