Berlin was burning. It was 1943. Most people think of Nazi Germany as a monolithic block of grey uniforms and terror, but for Lilly Wust and Felice Schragenheim, it was the backdrop of a desperate, illicit, and deeply complicated love affair. If you haven’t seen the film Aimee and Jaguar, you’re missing out on one of the most raw depictions of the Holocaust ever put to celluloid. It’s not just a "war movie." Honestly, it’s a psychological study of what happens when privilege meets a death sentence.
Max Färberböck didn't make a movie about saints. That’s why it works.
The Real Story Behind the Screenplay
The film is based on the 1994 book by Erica Fischer, which itself was built on the real-life interviews and diaries of Lilly Wust. Lilly was the quintessential "Aryan" housewife. She had four kids and a husband off fighting at the front. She even had a Cross of Honour of the German Mother. She was "Aimee." Then she met Felice Schragenheim, a Jewish woman living underground in Berlin, working for a Nazi newspaper under a fake name to gather intel. Felice was "Jaguar."
They fell in love. Fast.
It sounds like a Hollywood trope, but the reality was terrifying. Felice was a member of the German resistance, a "U-boat"—the term for Jews living secretly in the heart of the Reich. While Lilly was living a life of relative comfort, Felice was playing a high-stakes game of poker with the Gestapo every single day.
Why the 1999 Film Hit Different
When the film dropped in 1999, it caused a massive stir. It wasn't just the lesbian subject matter, though that was a big deal at the time. It was the way it portrayed Lilly. Maria Schrader and Juliane Köhler played the leads with this frantic, almost manic energy.
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You see, Lilly wasn't some political rebel. In the beginning, she was basically a Nazi supporter—or at least someone who benefited from the system without questioning it. Watching her "awakening" isn't a clean, heroic arc. It’s messy. It’s filled with her own internal biases and a sort of naive selfishness that makes you want to shake her.
Felice, played by Schrader, is the opposite. She’s sharp. Witty. Terrified but hiding it under a layer of bravado. The film captures that specific "dance on the volcano" vibe that existed in Berlin toward the end of the war. People were partying while the bombs fell because, frankly, what else was there to do?
Fact vs. Fiction: What the Movie Gets Right
One of the most intense scenes in the film involves a "marriage contract" the two women signed. That actually happened. In the middle of a genocide, they wrote out formal vows to each other. It’s a bit of a middle finger to the Nuremberg Laws, if you think about it.
- The Diaries: Much of the dialogue is pulled or inspired by the actual correspondence between the two.
- The Arrest: The film depicts Felice's arrest occurring after a day at the lake. This is factually accurate. It was August 21, 1944. The Gestapo were waiting.
- The Children: Lilly’s four sons were very much part of the household, and the tension of bringing a Jewish woman into a home with children who were being indoctrinated at school is a major, realistic pressure point in the narrative.
There’s this misconception that everyone in Berlin was a mindless drone or a secret hero. The film Aimee and Jaguar shows the third option: the people just trying to find a scrap of happiness while the world ended.
The E-E-A-T Factor: Why This Story Matters in 2026
If you’re looking at this from a historical perspective, the film serves as a vital record of the "Forgotten Victims" of the Third Reich. Paragraph 175, the law criminalizing homosexuality, was strictly enforced, though it technically targeted men more than women. However, lesbianism was viewed as "asocial" behavior. For Felice, the danger was doubled. She was Jewish and she was queer.
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Historians like Dagmar Herzog have pointed out that the "erotic life" of the Third Reich is often ignored in favor of military history. This film forces you to look at it. It shows that desire doesn't stop just because there’s a curfew or a yellow star.
The Real Lilly Wust
Lilly lived a long time. She passed away in 2006 at the age of 92. Up until her death, she kept Felice’s letters and photos. She never really "moved on" in the traditional sense. Some critics argue the film romanticizes a woman who was, for a time, a Nazi collaborator. That’s a fair critique. But the film doesn't shy away from her flaws. It shows her as a woman who was awakened to the horror of her own society only when it threatened the person she loved.
Is that true heroism? Maybe not. Is it human? Absolutely.
Technical Brilliance and the "Berlin Look"
The cinematography by Tony Imi is spectacular. Berlin looks claustrophobic. Even in the outdoor scenes, there’s a sense of being watched. The color palette is muted—lots of browns, greys, and deep reds. It feels like a bruise.
The music, too, is haunting. It uses period-appropriate sounds but twists them, making the jaunty cabaret music feel ominous. It’s that contrast that makes the film stick in your brain days after the credits roll.
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Actionable Insights for History and Film Buffs
If you're interested in diving deeper into the world of Aimee and Jaguar, don't just stop at the movie.
- Read the Original Book: Erica Fischer’s Aimee & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943 contains actual photos and transcriptions of the letters. The movie is great, but the raw text of their letters is heartbreaking in a way cinema can't quite capture.
- Visit the Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism: If you ever find yourself in Berlin, this memorial in the Tiergarten is a sobering reminder of the context in which Felice and Lilly lived.
- Watch "The Edelweiss Pirates": For another look at the underground youth and resistance movements in wartime Germany, this film pairs well with the themes of rebellion found in Aimee and Jaguar.
- Explore the Jewish Museum Berlin: They have extensive archives on the lives of "U-boats" and the specific challenges faced by those living underground.
The film Aimee and Jaguar isn't a comfortable watch. It’s not meant to be. It’s a story about the intersection of love, guilt, and survival. It reminds us that history isn't just dates and battles—it's people making impossible choices in the dark.
For anyone researching the LGBTQ+ experience during the Holocaust, this film remains the gold standard for dramatized history. It avoids the "sainted victim" trope and instead gives us two complicated, breathing women who tried to build a world for themselves when the one they lived in was trying to erase them.
To truly understand the era, look past the uniforms and into the small apartments of Berlin. That's where the real history happened. Felice Schragenheim was eventually sent to Theresienstadt and then likely died on a death march from Gross-Rosen to Bergen-Belsen. Lilly spent the rest of her life mourning her. That's the reality. It’s brutal, it’s beautiful, and it’s a story that demands to be remembered without the varnish of a happy ending.