Michael's Movie Grade: A+
An incredibly powerful documentary.
This movie follows the son and grandson of Rudolf Höss, the Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The son who actually lived next to the camp with his father as kid never knew what horrors were happening next door. The grandson, a pastor of a Christian church in the U.S. has always had trouble coming to terms with the fact that he could be related to a real-life monster. We also see his daughter, who seems to be in complete denial as to how horrible of a person her father was, probably because if she faced it, it would simply be too much to bear. This is interspersed with texts being read from Rudolf Höss' autobiography.
No matter how ready you think you may be for this movie, you can never be prepared for the sheer emotional impact this film will have on you. There is not a moment here that is pleasant to watch and there are times it becomes almost unbearable. However, that is exactly why it must be seen. After this, it is impossible to any longer simply view the holocaust as some words you read in a history book. It instead becomes all too real and all too hard to take. It makes us face the fact that those who were behind these atrocities, were people like the ones we meet every day. That there were kids who called these people, "dad." This also causes us to look at antisemitism and any form of prejudice and remind ourselves that we can never let this happen again. This is why we study history and why we need to not just view it as some words in a book. This movie makes us greatly uncomfortable and that is why it serves as a stark and important warning of what people are truly capable of. This is especially disturbing when we hear Rudolf Höss' words themselves. They are so cold and vivid, that it is startling to hear that a real-life human being wrote them. The scene where the son and grandson went to Auschwitz and saw the legacy of Rudolf Höss is powerful beyond anything words can describe. They are at a loss of words after seeing it and so are we. As the end credits to this film rolled, I found myself so overcome with emotion that I just sat and stared silently at the screen. It is rare when any film can have this kind of impact on you, but I this is one of the few.
Though it may be difficult to sit through I believe that every single person in the world should see this movie. And I am so grateful to director Daniela Volker and everyone involved with this film.
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