Laura Linden

I am halfway through the film, which just came to streaming platforms. As some others here have pointed out, the juxtaposition of a seemingly idyllic domestic setting against a backdrop of relentlessly churning industrialized mass murder is a hushed horror that elicits the strained screams of nightmares from which you can’t awaken. The family’s indifference to suffering makes their lovely home, complete with flowering garden and central heat, grotesque. The viewer inevitably asks his/herself how can this Nazi family live with such horror? However, as the movie unfolds, the viewer realizes that the camp commandant and his family are not merely tolerating the horror, they are thriving as a result of it. From the mother who preens in a dead Jew’s mink coat to the older boy who sifts through gold-filled teeth wrenched from the mouths of the murdered, you realize the family enjoys the spoils of genocide despite the constant factory noise and human screams of terror its never-ending processes produce right next door. When viewers ask themselves where is this family’s humanity, they need to ask where is ours, because we all live in—at the very least—a metaphorical “zone of interest” as we tolerate inhumane policies enacted by our taxpayer-funded governments so that we can thrive. Think about it…