I knew several members of the Trapp Family Singers and not one of them was prepared to say a good word about "that film", which they regarded as a complete travesty.
To begin with, the Trapps were never persecuted by the Nazis. Baron von Trapp was
a famous Austro-Hungarian submarine commander in the First World War. Hitler offered him the command of Germany's latest U-boat to get him on board as a figurehead for the new regime. Trapp refused and took the family choir on a foreign tour. Like the rest of the Austrian aristocracy, Baron von Trapp was a monarchist and Austrian patriot, and regarded Hitler and his gang as guttersnipes.
As a portrayal of Austria the film is about as accurate as Brigadoon is of Scotland. The music is pure Hollywood – there is not a single item that was ever sung by the Trapps, who performed only genuine Austrian folk music.
And the famous flight over the mountains never took place. When Hitler annexed Austria in March 1938 the Trapps were on tour in America, and just never went back. After a struggle to prevent deportation, they eventually settled in Vermont, where the new generation runs the family farm to this day.
The full article contains 250 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
