Inheritance

What a burden it must be to know that someone in your family is responsible for the death of thousands of innocent people. A few families not to long ago found out that they are the grand nieces and nephews of Adolf Hitler. None of them had children yet, and all agreed that they never would. To stop the blood line they were willing to sacrifice their right to have children, what guilt they must feel. This film is the same sort of thing, we follow Monika Hertwig who is the daughter of Amon Goeth the Nazi Butcher.

She was born in 1945, and he was hung by the Polish government in 1946, she never knew him. She was told as a child that her father was a war hero and died for his country, the truth was nothing of the sort. If you've ever seen "Schindler's List" then you are familiar with Amon Goeth. Ralph Fiennes plays him and is about as terrifying as anyone could. He was the Commandant of the Plaszow labor camp, he's the one who would act as a sniper from his villa and shoot people as they worked. He was a cold blooded sociopath, words cant even describe the kind of monster that he was.

In that way I feel so much sympathy for his daughter, she has to live with his deeds and even if no one else knows who she really is, it makes no difference since she will know. The documentary focuses on her and on Helen Jonas-Rosenzweig, one of the slaves that Amon kept in his house, that he beat everyday. The difficulty of facing the child of your tormentor, or on the other hand the woman whom your father terrorized for years really comes across in the film. They both spend time crying before they ever meet, and when they do Monika cant even face Helen. They meet at a memorial marker at Plaszow. After they talk for a while Helen has to walk away because she cant take it anymore, she still agrees to go with Monika to the villa where she lived as a slave.

This is where Helen fully breaks down, the looks on her face make it appear that she expects Amon to walk around one of the corners and come after her. Walking up the stairs that she was thrown down more times than she can count she doesn't even try and hold back the tears and panic in her voice.

The whole story of these women is about memory, and how its inescapable. We learn about their families and the damage that is encased in stone, they will never escape it except in death. Its surprising to learn about all the Holocaust survivors who later committed suicide, but when you think about what it psychologically did to them, you can understand it a little more.

It was a strong documentary, it was shot very quietly and just let the women pour their emotion out to one another, to the camera, or just to the world so then they could get some of it off their chests and breathe a little easier. 8/10 stars.

Director: James Moll