Auschwitz commandant's family faces legacy in new documentary

On 16 April 1947, Rudolf Höss, the commandant of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, was hanged at the very site where he oversaw the extermination of over a million people. A few days before his execution, he wrote letters to his wife and children. One of the recipients was Hans Jürgen Höss, the protagonist of the documentary "The Commandant's Shadow".

"Keep your good heart. Become a person who lets himself be guided primarily by warmth and humanity. Learn to think and judge for yourself, responsibly. Don’t accept everything without criticism and as absolutely true... The biggest mistake of my life was that I believed everything faithfully which came from the top, and I didn’t dare to have the least bit of doubt about the truth of that which was presented to me. ... In all your undertakings, don’t just let your mind speak, but listen above all to the voice in your heart," Rudolf Höss wrote in his farewell letter to his son.

The commandant of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was one of the few, if not the only, Nazi criminals who admitted his guilt and expressed remorse. However, this does not change the fact that, from May 1940 to November 1943, he planned and organised the death of over a million people.

The documentary "The Commandant's Shadow" will premiere on 12 July. It tells the story of Rudolf Höss's family, who must confront the legacy left by their father and grandfather and the family of one of his victims.

Hans Jürgen Höss, one of the commandant's sons, turned 87. As a little boy, he enjoyed a happy childhood in a villa just beyond the walls of the Auschwitz camp and was unaware of what was happening in his vicinity. At the same time, Jewish cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch played for her life in the camp.

80 years later, Hans and Anita meet in London. Their children also participate in this poignant event. "The Commandant's Shadow" is also the story of the relationship between a daughter and her mother and a father and his son, developing in the shadow of the events at the Auschwitz camp, which left a mark not only on these two families but influenced entire generations. The film also features original excerpts from Rudolf Höss's autobiography, "Commandant of Auschwitz," written shortly before his execution.