Peter Bodie casts little shade in his review of the powerful documentary The Commandant’s Shadow.
Rudolf Höss was a mass murderer. As the Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, under his watch, over two million human beings were gassed or worked to death. Their bodies were cremated within its walls. Höss orchestrated this atrocity. Sure, he was taking orders from higher up Nazis but there can be no excuse for violence on this scale. In hindsight, he got off easy. After the Nuremberg Trials he received a “death by hanging” sentence, retaining a feeble dignity, unlike his victims. The Auschwitz numbers of deaths are staggering. The horror is so great it’s near impossible to absorb yet the survivors and their descendants still live with the pain, injustice and misery to this day. Even after more than 80 years, the enormity of the ‘Final Solution’ still casts a long shadow.
The Commandant’s Shadow is a slow-paced, yet overwhelming documentary that explores the ongoing impact of this violence. The film opens with an overview of Höss and the circumstances that turned him into such a callous figure. As one speaker suggests, Höss was “responsible for killing more people than anyone else in history.” The focus is then turned to one direct survivor and her daughter as well as Höss’ son and grandson. One existed within the walls while one enjoyed his childhood just outside. None of them can ever forget or escape the consequences.
Anita Lasker Wallfisch was spared death because she was an accomplished cellist and the Camp Orchestra lacked a cello player. The musician’s job was to play “uplifting” marches while the unfortunate new arrivals were selected for either the gas chambers or forced labour. Her worst memories are not delved into. She is resolute in her “life must go on” attitude but the lens captures her deep sadness. Having migrated to England after the war she faced a haunting sense of loss, and PTSD, which alienated her from her daughter Maya Lasker Wallfisch.
Hans Jurgen Höss, the son of the Commandant, wears a glazed look. He reads from his father’s autobiography. The horrific reality of these written words clash with his memories of an idyllic childhood. He lived, totally unaware of the genocidal activity conducted in the buildings beside his home, all enacted by the man who raised him. As Hans approaches the end of his days, he is woefully conflicted. He has spent a lifetime dealing with the sins of Höss. Hans’ own son is a pastor in the USA. Under questioning he agrees that he would probably regard his grandfather with hatred if he were alive today. The weight of this film hangs on one powerful scene, where Hans and his son travel to London to meet Anita at her home. The camera quietly observes this emotional firepit.
Writer/Director Daniela Völker retains a sense of decorum and restraint throughout The Commandant’s Shadow. Resisting the temptation to preach fury and outrage, she takes a deft approach as she shows how the horrors and echoes of that bloody war still resonate in today’s society. The documentary raises many questions but deliberately offers no solutions. The themes of intergenerational trauma, of the futility of violence, explored in this film are unfortunately more relevant than ever given the current state of world politics. What do they say about history repeating itself?
The Commandant’s Shadow is available to stream online now.
