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Fictional Film Set at Auschwitz Is Offensive and Lacks Power

The sign “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work makes you free”) is pictured at the main gate of the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland. Reuters/Pawel Ulatowski

At a time of rising antisemitism, when college presidents are okay with calls for Jewish genocide and younger Americans are getting false information about Jews from social media, an informative film about the Holocaust could be helpful.

Unfortunately, the new film, The Zone of Interest, removes Jews from the Holocaust. I knew this going in, as it’s based on the Martin Amis novel of the same name, which focuses on a Nazi (Rudolf Hoss) who is the commandant of Auschwitz, as well as his wife and children.

We see Hoss in his underwear, doing mundane things, with his family acting like regular people. Who cares?

There are movies that focus on Christians who resisted the Nazis, either with violence or means of protest. There’s the 2001 film Conspiracy, with Kenneth Branagh as SS General Reinhard Heydrich, one of Heinrich Himmler’s top deputies. The film centers on the Nazi leaders who came together for the Wannsee Conference in which details of the Final Solution were agreed upon. They are fine films. One can make a Holocaust movie without Jews if it has an emotional punch regarding the epic brutality that took place. This film doesn’t even have a slap.

The Zone of Interest is the most offensive Holocaust movie I’ve seen.

You are supposed to be enamored by the fact that the actors didn’t know where the cameras were. I’m not. There is supposed to be some harrowing feeling seeing the smoke rise from the most notorious death camp in history, without seeing any of the actual Jews in pain. In one of the most bizarre cuts in film history, the movie suddenly jumps from the Holocaust to see current day shoes belonging to Jews who were slaughtered by Nazis behind museum glass. Don’t give me shoes. Give me the people who stood in them.
I was well aware that The Zone of Interest was shot near Auschwitz, and that the house of the commandant was re-created based on the exact specifications. What a complete waste of time! I was well aware the supposed “point” of the film was to show that Nazi families were regular people who played with their kids. Then, the father went to a death camp where Jews were slaughtered in systemic fashion in numbers never seen in the world.

But the movie fails as art. The key is to make someone feel something. There must be conflict. There is virtually none in this film.

As Hoss, actor Christian Friedel is completely mechanical, no doubt on purpose, so he is not to blame. Whenever we see him, there is no reason to care. Are we to think he is ordinary like you and me, and we could have done the same as he? No, we would not all have done the same, and if some of us would, that’s not an excuse for a boring movie.

I am not surprised to see many critics praise the film when it should be lambasted. That is due to what I call “The Emperor Has No Clothes Phenomenon.” It must be an amazing film, or else they admit they are not intellectual enough to “get” what director Jonathan Glazer is doing.

Nonsense.

You may ask: “Isn’t the point to show that people were able to go about their lives and then be evil? Isn’t this a message relevant today — that we shouldn’t go about our lives and ignore carnage that is taking place all over the world?”

That could only be achieved if there was something in the film that was worthwhile.

I’m well aware of Hannah Arendt and the phrase “the banality of evil.” That isn’t an excuse for a movie that is devoid of feeling and effort. There is no tension in any scene. We deserved a better movie than this.

The author is a writer based in New York.

The post Fictional Film Set at Auschwitz Is Offensive and Lacks Power first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi lays a wreath as he visits the burial site of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, on the outskirts of Beirut, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

A member of Lebanese armed group Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli air strike on Tehran alongside a member of an Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group, a senior Lebanese security source told Reuters and the Iraqi group said on Saturday.

The source identified the Hezbollah member as Abu Ali Khalil, who had served as a bodyguard for Hezbollah’s slain chief Hassan Nasrallah. The source said Khalil had been on a religious pilgrimage to Iraq when he met up with a member of the Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada group.

They traveled together to Tehran and were both killed in an Israeli strike there, along with Khalil’s son, the senior security source said. Hezbollah has not joined in Iran’s air strikes against Israel from Lebanon.

Kataeb Sayyed Al-Shuhada published a statement confirming that both the head of its security unit and Khalil had been killed in an Israeli strike.

Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli aerial attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September.

Israel and Iran have been trading strikes for nine consecutive days since Israel launched attacks on Iran, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it does not seek nuclear weapons.

The post Israeli Strike on Tehran Kills Bodyguard of Slain Hezbollah Chief first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip

Israeli soldiers operate during a ground operation in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, July 3, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS

i24 News – The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), in cooperation with the General Security Service (Shin Bet), announced on Friday the killing of Ibrahim Abu Shamala, a senior financial official in Hamas’ military wing.

The operation took place on June 17th in the central Gaza Strip.

Abu Shamala held several key positions, including financial officer for Hamas’ military wing and assistant to Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing until his elimination in March 2024.

He was responsible for managing all the financial resources of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, overseeing the planning and execution of the group’s war budget. This involved handling and smuggling millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip to fund Hamas’ military operations.

The post Hamas Financial Officer and Commander Eliminated by IDF in the Gaza Strip first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS

i24 News – Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, the New York Times reported on Saturday citing unnamed Iranian officials. It is understood the Ayatollah fears he could be assassinated in the coming days.

Khamenei reportedly mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications.

Khamenei has designated three senior religious figures as candidates to replace him as well as choosing successors in the military chain of command in the likely event that additional senior officials be eliminated.

Earlier on Saturday Israel confirmed the elimination of Saeed Izadi and Bhanam Shahriari.

Shahriari, head of Iran’s Quds Force Weapons Transfer Unit, responsible for arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was killed in an Israeli airstrike over 1,000 km from Israel in western Iran.

The post Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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