The Commandant's Shadow

After acquainting us with the histories of a Jewish Auschwitz survivor and the surviving descendants of that premier death camp's longest serving commandant, these improbable interlocutors sit down for a dialogue some eighty years after the fact. In essence, they convene their own miniature truth and reconciliation commission. Hopefully, they create a template that others in future can follow.

The commandant and his family are the same ones portrayed in La zone d'intérêt (2023), a gorgeous tour de force of filmmaking with surprisingly little to say, and in which rather little happens. (The lives of the Höss family did not get really interesting until after liberation.) That film was constructed on the premise that the phrase, "banality of evil" encapsulates some major insight about the Holocaust. Actually, evil's toxicity, seductiveness and delusion have more to do than its "banality" does. The two films taken together leave a far more lasting impression than either one can do separately.

A couple of key details need elucidation: It is not mentioned that Rudolf Höss was brought up to be a Catholic priest. Almost certainly, while he was on the lam in '45 and '46, he could have availed himself of the Catholic priest network that trafficked Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele to South America. Instead, he seemed reconciled and at peace with it being inappropriate for him to go on living.

Also, Rudolf's daughter, Püppi, had been a successful fashion model, married an American, became a US citizen, and held good retail ladies' wear jobs in her later years. Hedwig's death and interment happened in the US. Their family saga would make an interesting movie, resembling Nos merveilleuses années (2020).

A very good and informative documentary the tells more of the story of the the Holocaust. This is not just about the atrocities that occurred at Auschwitz, it's about some of the decedents and survivors and how they deal with it. There has been many films about the Holocaust, this one tells us more of mentally dealing with it, who did it, who survived and what they really know. I suggest we all take a look at this. We cannot change the past, but we do our best to understand it, learn from the successes and mistakes, then strive to not repeat the errors of the past. A Holocaust survivor is asked, "Can it happen again?", and her answer is a bit frightening. She states, "Yes, it could happen again. Look at the world today."

To be honest, I was a little disappointed with this documentary. Occasionally using some truly gruesome archive footage, we are introduced to Hans Höss, the son of the the man who not just commanded the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, but who was largely instrumental in creating the complex in the first place. Loosely using a narration from the autobiography he wrote whilst awaiting trail after the war, we learn a little of the politics that drove this efficient administrator to build a facility that ended up killing ten thousand people a day, whilst seemingly silent at home with his family about just what his day job actually was. Meantime, in London, we meet survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. She's a remarkably stoic character who believes that there is little to be gained by raking over old coals. This is a constant source of chagrin for her daughter Maya, who seems to be living a life that sees her suffer vicariously. It's as if she believes that she has inherited some of her mother's fears and trauma and it's nigh on impossible for her to find closure. To that end, she is determined to reclaim her German citizenship and leave the UK to live in her motherland despite not having a word of German. The gist of the remainder of the film sets out to challenge just how much Hans (he was around four years old at the time) may have known about his father's activities. Has his brain intentionally shut out any memories of these atrocities or does he know more than he claims? It's this slightly confrontational aspect that didn't sit so well with me. There's something bordering on the accusatory about the way in which this man, now eighty years old, is being interviewed - and by his own pastor son Kai, too. Indeed, as we progress the thrust shifts more to the needs of these adult children rather than maintain a more interesting focus on the story of those who were both at the camp at the same time - separated by a thin brick wall that might as well have been a mile wide. The last five minutes generates amongst the most poignant scenarios I've seen on television when the two meet - and that's what I wanted far more of. The blameless child and the blameless victim having an honest chat over a coffee and some strudel about what they remembered, what they knew and most importantly, how mankind might learn from this and just what does it mean to be God's 'chosen people' - indeed for families of considerable faith, just where was God in all of this? With the rise of nationalism and anti-semitism in Europe, could the unthinkable ever actually happen again? It could have been fascinating just to sit and listen to them. Perhaps that wasn't an option - at times Anita didn't seem quite so engaged with the whole process, perhaps having erected her own psychosomatic walls to protect her from the ghastliness of her experiences as she approaches her own significant milestone. These sort of documentaries won't be possible for too much longer, and this is definitely heart-rending, occasionally a little humorous and thought-provoking, but I think just the two with some Riesling would have delivered much more intimate and powerfully.

The Zone of Interest told the story of Rudolf Hoess, the family man. Hoess was the commandant of Auschwitz and was - in the words of his grandson - responsible for more murders than anyone else in history. Hoess lived with his wife and children in a beautiful house just outside the camp. This film centres mainly on his son, Hans-Jurgen, who was seven or eight years old when the war ended.

He obviously has a child's memory of the camp, recalls his father as a loving parent, and considers his childhood a happy one. Pressed by his own son, Kai, he says he didn't know what was going on over the garden wall. Kai asks if he's repressed his memories out of self-defence. The old man doubts this, but it's difficult to believe that he hasn't. He seems to have spent most of his life avoiding questions about his father. Frankly, I don't blame him.

Hans is also reunited with his older sister, now living in America (and who, for unexplained reasons, he's not met for more than fifty years). She is equally certain that she didn't know the truth at the time, and doesn't want to talk about it now. Confronted directly, she finds it very hard to say a bad word about either of her parents - though it's notable that her mother's grave (she died in 1989) just says "Mutti" (German for Mummy). The Hoess name is absent.

A second strand of this film concerns Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, now ninety-eight but still with sharp wits. She survived Auschwitz because she was wanted for the camp orchestra. She's remarkably stoic, and discusses the past reluctantly, and with a lack of passion. Her daughter Maya, however, is a restless soul who wants to know about the family history. Though born and brought up in Britain, she wants to move "back" to Germany - even though her parents' home town is now in Poland. She also visits a memorial to her grandparents (and others).

It's significant that it's the younger generation - Kai and Maya - who feel a need to learn the truth, whilst the older generation needs to have it teased from them.

At the end of the film, Hans and Anita meet. It's strangely anti-climactic. But then, what could either of them say? What could anyone say?

Are the sins - and the sufferings - of the parents to be visited on their descendants? It seems that here they are. It's been eighty years, but World War Two hasn't yet claimed its last victim.