Palestine, 1917. Rudolf Höss, barely 16 years old, receives the Iron Cross for his bravery in combat against the English. He will return home with only one obsession: to serve his country in whatever he is ordered to do. Palestine again, around 1937. Dr. Laskera German lawyer of Jewish descent, visits the area but has no desire to move. He will return home thinking that Hitler It cannot be so criminal nor the Germans so foolish.
One will become the creator and boss of Auschwitz, and promoter of the use of Zyklon B gas to accelerate the so-called Final Solution. The other will be one of its millions of victims. From the family Lasker Only the daughter remained alive. Now, in London, already elderly, Hans Jurgen Hössson of the murderer, visits the daughter of those unfortunate people, Anita Laskerand they share a snack.
Once, unwittingly, they were neighbors. He was a boy who lived like a prince with his brothers in the military quarter, as described in the Oscar-winning film “Zone of interest”Now he visits with shy tenderness that childhood home, almost bordering the wall of the concentration camp.
There, just crossing the wall, Anitaan early teenager, survived by playing the cello in the Auschwitz orchestra, an orchestra that entertained the soldiers and accompanied the march of the condemned to the gas chamber. That was more than 80 years ago, and neither of them wanted to remember it.
But her daughter, mobilized by what they call second generation traumaand his son, burdened with guilt for what his grandfather had done, insisted on knowing everything, and having everything in mind. They planned the old man’s journey Hans through the countryside, under a reddish sky at dawn, and the encounter with the venerable Anitanow 98 years old, still a smoker and with a firm voice.
That’s what the documentary is about. Daniela Volker “The Commander’s Shadow”. Two other shadows stretch across the Palestinian desert at dusk, at the beginning of the film. They are those of the old man and his son, an evangelical pastor obsessed by a curse of the Old Testament (Deuteronomy cap. 20) which is now obsolete, as the New explains.
Alternating with that and other tours, such as the visit to Inge-Briggit, the sister of Hans Once a haute couture model, Allied, Polish and Russian newsreels begin to appear with scenes from the commander’s life and downfall, and paragraphs read offscreen from his dubious memoirs, written in prison, and his will.
“They never understood that I have a heart too”is one of his phrases as shocking as it is shocking, and this would give for another film. In fact, there is one, “Aus einem Deutschen Leben”a German life, raw biopic where only the name has been changed Rudolf Höss by that of Franz Langthe false name he used when he tried to escape from justice.
Unique detail, in “The Commander’s Shadow” There is also a news report about his widow’s appearance in court long after the war, when they wanted to know what nostalgia kept her going. Today they both rest in the same grave.
“The Commander’s Shadow” (USA, 2024); Dir.: Daniela Volker. Documentary. Max.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
