The Commandant's Shadow

The Commandant's Shadow is a documentary about Auschwitz told from two polar opposite point of views.  The first, that of Hans Hoss, the son of the camp's Commandant, a mere child during the war. On the other side Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, a feisty survivor of the camp who went on to some fame as a musician in England. 

Neither party is overly engaged with the film or its pursuits. Anita, perhaps to protect her own mind from the horror of her memories, confines Auschwitz to the past and finds little point in discussing it further.  Hoss, himself an innocent child during the Holocaust, is visibly troubled by be continuing burden he carries for actions that were not his own, and finds it hard to separate the loving father from the violent Nazi of history.

That dual reluctance unbalances the entire film, because it's inarguable that it is Anita's daughter Maya who is demanding the spotlight, and the two women clearly share a relationship that is tense, if loving.  Maya seems almost bitter that her mother shuns the spotlight she herself desires, and the viewer feels the strange urge to scream at the screen that you are not a victim, this is not your pain, this is not your story to tell! Likewise, Hoss is pushed by his own son to dig up his father's past. 

Certainly there is value in confronting the past and getting a discussion on the record. To do so, however, in clear opposition to the wishes of those victimized by that past . . . it is uncomfortable at best, unconscionable at worst. 

Grade: A-