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This Movie About Auschwitz Puts ‘The Zone of Interest’ to Shame
People with Israeli flags attend the International March of the Living at the former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Brzezinka near Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
It’s rare that awful films are followed up by excellent ones on the same topic. After the sickening The Zone of Interest erased Jews from its drama and showed a boring life of the commandant of Auschwitz in a way that failed on every level, the new documentary The Commandant’s Shadow succeeds on every level.
The new film is a documentary that centers on Kai Hoss, the grandson of the Auschwitz commandant, Rudolf Hoss. Kai takes his father to Auschwitz, and they realize the enormity of what had taken place there.
Amazingly, in the climax of the film, they go to meet Auschwitz survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch who is mentally sharp at 98, and she asks the men if they have hate for the commandant. There is a disturbing but telling scene where the daughter of the commandant is partly in denial.
Director Daniela Volker knows what she is doing by getting to the root of the idea that while it’s not possible to forgive — nor is it possible to atone — for what an ancestor has done, a gesture is worth something. This is also a fine film to show in classrooms and is highly educational. There is narration from Hoss’ diary, which is some of the best direct evidence of the horrors of the Holocaust.
There is more emotion in any 10 seconds of this film than the entire disaster of The Zone of Interest, which somehow won an Oscar.
Kai Hoss, a pastor, deserves credit for allowing himself to be put on film when most people would hide in shame and not want it known that their grandfather was one of the most notorious murderers of all time.
Maya Lasker Wallfisch has been traumatized by her mother’s experience, and her mother admits that she was more distant than she otherwise would have been. The legacy of Holocaust victims’ children and grandchildren is something that few people contemplate — but this movie shows the legacy of the horrors done to the Jewish people.
In a social media world of disinformation, The Commandant’s Shadow could not be more timely. It is a film with heart and substance, and shows that every person must come to terms with their specific place in the world, grappling with whatever emotional beasts hound them, lest they always remain a prisoner. That a survivor and the progeny of the commandant of Auschwitz would agree to meet is remarkable, and the conversation has chutzpah and truth.
At a time when there are fewer and fewer Holocaust survivors remaining, Wallfisch is a treasure, and this film is a great gift to the world.
Volker avoids being preachy. She doesn’t think this documentary will end antisemitism, but it is some progress that a grandson wants change.
The film is slightly uplifting, and the humanity of the film comes across in a profound way. Bravo.
The author is a writer based in New York.
The post This Movie About Auschwitz Puts ‘The Zone of Interest’ to Shame first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations
Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a Polish-Jewish artist whose work reflected the historic times he lived: the two world wars, the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the birth of the State of Israel. In 1940, with the support of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile, he visited Canada to popularize the struggle against Nazism. […]
The post Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., June 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
President Joe Biden embarks on a series of fundraising events across two states on Saturday as he works to stamp out a crisis of confidence in his re-election campaign following a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit the upscale New York beach enclave known as the Hamptons for a campaign fundraiser hosted by hedge-fund billionaire Barry Rosentein. Later in the day, he will travel to New Jersey for a fundraiser hosted by wealthy New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat.
Fellow hedge-fund founder Eric Mindich and his Tony Award-winning producer wife Stacey, celebrity couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and actor Michael J. Fox are all listed as members of the host committee at the New York event, according to an invitation seen by Reuters.
Biden told a rally in North Carolina on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign he would heed calls from Democrats who want him to drop out of the race.
Biden‘s verbal stumbles and occasionally meandering responses during Thursday night’s debate heightened voter concerns that the 81-year-old might not be fit to serve another four-year term.
The Biden campaign on Saturday boasted it had raised more than $27 million between debate day through Friday evening, but questions remain about whether the debate performance will hurt fundraising, at least in the short term.
The post Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group
Mourners carry a coffin during the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Selm, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
i24 News – The Arab League no longer defines Hezbollah as a proscribed terrorist group, an official said on Saturday.
Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Shiite militia and a proxy of the Islamic regime in Iran, boasts the world’s largest rocket arsenal of any non-state actor. It is animated by the antisemitic ideology of jihad and is committed to the destruction of Israel.
“In earlier Arab League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization, and this designation was reflected in the resolutions,” Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, was quoted in Arab media as saying.
“The League’s member states concurred that the labeling of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization should no longer be employed,” Zaki said, adding that the regional body “does not maintain terrorist lists and does not actively seek to designate entities in such a manner.”
Hezbollah has unleashed numerous rockets, mortars and drones on northern Israel in the past eight months starting on October 8, a day after the Jewish state suffered the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust at the hands of the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas.
The post Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.