The Commandant’s Shadow

The Commandant’s Shadow

Tuesday 25 February
7pm GMT

in collaboration with the Finchley Reform Synagogue Belarus Project

Join us for this special screening of the film The Commandant’s Shadow.

Screening includes a Q&A with Daniela Volker, Producer-Director; Wendy Robbins, Executive Producer (and FRS member); and Maya Lasker-Wallfisch, author and educator specialising in transgenerational trauma and protagonist in the film.

Two lives. Two stories. One wall that divided them. Witness the historic moment over 70 years after the Holocaust when the son of the Commandant of Auschwitz meets an incredible survivor.

From Warner Bros. Pictures and HBO Documentary Films comes filmmaker Daniela Völker’s timely and poignant documentary “The Commandant’s Shadow,” which follows Hans Jürgen Höss, the 87-year-old son of Rudolf Höss, as he faces his father’s terrible legacy for the first time. His father was the Camp Commandant of Auschwitz and masterminded the murder of over a million Jews; the life of Höss and his family was recently fictionalized in the Academy Award-winning “The Zone of Interest.” Now, “The Commandant’s Shadow” tells the story of the real people who lived on site at Höss’s death camp.

While Hans Jurgen Höss enjoyed a happy childhood in the family villa at Auschwitz, Jewish prisoner Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was trying to survive the notorious concentration camp. At the heart of this film is the historic and inspiring moment – eight decades later – when the two come face-to-face. This is the first time the descendant of a major war criminal meets a survivor in such a private and intimate setting, Anita’s London living room. Together with their children, Kai Höss and Maya Lasker-Wallfisch, the four protagonists explore their very different hereditary burdens.

This once-in-a-lifetime feature-length documentary explores the relationships of a mother and her daughter, a father and his son, and the long shadows cast by the crimes that impact generations. It raises questions about love, guilt, and forgiveness, but is ultimately a much needed story of hope, acceptance, and compassion.

In the wake of the atrocities of October 7th – and at a time when antisemitism has reached a level not seen since the Holocaust – “The Commandant’s Shadow” is a stark reminder that there can be no reconciliation without a true and honest reckoning of the past. Only then can we hope to avoid repeating history and build a better future.

Funds raised will be going towards the Belarus Jewish Cultural Heritage Route.

The film PG13, but this is at your discretion.
There is no assigned seating.

Doors open at 18:45 (GMT)

The Together Plan
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Watch the trailer here

Book tickets:

Date

25 Feb 2025

Time

GMT
7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Finchley Reform Synagogue

Location

Finchley Reform Synagogue
101 Fallow Ct Ave, London, N12 0BE
Website
https://www.frs.org.uk/