The Privilege of Turning a Blind Eye
‘When we look away from the pain of other people, we diminish their humanity and our own.’ (Brene Brown)
How could she live a ‘regular’ life next door to human suffering and injustice?
Sitting comfortably on my sofa in a warm house in a peaceful, first-world country, a glass of wine in hand, I already find myself judging Hedwig Hoess. Twenty minutes ago, I had never heard of her.
I had just come across and read reviews and accolades for the movie ‘The Zone of Interest’.
It is the story of the wife of the Auschwitz commander Rudolph Hoess, who goes about her mundane daily tasks of gardening and raising her five children in an idyllic home — located next to the notorious concentration camp. Beyond Hedwig’s garden wall are sounds of gunshots, shouting, trains, and furnaces.
The critics say;
“…one of the most disturbing movies of the year.”
“…It concentrates in one garden the attitude of an entire nation that wanted to know nothing.”
“…The movie tacitly makes the important distinction between obliviousness and simple refusal to acknowledge the endorsement of mass murder as anything but patriotic adherence to the party line.”
