The Commandant’s Shadow
Daniela Völker’s documentary provides a valuable record of how the impact of the Holocaust has affected subsequent generations.
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
The commandant of the title is Rudolf Höss who was in charge of the Auschwitz concentration camp so it is not surprising to find that most reviews of this documentary by Daniela Völker refer to the much-applauded 2023 feature film The Zone of Interest which re-created the life of Höss and his family in those terrible times. However, making that connection might suggest that this new piece is a subsidiary work concerned with the same issues that were central to Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar-winner. It is important, therefore, to stress that the ground covered by Daniela Völker despite having the same roots is very different.
Just how different is immediately apparent from the fact that The Commandant’s Shadow features two families whereas Glazer, working from a novel by Martin Amis, concentrated on just one (it depicted the home life of the Höss family in the period when they carried on a normal lifestyle in a house close beside the camp in which over a million people were exterminated). The Höss family remains part of the focus here and, in terms of the historical archive used together with the extracts that are read from his autobiography, Rudolf himself undoubtedly plays a significant role. Nevertheless, the family members with whom we are most concerned are Rudolf’s son Hans Jürgen, now aged 87, and his son, Kai, aged 62. As for the other family involved here, a family whose role in this documentary is equally large, they are represented by 98-year-old Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and her daughter Maya. One soon realises that the subject of The Commandant’s Shadow is the impact on more than one generation of what happened in Auschwitz, be it that the family history involved victims or perpetrators.
Daniela Völker appears to have had ready access to all of the film’s contributors even extending to Inge-Brigitt Höss known as Püppi, a sister of Hans Jürgen, who was interviewed at her home in America shortly before she died aged 90. Given that there are still those who deny that the Holocaust ever happened, it is appropriate that what we learn of the past history of both families should involve substantial footage from Auschwitz itself. Anita Laskaer-Wallfisch, thoroughly alert and lively still at 98, can speak direct to camera about her parents and her German Jewish family, but for the Höss history a major source comprises the autobiography written by Rudolf Höss while he was in prison under arrest and heard here in extract form in voice over. Nevertheless, even more central to this film are the different attitudes reflected in the outlooks of the four central figures.
In the case of Hans Jürgen and his son, we see how the father has been in denial for years claiming that he was unfamiliar with the Rudolf Höss autobiography and persuading himself that his father's involvement with the camp was essentially a matter of paperwork carried out while following orders. In contrast, Kai, who is now a pastor living in Southern Germany, regards his grandfather as a monster and does not hesitate to say so while seeking to distance himself from the biblical view in the Old Testament that the sins of the fathers are visited on their children. As regards Anita and her daughter, there is a contrast of a different kind, one that echoes the fictional story recently told in the film Treasure. Anita came to England and had a very successful career as a cellist but surviving the trauma of the camp and building a new life for herself involved not talking about what she had experienced. Distancing herself led to an inability to empathise fully with her daughter and Maya speaks candidly of a sad childhood in consequence. As an adult who has become a psychotherapist, Maya has chosen to live in Berlin, to face up to the family history directly and, as we see here, to visit Auschwitz in the company of Hans Jürgen and Kai. Anita when requested to join them on that visit refused but was willing to meet Hans Jürgen and Kai at her home in London and to talk person to person.
Comparable issues to some of those central to The Commandant's Shadow were treated by Philippe Sands for the 2015 film My Nazi Legacy directed by David Evans which featured two sons of Nazis reacting very differently to what their fathers had done. Even so, it's a theme that deserves wide treatment and that makes this new documentary very welcome. I have to admit that my rating here may be on the kind side since Daniela Völker’s film doesn't always fit together easily. Moving from one family to the other as well as back-and-forth in time and from location to location impedes the flow of the piece. It can also be argued that the now familiar scenes of the horrors of Auschwitz are more impactful when used more sparingly than is the case here and another very different point that arises is the film’s failure to investigate the key change of attitude on the part of Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. This splendid woman has in recent years appeared in many television works speaking out about the Holocaust but we never learn how that came about in contrast to the many years when she would not talk about it (but perhaps that's a subject for another film). I do feel, however, that the value of what is expressed in this film is important enough – and not least in today's world with anti-Semitism on the rise – for any reservations about the film to be relatively unimportant. This is not just a variation on The Zone of Interest but a work that goes well beyond that and speaks more clearly as a warning for today than Glazer’s film did.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Featuring Hans Jürgen Höss, Kai Höss, Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Maya Lasker-Wallfisch, Inge-Brigitt Höss and the voice of Klemens Koehring.
Dir Daniela Völker, Pro Gloria Abramoff and Daniela Völker, Screenplay Daniela Völker, Ph Rob Goldie and Piotr Trela, Ed Clare Guillon, Music Gabriel Chwojnik.
HBO Documentary Films/New Mandate Films/Creators Inc./Warner Bros.-Warner Bros.
103 mins. USA/Israel/Poland/UK/Germany. 2024. US Rel: 29 May 2024. UK Rel: 12 July 2024. Cert. 12A.
