The truth came to light years later. Brother Pitt admitted that if he had known, he would not have starred in the film

“Seven Years in Tibet” is a story based on the life of Heinrich Harrer, an alpinist and climber who escaped from an Indian camp as a prisoner and ended up in Tibet, where he befriended the Dalai Lama. The director was Jean-Jacques Annaud, and Brad Pitt played the role of Heinrich Harrer.

He planned to conquer Nanga Parbat. He was taken to a camp and his story was used as a film script

Heinrich Harrer came from Austria. He trained downhill skiing and slalom, but his greatest love was climbing. Together with Andreas Heckmair, Fritz Kaspark and Ludwig Vörg, they conquered the north face of the Eiger (the highest peak in the Bernese Alps). Heinrich Harrer also participated in the expedition to Nanga Parbat, but his plans were thwarted by the outbreak of World War II. The climber was detained and sent to a camp in India, from which he escaped in 1944. Two years later he found himself in Tibet, where he became friends with the 14th Dalai Lama. In 1952, he published the book “Seven Years in Tibet”, which served as the basis for the screenplay of the same title.

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For years he was considered a war hero. It turned out he was in the SS

For many years, Heinrich Harrer was considered a war hero in his homeland, but a few months before the film’s premiere, two journalists showed up at his house. They showed Harre, then 85, a briefcase containing materials confirming that he was in the SS and that he had contacts with the Nazis. The heroic story that Heinrich had been presenting for years fell to pieces, and the man himself tried to convince the public that the journalists’ reports were untrue. — I was a member of the SS for a limited time in 1938. I wore the SS uniform only once, on my wedding day. (…) My conscience is clear regarding my activities during Hitler’s regime — . Brad Pitt, who played the role of Heinrich, also commented on the matter. – If I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have played in this film, he admitted.