You simply must see the Academy Award film Zone of Interest. It is a story about a German family living their best lives on the other side of a fence from Auschwitz. Those of you who do not know what Auschwitz is and represents because you were not given history or civics classes in school .....it was a concentration camp in Poland run by fascist Nazi's where Jews were encamped and slaughtered in one of the most inhumane acts in history in the 1940's. Many of your grandfathers served in our military to destroy the Nazi system, now reemerging in your own country.
The story centers on the German Hoss family whose patriarch was the commandant of the slaughter camp. You saw the Hoss family playing in the river, at their pool, in their beautiful garden and sleeping soundly in their lovely bedrooms. Jonathan Glazer directed the film based on a novel documenting the lives of the Hoss family, just mostly ordinary people.
Julie and I watched this film on 4/6/2024. It had so much symbolism, visual, auditory and storywise I had to go to Colossus movie club for a more complete understanding of it. I highly recommend you do this too.
Essentially, it is a film about the human condition and how seemingly nice, ordinary people can live on the other side of a wall shielding horrific human acts of brutality and evil while living seemingly normal, very ordinary lives.
Our Auschwitz acts in America are like the acclaimed screening of Birth of a Nation or Gone With the Wind, ignoring the horrors of slavery. Or in the current era, Texas Governor Abbott stringing barbed wire across the Rio Grande to stop migrants from entering our country. Or, the shipping of migrants to sanctuary cities without notice to "own the liberals." Or, the treatment of those who are transgender and their families. Or the denial of women their right to healthcare and family planning. Or former presidents promising retribution against those who have attempted to restrain his criminality. Or white resentment against those they believe are in some way denying them their superiority by just existing and trying to fulfill their human needs and the needs of their families.
Those of us who are part of the resistance against the fascism emerging again are given to understand by this movie that we all are capable of inhumanity and need this film as a reminder that the resistance is totally required of us.
Those living in the oblivion of the Hoss family may never get it. Rudolf Hoss finally got it as he faced his execution when he was tried and convicted of .....yes, being very human. He lamented his actions at the end, a bit late after slaughtering thousands of Jews.
