RSS
New Documentary Traces Auschwitz Commandant’s Son as He Reckons With His Father’s Past
Hans Jürgen Höss (left), the 87-year-old son of Rudolf Höss, with his own son in a scene from “The Commandant’s Shadow.” Photo: YouTube screenshot
A trailer debuted on Monday for a new documentary about the son of the commandant of Auschwitz coming to terms with his father’s notorious legacy and his own childhood growing up next door to the Nazi death camp in Poland.
The Commandant’s Shadow follows 87-year-old Hans Jürgen Höss, whose late father, Rudolf Höss, was the camp commandant of Auschwitz during World War II and helped oversee the murder of over 1 million Jews during the Holocaust. Höss’s family life inspired the recent Academy Award-winning film The Zone of Interest, but while that film fictionalized the family’s story, The Commandant’s Shadow details the lives of the real people who lived on site at Höss’s death camp.
Hans Jurgen Höss says in the film that he had a “really lovely and idyllic childhood” growing up next door to the Auschwitz concentration camp, while Jews suffered in the extermination camp nearby. The film also introduces viewers to Jewish Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and the historic moment, eight decades after the Holocaust, when she meets the son of the Auschwitz commandant face-to-face. The film additionally features original excerpts of Rudolf Höss’s autobiography, which was written not long before his execution.
The elder Höss was captured by the British after World War II, testified in the Nuremberg Trials, and sentenced to death. He was ordered to write his autobiography in the weeks between his trial and his execution, which took place in Auschwitz. He was hanged in 1947 in the courtyard next to the former gas chambers.
Filmmaker Daniela Völker spent four years writing, producing, and directing The Commandant’s Shadow, which she started developing during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
The Commandant’s Shadow will be released in theaters across the US on May 29, with an encore presentation the following day, as part of a partnership between Fathom Events and Warner Bros. Pictures. Screenings will be available in more than 500 theaters. Tickets are on sale online from Fathom Events and participating theater box offices.
“This documentary is an incredible look at the reality of Auschwitz through the eyes of those who experienced it in very different ways,” said Ray Nutt, CEO of Fathom Events. “We are very pleased to again partner with Warner Bros. to bring this very important film to the big screen.”
Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros. Pictures, added: “We are always looking for opportunities to partner with our friends at Fathom, and The Commandant’s Shadow is especially worthy of this kind of event-ized theatrical release. This real and raw documentary tells not one but two truly moving stories that will connect to the hearts and minds of audiences, and we’re proud to be able to share it with them through our Fathom program.”
Watch the trailer for The Commandant’s Shadow below.
The post New Documentary Traces Auschwitz Commandant’s Son as He Reckons With His Father’s Past first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login