About this Movie
The Commandant's Shadow
This eye-opening documentary follows the real story – recently fictionalized in the Academy Award®-winning film The Zone of Interest – of Hans Jürgen Höss, the now 87-year-old son of Auschwitz camp commandant Rudolf Höss, as he faces his father’s terrible legacy for the first time. While Hans Jürgen enjoyed a happy childhood in his family’s villa at Auschwitz, on the other side of the garden wall, Jewish cellist prisoner Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was playing for her life to survive the notorious concentration camp. Eight decades later, the two come face-to-face alongside their adult children to explore their very different hereditary burdens. Historic and inspiring, The Commandant’s Shadow raises questions about love, guilt, and forgiveness, while serving as a story of hope, acceptance, and compassion.
Starring: Hans Jürgen Höss
Director: Daniela Völker