What happened to the Hoss family after HBO’s ‘The Commandant’s Shadow’?

The big picture

• The Commander’s Shadow
  delves into the aftermath of the Holocaust, highlighting Hoss’s son’s reflection on his father’s legacy.
• The film tells the moving story of Auschwitz survivor Lasker-Wallfisch, who highlights the lasting trauma of the genocide.
• In the post-war period, Hoss’s descendants faced numerous challenges regarding their legacy.

Although many films have been made about the Holocaust, there are still many aspects that have not yet been explored. The 2023 film, The area of ​​interest (which won the Academy Award for Best International Film and was nominated for Best Picture), is a fascinating look at the Nazi leader of Auschwitz, Rudolf Hoss. He raised his family in an idyllic setting just meters from the death camp. The film never shows the atrocities of what is happening to the countless prisoners who were forced to come to the death camp, but it is clear from the terrifying sounds what horrors are taking place on the other side of the wall. But in a way, the film seems to leave the story unfinished. What happened to Hoss and her children after the war? And what are the lasting impacts of being closely connected to the mastermind of a genocide?

The recent HBO documentary, The Commander’s Shadowexplores the consequences of the events described in The area of ​​interest, while also looking at the legacy of Hoss’s actions. The film focuses on Hoss’s son, Hans-Jurgen, an 87-year-old man who has fond memories of both his life in Auschwitz and of his father. He has only just begun to reflect on the kind of man his father really was, with the help of his own son, Kai (who has always wanted to come to terms with his family’s dark past). But the documentary also follows the story of one of Hoss’s victims: Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Together with her daughter, Maya, the women also embark on a journey of reflection on how the past has continued to impact their lives. The film is a comprehensive look at the trauma that resulted from the Holocaustbut what happened after the documentary was filmed?

What happened to the Hoss children in “The Commander’s Shadow”?

One of the most disturbing scenes in the documentary involves Hoss’s daughter Brigitte, nicknamed “Puppi”. After many years she has been reunited with her brother Hans-Jurgen, but she is still extremely reluctant to talk about her family’s involvement in Auschwitz. She makes statements that question the events of the Holocaust and insinuates that it wasn’t so bad if there were survivors. She claims that her father was a good person who was simply following orders. In an interview with The Guardian In 2021, Brigitte finally admitted that it was true that her father was responsible for the deaths of millions of people. But she was unable to show any compassion for the victims (a stark contrast to her brother and nephew who show empathy in the documentary). Brigitte died in October 2023, after filming The Commander’s Shadow had wrapped (and before The area of ​​interest will be released in theaters in the United States).

But Brigitte was not the only descendant of Hoss to bring dishonor to the family. Hans-Jurgen’s son (and Kai’s brother), Rainer, tried to profit from his family’s connection to the Holocaust by selling stolen Jewish property that he was supposed to donate to the Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem. But it was his role in a fictional film project that got Rainer into trouble. He had borrowed $20,000 from a German businessman to finance a film about the Holocaust that he claimed to be producing himself, but in reality he just pocketed the money because he was in serious debt. In 2020, he was sentenced to eight months in prison for fraud, along with 80 hours of community service and a fine to pay back the money.

The Commandant’s Shadow’s Anita Lasker-Wallfisch Gets His Attention

Lasker-Wallfisch’s participation in The Commander’s Shadow is one of the most touching parts of the documentary. Her story is remarkable in that she survived Auschwitz as a young girl because she was a talented cello player and the Nazis wanted her to be part of a group of musicians who played music as prisoners were marched to work (or to death). Her account of her time in the concentration camp is chilling and helps illustrate the lasting effects Hoss’s actions had on millions of people. But it’s not just the actual survivors of Auschwitz who are traumatized; future generations also continue to experience the immense pain that accompanies genocide. The documentary examines how Lasker-Wallfisch’s daughter also faced lifelong struggles with her identity because of her family’s tragic past.

It was recently announced that the Lasker-Wallfisch story will be told in even greater detail in a documentary titled The Last Musician of AuschwitzThe film, which has just received financial backing from the same group behind The area of ​​interestwill be an in-depth look at Lasker-Wallfisch’s life, including interviews with the woman, her family and friends. It is a full-circle moment in which Lasker-Wallfisch can finally step out of Hoss’s shadow and give voice to his own experiences. that occurred while she was imprisoned in the camp. The scenes of Lasker-Wallfisch in The Commander’s Shadow give weight to the film; it would be difficult to fully understand the widespread implications of Hoss’s actions without hearing directly from someone who witnessed the atrocities firsthand, so a documentary that focuses exclusively on his story is especially significant.

It would be impossible for The Commander’s Shadow to explain all the details of the Hoss family history. While it covers Hoss’s subsequent trial at Nuremberg and his eventual execution for war crimes, it does not cover the year Hoss, his wife and children spent in hiding after the war or how exactly the family moved on after his death. The documentary hints that they may have taken funds from Nazi sympathizers over the years, as matriarch Hoss never worked and did not receive a pension from Germany due to Hoss’s crimes. But it would have been interesting to delve further into how the Hoss children dealt with his legacy in the decades immediately following the war. Some family members tried to move forward with honesty and an appropriate sense of guilt for what Hoss was a part of, while others continued to deflect and avoid taking responsibility. In Rainer’s case, he even tried to exploit his family connection for his own greed. Ultimately, The Commander’s Shadow still offers audiences a captivating look at the far-reaching effects of one man’s despicable actions.

The Commander’s Shadow is available to watch on Max in the US

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