1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:54,971 --> 00:00:59,392 It feels strange being here with my father in the Judean Desert, 4 00:00:59,392 --> 00:01:04,022 which his own father crossed in 1917, during the First World War, 5 00:01:04,022 --> 00:01:06,483 when he was the youngest non-commissioned officer 6 00:01:06,483 --> 00:01:08,276 in the German army. 7 00:01:12,197 --> 00:01:15,825 30 years later, when he was nearing his death, he wrote, 8 00:01:17,077 --> 00:01:20,663 "The life and death of the Jews is truly a riddle 9 00:01:20,663 --> 00:01:22,749 I have not been able to solve." 10 00:01:26,586 --> 00:01:31,591 By then, he had killed more people than any other man in all of history. 11 00:05:59,818 --> 00:06:00,944 Okay. 12 00:08:11,950 --> 00:08:16,246 I'm not a writer. Writing has never been my strength. 13 00:08:18,540 --> 00:08:21,334 I've recorded everything as I remember it. 14 00:08:22,669 --> 00:08:25,672 My life has been colorful and varied. 15 00:08:32,554 --> 00:08:36,266 My fate has led me through all the highs and lows of life. 16 00:08:37,392 --> 00:08:41,146 I have had two guiding stars since I returned as a man 17 00:08:41,146 --> 00:08:47,027 from the war I entered as a schoolboy, my fatherland and my family. 18 00:09:25,774 --> 00:09:29,694 I became the Commandant of a new camp, Auschwitz. 19 00:09:30,904 --> 00:09:35,158 I, myself, hadn't expected to be promoted to Commandant so soon, 20 00:09:36,034 --> 00:09:38,036 and it wasn't an easy task. 21 00:09:56,638 --> 00:09:59,599 Out of nothing, and without any resources, 22 00:09:59,599 --> 00:10:03,353 I was to build something enormous as quickly as possible. 23 00:10:08,942 --> 00:10:11,444 Russian prisoners of war were meant to build the camp. 24 00:10:13,655 --> 00:10:16,157 They arrived in a totally decrepit state. 25 00:10:18,034 --> 00:10:20,537 We were constantly giving them additional rations, 26 00:10:20,537 --> 00:10:22,580 but without success. 27 00:10:22,580 --> 00:10:24,249 They were dying like flies. 28 00:10:26,126 --> 00:10:28,628 Cases of cannibalism were not uncommon. 29 00:10:30,213 --> 00:10:32,674 Of more than 10,000 Russian prisoners of war 30 00:10:32,674 --> 00:10:35,593 who were supposed to make up the main workforce, 31 00:10:35,593 --> 00:10:40,140 by the summer of 1942, only a few hundred were still alive. 32 00:10:48,857 --> 00:10:52,444 Himmler visited Auschwitz and had a thorough look at everything. 33 00:10:54,487 --> 00:10:57,240 We drove through the entire Zone of Interest. 34 00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:00,410 I was constantly drawing his attention to the shortages. 35 00:11:00,410 --> 00:11:01,995 He, too, saw them. 36 00:11:04,622 --> 00:11:06,958 He shouted at me when I could not stop talking about 37 00:11:06,958 --> 00:11:08,752 the atrocious conditions. 38 00:11:09,878 --> 00:11:12,589 "I don't want to hear anything else about difficulties. 39 00:11:13,631 --> 00:11:16,176 "For an SS leader, there are no difficulties. 40 00:11:16,176 --> 00:11:18,261 His task is to resolve them." 41 00:11:22,849 --> 00:11:24,642 The enormity, I mean, 42 00:11:25,310 --> 00:11:27,896 of what he do-- what he did, what he conceived. 43 00:11:27,896 --> 00:11:30,732 For years, planning, 44 00:11:30,732 --> 00:11:33,860 making this concentration camp the most efficient 45 00:11:33,860 --> 00:11:37,781 extermination machine ever-- that ever existed, right? 46 00:11:37,781 --> 00:11:39,991 I mean, that's his plan. Auschwitz was his 47 00:11:39,991 --> 00:11:41,534 kinda his brainchild. 48 00:11:59,052 --> 00:12:01,179 Auschwitz became a Jew camp, 49 00:12:01,179 --> 00:12:04,933 a gathering camp for Jews to an extent not known before. 50 00:12:07,102 --> 00:12:10,355 For the Jews of Auschwitz, there was no more hope. 51 00:12:10,355 --> 00:12:14,401 They knew that, without exception, they were condemned to death. 52 00:12:33,670 --> 00:12:36,881 Zyklon B was in constant use for pest control in Auschwitz. 53 00:12:39,384 --> 00:12:42,637 We decided to use this gas for the mass extermination. 54 00:12:46,558 --> 00:12:48,059 "I, myself, watched a killing, 55 00:12:49,102 --> 00:12:51,354 protected by a gas mask." 56 00:12:52,939 --> 00:12:54,441 "The door was closed, 57 00:12:54,441 --> 00:12:57,027 "and the gas was poured in through the openings. 58 00:12:58,903 --> 00:13:00,238 "Some shouted, 'Gas,' 59 00:13:01,406 --> 00:13:02,490 and a mighty yelling..." 60 00:13:02,490 --> 00:13:05,452 ...and pushing towards both doors ensued. 61 00:13:05,452 --> 00:13:07,537 But they withstood the pressure. 62 00:13:09,956 --> 00:13:13,918 They were only opened after a few hours when the chamber was aired. 63 00:13:17,339 --> 00:13:19,883 How long this killing took, I'm not sure of, 64 00:13:19,883 --> 00:13:22,969 but you could still hear a humming noise for a long time. 65 00:13:24,763 --> 00:13:28,725 That is when I saw gas corpses for the first time in a heap. 66 00:13:30,143 --> 00:13:33,646 I did not give any thought to the killing itself. 67 00:13:33,646 --> 00:13:36,733 It had been ordered, and I had to execute it. 68 00:13:37,609 --> 00:13:40,320 When I first read my grandfather's memoirs, 69 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:43,531 what struck me was, he was like a clinical observer, 70 00:13:43,531 --> 00:13:45,575 just looking at himself, looking at what he was doing. 71 00:13:45,575 --> 00:13:51,456 It was a very clinical, like a scientist that looks at a lifeless experiment, 72 00:13:51,456 --> 00:13:55,502 and that had showed me some kind of a coldness of his soul. 73 00:14:35,250 --> 00:14:39,170 There wasn't much conversation about Auschwitz in my family. 74 00:14:39,170 --> 00:14:41,464 I think my dad was always pretty quiet about it. 75 00:14:41,464 --> 00:14:43,925 That's just silent generation, right? 76 00:14:43,925 --> 00:14:46,261 They don't really talk about stuff that much, 77 00:14:46,261 --> 00:14:51,016 and he's not a big talker today either. So, yeah, it's hard. 78 00:15:24,799 --> 00:15:26,676 I mean, it freaks me a little bit when you think about, 79 00:15:26,676 --> 00:15:31,598 like, there's this, you know, this joyful family life 80 00:15:31,598 --> 00:15:35,977 going on with, you know, actually quite beautiful presence and 81 00:15:36,811 --> 00:15:42,484 joy, fun, having toys, and enjoying life. And then, just a couple of hundred yards 82 00:15:43,651 --> 00:15:46,738 behind the walls, you know, and barbed wired walls, 83 00:15:46,738 --> 00:15:50,325 there would be people being murdered. 84 00:15:52,077 --> 00:15:54,954 That is just mind-blowing when you think about it. 85 00:17:04,983 --> 00:17:06,943 For me, it's pretty difficult to kind of 86 00:17:06,943 --> 00:17:11,865 imagine that they did not actually smell, or hear, or see anything. 87 00:17:17,037 --> 00:17:19,414 I think my dad probably, subconsciously, 88 00:17:19,414 --> 00:17:22,000 suppresses some of the experiences he's had. 89 00:17:25,003 --> 00:17:27,130 Put it in some very deep layers of his conscience 90 00:17:27,130 --> 00:17:29,466 where he just really doesn't remember, 91 00:17:29,466 --> 00:17:31,426 like protecting himself, his mind. 92 00:18:24,979 --> 00:18:28,566 In Auschwitz, you were killed in the most sophisticated manner. 93 00:18:28,566 --> 00:18:32,987 People got gassed in a gas chamber. 94 00:18:32,987 --> 00:18:36,658 The place is full of black smoke, horrible smell. 95 00:18:36,658 --> 00:18:40,912 Hell. Hell on Earth is Auschwitz. 96 00:18:43,331 --> 00:18:49,254 When I arrived in Auschwitz, it transpired that there was a band there 97 00:18:49,254 --> 00:18:52,716 that needed a cellist. They didn't have a cellist. 98 00:18:54,384 --> 00:18:58,555 So, my arrival seems to have been a, you know, a great event. 99 00:19:02,517 --> 00:19:07,313 So I became the only cellist in the camp orchestra, 100 00:19:07,313 --> 00:19:11,234 which was a very, very lucky position to have. 101 00:19:11,234 --> 00:19:12,819 Absolutely saved my life. 102 00:19:20,952 --> 00:19:23,496 My mother survived 103 00:19:24,164 --> 00:19:25,957 the murder of her parents, 104 00:19:26,541 --> 00:19:30,503 witnessed the murder of millions of others, 105 00:19:31,338 --> 00:19:33,340 being starved, 106 00:19:35,884 --> 00:19:37,844 every imaginable horror. 107 00:19:40,221 --> 00:19:44,142 We had the job of playing marches 108 00:19:44,142 --> 00:19:50,190 for the thousands of people who were working in the factories 109 00:19:50,190 --> 00:19:52,609 that surrounded Auschwitz. 110 00:19:52,609 --> 00:19:55,070 Because the Germans like everything nice and neat, 111 00:19:55,070 --> 00:19:59,991 so we had to play marches so that the working people could, 112 00:19:59,991 --> 00:20:03,703 you know, walk out to the music. 113 00:20:04,913 --> 00:20:10,585 But, this was also conceived as a sort of entertainment for the guards. 114 00:20:10,585 --> 00:20:15,215 Very boring places, you know, for us all just to be guards in Auschwitz. 115 00:20:15,215 --> 00:20:20,470 Those were times long before television or any entertainment. 116 00:20:21,054 --> 00:20:22,514 I found out after the war 117 00:20:22,514 --> 00:20:26,643 that there were orchestras in every camp. 118 00:20:26,643 --> 00:20:30,814 And the camp commander of Birkenau where I was 119 00:20:30,814 --> 00:20:32,440 suddenly is all, 120 00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:36,027 "They all got music. I want music as well." 121 00:20:36,027 --> 00:20:38,571 We played. Hopefully, next day, we are still alive. 122 00:20:38,571 --> 00:20:40,657 That's how it was. Yeah. 123 00:20:44,786 --> 00:20:47,831 I was just looking, Mom, at your cello case. 124 00:20:49,332 --> 00:20:51,418 It's such 125 00:20:52,544 --> 00:20:54,462 - a monument, isn't it? - Yeah. 126 00:20:54,462 --> 00:20:57,590 A symbol to your life as a cellist. 127 00:20:57,590 --> 00:20:58,675 I know. 128 00:21:16,985 --> 00:21:22,115 The way in which my mother found some kind of way 129 00:21:22,115 --> 00:21:26,953 to be in the world after the Holocaust was by not speaking. 130 00:21:28,580 --> 00:21:32,208 She had settled into a kind of silence. 131 00:21:41,634 --> 00:21:43,428 I only had one thought in mind 132 00:21:43,428 --> 00:21:47,390 when I came here to catch up with lost-- my lost life, my lost youth. 133 00:21:50,226 --> 00:21:52,103 When I arrived in England, 134 00:21:52,103 --> 00:21:55,440 nobody asked any questions about Auschwitz. 135 00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:57,192 So, we decided, 136 00:21:57,984 --> 00:22:02,113 "What's the point here?" So, we didn't talk about it. 137 00:22:02,113 --> 00:22:07,702 It took nearly-- I think it was 50 years, and then my children said to me, 138 00:22:07,702 --> 00:22:10,330 "Mom, you never actually told us anything." 139 00:22:13,333 --> 00:22:16,753 As a child, I was very aware 140 00:22:16,753 --> 00:22:22,801 that there were no-go areas. Anything German was bad. 141 00:22:22,801 --> 00:22:24,552 So, you kind of settle into 142 00:22:24,552 --> 00:22:29,974 a limbo of not knowing, not knowing facts, 143 00:22:29,974 --> 00:22:32,394 but a sense of knowing that 144 00:22:32,394 --> 00:22:37,524 there is something really awful in the hinterland. 145 00:22:40,652 --> 00:22:45,907 I know now, as a psychotherapist, that those born to Holocaust survivors, 146 00:22:45,907 --> 00:22:49,911 as I am, can inherit a traumatization 147 00:22:49,911 --> 00:22:53,081 that it sort of sits inside the psyche 148 00:22:53,081 --> 00:22:55,792 and has no shape, has no form, has no words 149 00:22:55,792 --> 00:22:58,920 because words-- it hasn't been given a context. 150 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:02,382 And I felt this from being a tiny child. 151 00:23:04,175 --> 00:23:08,513 But nobody in those days understood the impact of the Holocaust 152 00:23:08,513 --> 00:23:11,599 on the second generation. 153 00:23:12,434 --> 00:23:14,102 And this was my room. 154 00:23:15,353 --> 00:23:17,772 It was the first room of my own, 155 00:23:17,772 --> 00:23:20,734 but it wasn't a happy place. 156 00:23:28,158 --> 00:23:33,538 When I look at the pictures of myself, probably aged under 2, 157 00:23:33,538 --> 00:23:35,999 I'm overwhelmed with sadness. 158 00:23:39,085 --> 00:23:42,005 See, these are snaps of a child in deep despair. 159 00:23:42,005 --> 00:23:45,508 A child, which who is not sweetly plump, 160 00:23:46,217 --> 00:23:48,219 but a misshapen child. 161 00:23:49,054 --> 00:23:51,056 My struggle through life 162 00:23:51,056 --> 00:23:56,144 is somehow symbolized in these early pictures. 163 00:23:57,520 --> 00:23:59,022 My mother wasn't there. 164 00:24:02,776 --> 00:24:05,403 They are pictures of an inability 165 00:24:05,403 --> 00:24:09,199 to take care of me in the way that I needed. 166 00:24:10,033 --> 00:24:13,703 And that, certainly for me, was a consequence 167 00:24:13,703 --> 00:24:18,583 of my mother's experiences in the Holocaust. 168 00:24:28,259 --> 00:24:30,762 I'm the wrong mother for my daughter. 169 00:24:31,763 --> 00:24:36,601 I'm very basic. Traumatized? Forget it. Get on with life. 170 00:24:48,029 --> 00:24:51,574 If you have lived through the unbelievable horror 171 00:24:51,574 --> 00:24:55,787 that I've lived through, it's quite difficult to actually 172 00:24:55,787 --> 00:24:57,997 sympathize or empathize. 173 00:24:59,958 --> 00:25:02,210 Do you know that I'm somebody who needs nothing? 174 00:25:02,210 --> 00:25:05,005 I could never understand why you needed everything. 175 00:25:06,047 --> 00:25:07,507 Completely anathema to me. 176 00:25:08,174 --> 00:25:09,926 And it's still anathema to me. 177 00:25:10,260 --> 00:25:12,721 What I needed just wasn't available. 178 00:25:13,471 --> 00:25:15,890 I think what you needed is to have your mother at home. 179 00:25:15,890 --> 00:25:17,642 - Right. - That's what I thought. But for me-- 180 00:25:17,642 --> 00:25:19,728 - Yeah. - Your mother wasn't at home because we had 181 00:25:19,728 --> 00:25:22,022 - to put bread on the table, you know? - Yeah. 182 00:25:22,022 --> 00:25:23,773 - But how can a child understand that? - Yeah. 183 00:25:23,773 --> 00:25:24,691 - Yeah. - Of course. 184 00:25:24,691 --> 00:25:30,071 I think you think that you and I are very different. 185 00:25:32,741 --> 00:25:36,453 Do you think that there are any similarities? 186 00:25:37,787 --> 00:25:39,873 I would have to look a long way. 187 00:25:41,332 --> 00:25:42,959 I would have to look a long way. 188 00:25:42,959 --> 00:25:45,462 - Really? - Yeah. 189 00:25:46,212 --> 00:25:49,299 It's really interesting, isn't it? That my whole life, 190 00:25:49,299 --> 00:25:55,221 which chunks of it have been about a feeling of not belonging, 191 00:25:58,224 --> 00:26:01,728 in any sense, in British society or 192 00:26:02,729 --> 00:26:04,105 just not belonging, 193 00:26:04,105 --> 00:26:07,525 and everything always being a huge struggle-- 194 00:26:07,525 --> 00:26:13,907 But, I was lucky because I had a very fulfilled life in England, which... 195 00:26:14,783 --> 00:26:16,785 which you didn't manage. 196 00:26:16,785 --> 00:26:18,286 For you, 197 00:26:18,286 --> 00:26:21,664 - this has been a place of refuge. - Yeah. 198 00:26:23,541 --> 00:26:28,254 Well, one must realize also, looking back, what was the situation like in Germany. 199 00:26:28,254 --> 00:26:32,926 A lot of unemployment, and then this lovely Mr. Hitler appears. 200 00:26:32,926 --> 00:26:35,887 Suddenly, we are somebody again. 201 00:26:36,805 --> 00:26:38,223 So, yeah. 202 00:26:38,598 --> 00:26:40,975 National Socialism became a big success. 203 00:26:53,071 --> 00:26:56,324 I considered the National Socialist worldview to be 204 00:26:56,324 --> 00:26:59,077 the only appropriate one for the German people. 205 00:27:05,041 --> 00:27:07,585 Antisemitism is nothing new. 206 00:27:11,006 --> 00:27:13,508 It has always existed all over the world. 207 00:27:14,467 --> 00:27:18,221 It becomes more apparent when the Jews push themselves forward 208 00:27:18,221 --> 00:27:20,098 too much in their quest for power. 209 00:27:22,976 --> 00:27:27,063 I'd like to stress that, personally, I've never hated Jews, 210 00:27:27,063 --> 00:27:29,899 but I considered them the enemy of our people. 211 00:29:26,391 --> 00:29:30,228 Once, two little children were so absorbed into their game 212 00:29:30,228 --> 00:29:33,023 that they absolutely did not want to allow their mother 213 00:29:33,023 --> 00:29:34,107 to pull them away from it. 214 00:29:38,903 --> 00:29:43,116 Even the Jews of the Sonderkommando did not want to take the children. 215 00:29:48,496 --> 00:29:50,457 I will never forget the mother's expression 216 00:29:50,457 --> 00:29:54,878 in her eyes, begging for mercy, as she surely knew what was happening. 217 00:29:57,714 --> 00:30:00,884 Those in the gas chamber were already getting restless. 218 00:30:02,260 --> 00:30:03,762 I had to act. 219 00:30:04,346 --> 00:30:06,264 Everyone was looking at me. 220 00:30:07,724 --> 00:30:11,311 I gave the non-commissioned officer a nod, and he took the children, 221 00:30:11,311 --> 00:30:13,855 who were putting up a fierce struggle in his arms, 222 00:30:13,855 --> 00:30:15,940 and put them into the gas chamber with the mother, 223 00:30:15,940 --> 00:30:18,526 whose screams were heartbreaking. 224 00:30:23,740 --> 00:30:25,992 I also saw a woman who tried to push her children 225 00:30:25,992 --> 00:30:29,454 out of the gas chamber as the door was being closed. 226 00:30:30,038 --> 00:30:34,501 Weeping, she cried out, "At least let my precious children live." 227 00:30:37,003 --> 00:30:40,465 Seeing women walk into the gas chambers with children, 228 00:30:40,465 --> 00:30:43,051 I often thought of my own family. 229 00:32:06,134 --> 00:32:11,931 I come from a completely assimilated German-Jewish family. 230 00:32:12,265 --> 00:32:16,019 My father was a soldier in the First World War 231 00:32:16,019 --> 00:32:20,815 with the Iron Cross and all the-- Yeah, we were Germans. 232 00:32:22,025 --> 00:32:25,528 And Jewish, but we did not practice the Jewish faith. 233 00:32:28,615 --> 00:32:30,909 My father, unfortunately, was a complete optimist. 234 00:32:30,909 --> 00:32:33,661 He said, "The Germans can't be that stupid." 235 00:32:33,661 --> 00:32:35,413 And then, he realized 236 00:32:36,081 --> 00:32:38,583 the Germans are that stupid. 237 00:32:40,001 --> 00:32:45,548 In the 1930s, all Jews in Germany were stripped of their nationality. 238 00:32:46,591 --> 00:32:48,968 My mother, and father, for that matter, 239 00:32:48,968 --> 00:32:53,431 were never interested in reclaiming German citizenship 240 00:32:53,431 --> 00:32:55,433 although they would've been entitled to. 241 00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:03,733 Germany was finished for me. I don't belong there. 242 00:33:03,733 --> 00:33:07,237 I couldn't wait to become naturalized British. 243 00:33:08,029 --> 00:33:11,533 Life without a passport is very complicated. 244 00:33:17,706 --> 00:33:22,293 But I decided that it was time to get my citizenship. 245 00:33:23,670 --> 00:33:27,549 When my German passport was delivered to my house, 246 00:33:27,549 --> 00:33:31,428 I remember just feeling a huge sense of elation. 247 00:33:31,428 --> 00:33:33,930 I felt triumphant. 248 00:33:48,445 --> 00:33:49,612 Do you want this? 249 00:33:53,199 --> 00:33:56,536 Will your home move be within the next 28 days? 250 00:33:56,536 --> 00:33:57,829 Yes. 251 00:34:01,416 --> 00:34:05,253 Will your home move be within the next 28 days? 252 00:34:06,379 --> 00:34:07,797 Yes! 253 00:34:07,797 --> 00:34:11,343 So now, I'm embarking on a new life. 254 00:34:11,343 --> 00:34:14,346 I've decided to try and live in Germany, 255 00:34:14,346 --> 00:34:20,393 a country that I've never lived in and don't even speak the language. 256 00:34:20,393 --> 00:34:26,566 But my bones belong there. I should never have been born here. 257 00:34:26,566 --> 00:34:29,277 I should have been born in Germany. 258 00:34:29,277 --> 00:34:30,362 Hi, Mom. 259 00:34:31,279 --> 00:34:35,283 It's gonna take me a bit of time to load. Can you just move forward a bit? 260 00:34:37,869 --> 00:34:39,454 No, stop! 261 00:34:42,332 --> 00:34:44,167 Would you like these lights? 262 00:34:44,167 --> 00:34:46,252 - Well, just bring it or whatever. - Okay. 263 00:34:47,128 --> 00:34:49,381 I'm doing my best, Mom. 264 00:35:18,910 --> 00:35:22,372 Immigrating to Germany was met 265 00:35:22,372 --> 00:35:28,086 with some incredulous responses 'cause, after all, this was the country 266 00:35:28,086 --> 00:35:30,964 that my grandparents had been murdered in, 267 00:35:30,964 --> 00:35:34,592 as so many Jews were, and it was the country 268 00:35:34,592 --> 00:35:37,679 that my parents had fled from. 269 00:35:38,388 --> 00:35:41,266 Indeed, my mother didn't set foot back in Germany 270 00:35:41,266 --> 00:35:42,851 for many, many years. 271 00:35:45,687 --> 00:35:47,605 - Mom. - Well, well, well. 272 00:35:47,605 --> 00:35:49,274 So this is where you're living? 273 00:35:49,274 --> 00:35:51,192 This is it. 274 00:35:51,776 --> 00:35:55,155 Well, well, well. Oh, my goodness. 275 00:36:01,619 --> 00:36:03,747 Oh, this looks beautiful. 276 00:36:03,747 --> 00:36:04,664 Do you wanna sit down 277 00:36:04,664 --> 00:36:05,999 - and have a cigarette? - Yeah. 278 00:36:06,791 --> 00:36:08,251 Oh, yes, a whole gallery there. 279 00:36:08,251 --> 00:36:09,794 Yeah. 280 00:36:09,794 --> 00:36:13,381 Very, very impressive. 281 00:36:14,090 --> 00:36:17,302 Now, you gotta take all these schnukies away, 282 00:36:17,302 --> 00:36:19,679 so they can see the books. 283 00:36:19,679 --> 00:36:22,265 Is it an exhibition place or a bookshelf? 284 00:36:23,224 --> 00:36:26,144 No, I like my schnukies. 285 00:36:26,144 --> 00:36:30,065 I guess, in some way, making this home here 286 00:36:30,732 --> 00:36:33,610 has something to do with an idea of trying 287 00:36:33,610 --> 00:36:40,325 to reclaim stolen lives, and also my unlived life. 288 00:36:40,909 --> 00:36:43,578 Yeah. It also shows what could have been 289 00:36:43,578 --> 00:36:47,791 and was destroyed for no reason other than stupidity. 290 00:36:47,791 --> 00:36:49,876 Yeah. Yeah. 291 00:36:51,586 --> 00:36:52,837 Yeah. 292 00:36:53,588 --> 00:36:58,009 But, alas, the stupidity seems to be perpetuating. 293 00:36:58,635 --> 00:37:01,388 You know, obviously, people need scapegoats, 294 00:37:01,388 --> 00:37:03,765 and seeing the world is in such a mess at the moment, 295 00:37:03,765 --> 00:37:08,603 it is typical, it was the fault of the Jews again. 296 00:37:08,603 --> 00:37:14,984 I kept experiencing being here, this terrible cultural dissonance, 297 00:37:14,984 --> 00:37:20,407 and I was confronted with unconscious antisemitism. 298 00:37:20,407 --> 00:37:23,159 - You sure you don't imagine that? - No, I don't imagine it. 299 00:37:23,159 --> 00:37:26,037 And it's hard sometimes not just want 300 00:37:26,037 --> 00:37:27,956 to turn round and run away. 301 00:37:27,956 --> 00:37:30,041 - But where to? - Exactly. 302 00:37:30,041 --> 00:37:33,294 - That's the Jewish fate. - That's the Jewish fate. 303 00:37:33,294 --> 00:37:35,005 - You don't belong anywhere. - Yeah. 304 00:37:35,005 --> 00:37:39,467 And where you do, where you should belong, you got the biggest problem. 305 00:37:46,099 --> 00:37:48,059 The process of selection on the ramp 306 00:37:48,059 --> 00:37:49,602 was full of incidents. 307 00:37:50,603 --> 00:37:52,355 When families were ripped apart, 308 00:37:52,355 --> 00:37:55,191 the men separated from the women and children, 309 00:37:55,191 --> 00:37:59,195 great agitation and turmoil rippled through the transport. 310 00:37:59,195 --> 00:38:02,574 And the separation of those fit for work added to this 311 00:38:03,700 --> 00:38:06,661 because the families wanted to stay together by all means. 312 00:38:11,291 --> 00:38:14,711 The Jews have a strongly developed sense of family. 313 00:38:14,711 --> 00:38:17,589 They cling to each other like limpets. 314 00:38:19,507 --> 00:38:22,552 This gave every one commanded to do this monstrous work 315 00:38:22,552 --> 00:38:24,971 a lot to think about. 316 00:38:24,971 --> 00:38:27,057 It left lasting impressions. 317 00:38:29,267 --> 00:38:33,855 Most of those involved often came up to me during my inspection round. 318 00:38:33,855 --> 00:38:36,608 I heard the same question again and again. 319 00:38:38,651 --> 00:38:40,779 Is it necessary that hundreds of thousands 320 00:38:40,779 --> 00:38:43,573 of women and children have to be exterminated? 321 00:38:46,076 --> 00:38:50,872 And I would ask myself the same question countless times deep inside, 322 00:38:51,414 --> 00:38:54,292 had to have fob them off with the Fuhrer Order, 323 00:38:54,292 --> 00:38:56,086 console them with that. 324 00:38:57,212 --> 00:39:00,215 I had to tell them that the extermination of the Jews 325 00:39:00,215 --> 00:39:03,510 was necessary to free Germany and our descendants 326 00:39:03,510 --> 00:39:06,388 of our adversaries once and for all. 327 00:39:15,063 --> 00:39:18,441 My grandfather, obviously he somehow swallowed, 328 00:39:18,441 --> 00:39:20,485 you know, Nazi ideology, 329 00:39:20,485 --> 00:39:24,280 I mean, socio-Darwinism in a sense, he swallowed that hook, line, and sinker. 330 00:39:24,948 --> 00:39:28,451 It made sense to him at the time, the master race. 331 00:39:29,661 --> 00:39:34,582 Auschwitz was given to him and the way he was wired, 332 00:39:34,582 --> 00:39:36,543 as a human being in his character, 333 00:39:36,543 --> 00:39:38,962 was to do an excellent job. 334 00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:54,310 Father, we just thank You so much, Lord, for Your word. 335 00:39:54,310 --> 00:39:58,231 Thank You for Your love for us, Lord. Your patience with us, Lord. 336 00:39:58,231 --> 00:40:00,150 You care for us like we're Your children, God, 337 00:40:00,150 --> 00:40:02,527 and just thank You for blessing us this way. 338 00:40:02,527 --> 00:40:04,946 I pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. 339 00:40:05,530 --> 00:40:07,115 Alright, tuck in, guys. Let's get it. 340 00:40:07,115 --> 00:40:09,034 - I would say ladies' first. - Dig in. Dig in. 341 00:40:11,119 --> 00:40:13,580 I'm a pastor for Bible Church for Stuttgart 342 00:40:13,580 --> 00:40:15,665 and we serve an international community, 343 00:40:15,665 --> 00:40:18,710 including personnel from American military bases 344 00:40:18,710 --> 00:40:20,420 and other expats. 345 00:40:20,420 --> 00:40:23,548 We're our having monthly men's prayer breakfast. 346 00:40:23,548 --> 00:40:26,509 Just the men of the church having a wholesome, 347 00:40:26,509 --> 00:40:28,553 Godly good time together, that's all. 348 00:40:28,553 --> 00:40:30,805 You guys, you have enough space there, everybody? 349 00:40:30,805 --> 00:40:32,974 On this study, I was just thinking about, 350 00:40:32,974 --> 00:40:36,686 you know, men here today, men, Christian men, any man. 351 00:40:37,354 --> 00:40:40,440 Men in general in the, in the 21st century, right? 352 00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:41,733 What is our mission? 353 00:40:41,733 --> 00:40:45,028 The Bible calls on us men to be leaders. 354 00:40:45,028 --> 00:40:47,864 With leadership comes great responsibility, 355 00:40:47,864 --> 00:40:51,785 not just in what we teach at home, but also how we act and walk with God 356 00:40:51,785 --> 00:40:54,079 in each and every day, so... 357 00:40:54,079 --> 00:40:57,040 When I became a Christian and I read the Old Testament, 358 00:40:57,040 --> 00:40:59,876 it's talking about the sins of the fathers, 359 00:40:59,876 --> 00:41:03,630 like how we revisit those, you know, to the third or fourth generation, 360 00:41:03,630 --> 00:41:05,465 and I thought, "Whoa." 361 00:41:06,007 --> 00:41:08,677 My grandfather, he was a go-getter, 362 00:41:08,677 --> 00:41:11,763 an ambitious man, a meticulous man, 363 00:41:12,347 --> 00:41:16,142 but to the point where he, you know, he turned into this monster, 364 00:41:16,142 --> 00:41:22,232 this ruthless killer and, yeah, he was not watchful. 365 00:41:22,232 --> 00:41:24,275 And I don't think we can become mass murderers, 366 00:41:24,275 --> 00:41:30,031 but I think every human being, all of us, have the propensity to go into a direction 367 00:41:30,031 --> 00:41:31,074 that is totally wrong. 368 00:41:31,533 --> 00:41:33,827 Thank you so much. So let's pray. 369 00:41:34,744 --> 00:41:37,872 Thinking about it, my grandfather's legacy, 370 00:41:37,872 --> 00:41:40,834 there is blood on the hands of the Höss family. 371 00:41:40,834 --> 00:41:42,419 People are still suffering now. 372 00:41:42,419 --> 00:41:46,047 I mean, even in my family, you know, almost 80 years later. 373 00:43:28,191 --> 00:43:29,359 Oh, and you have-- 374 00:43:34,989 --> 00:43:37,992 Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Look at The Frog King. 375 00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:45,333 Oh, God... 376 00:43:53,383 --> 00:43:59,597 Oh, my God. Come on in. I have to go on-- I'm a little 377 00:44:00,598 --> 00:44:04,019 uneasy without the stick, you know? 378 00:44:04,686 --> 00:44:05,687 Yeah. 379 00:44:09,024 --> 00:44:10,275 Oh, boy. 380 00:44:20,493 --> 00:44:22,454 Oh, my God. 381 00:44:49,189 --> 00:44:51,024 I'm happy now you're here. 382 00:45:19,511 --> 00:45:22,222 My family had a lovely time in Auschwitz. 383 00:45:23,723 --> 00:45:26,226 My wife had her flower paradise. 384 00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:32,148 The children could lead a carefree and pleasant life. 385 00:45:34,067 --> 00:45:37,070 In summer, they splashed in the paddling pool in the garden 386 00:45:38,154 --> 00:45:41,157 but their greatest joy was when Daddy bathed with them. 387 00:45:42,033 --> 00:45:44,869 It often happened at home that my thoughts suddenly turned 388 00:45:44,869 --> 00:45:47,664 to some of the extermination processes. 389 00:45:50,375 --> 00:45:53,795 Often when I saw our children happily playing, 390 00:45:53,795 --> 00:45:57,590 my wife being overjoyed with the youngest one, I thought, 391 00:45:58,299 --> 00:46:01,302 "How much longer will our happiness last?" 392 00:46:28,663 --> 00:46:31,875 We had a beautiful mother and father. 393 00:46:31,875 --> 00:46:33,501 - Yeah. - Beautiful. 394 00:46:35,712 --> 00:46:38,506 Many people don't have that good 395 00:46:38,506 --> 00:46:39,966 - of a life. - Yeah. 396 00:46:43,720 --> 00:46:46,556 When he talks in his book, he was outside gas chambers 397 00:46:46,556 --> 00:46:48,808 when women and children were herded in, 398 00:46:48,808 --> 00:46:51,227 how does that feel when you think about it? 399 00:46:51,227 --> 00:46:55,231 I was very sad, and I have nightmares sometimes 400 00:46:55,231 --> 00:47:01,237 because he was the only one who said what was done there. 401 00:47:02,072 --> 00:47:04,115 He was a good person. 402 00:47:04,115 --> 00:47:07,786 You mean he was honest about his role in mass extermination? 403 00:47:07,786 --> 00:47:11,456 Yes, but he got into it, and he couldn't get out of it. 404 00:47:11,456 --> 00:47:14,501 And, what about your mother Hedwig? 405 00:47:48,618 --> 00:47:49,786 Yeah. 406 00:48:24,863 --> 00:48:25,864 Yeah. 407 00:48:27,657 --> 00:48:28,658 Yeah. 408 00:50:09,092 --> 00:50:11,553 Don't want to talk about it anymore. 409 00:50:11,553 --> 00:50:12,929 Do you find it, you know, 410 00:50:12,929 --> 00:50:15,265 - do you find that-- - Depressing. 411 00:50:15,265 --> 00:50:17,350 - It's depressing? - Yes, yes. 412 00:50:22,522 --> 00:50:24,858 Sometimes, I even thought, 413 00:50:24,858 --> 00:50:28,445 "Why do I have to... 414 00:50:28,987 --> 00:50:33,366 suffer, like, physically, so bad?" 415 00:50:34,909 --> 00:50:40,832 And I even sort of said, "Is this God will be angry with me 416 00:50:40,832 --> 00:50:43,626 because my dad did things?" 417 00:50:44,627 --> 00:50:48,298 But, I said, "I will never be angry with my dad." 418 00:50:56,181 --> 00:50:59,517 He must've been a very strong person 419 00:50:59,517 --> 00:51:02,604 to live like this and do what he had to do. 420 00:51:04,564 --> 00:51:06,066 So... 421 00:51:10,904 --> 00:51:15,200 What he had to do was to basically kill more than a million people-- 422 00:51:15,200 --> 00:51:17,660 I don't think that way. 423 00:51:17,994 --> 00:51:21,873 And look at all the people that say they died in the camp, 424 00:51:21,873 --> 00:51:26,753 but all the survivors, why didn't they die? 425 00:51:26,753 --> 00:51:30,173 They're still living, and they get money now 426 00:51:30,173 --> 00:51:35,595 from Germany or from the Jewish people. 427 00:51:35,595 --> 00:51:37,138 And, you know... 428 00:51:37,597 --> 00:51:42,811 So, just whatever you want to believe, you do. 429 00:51:43,687 --> 00:51:45,855 Do you think you're in the denial? 430 00:51:45,855 --> 00:51:47,941 No. Why? 431 00:51:49,025 --> 00:51:51,361 I mean, it was the way it was. 432 00:51:54,656 --> 00:51:56,658 It was the Third Reich. 433 00:51:59,327 --> 00:52:01,329 It's a long time ago. 434 00:52:08,962 --> 00:52:14,050 All that's history, I think. What can I do? What can I say? 435 00:52:15,969 --> 00:52:20,974 Happy birthday to you 436 00:52:21,307 --> 00:52:25,478 Happy birthday to you 437 00:52:25,478 --> 00:52:30,150 Happy birthday dear, Mom 438 00:52:30,150 --> 00:52:34,070 Happy birthday to you 439 00:52:41,578 --> 00:52:44,372 Nothing wrong with your breath or oxygen supply. 440 00:52:44,372 --> 00:52:45,415 Well done. 441 00:52:45,415 --> 00:52:47,917 I'm nearly 100 years old. 442 00:52:47,917 --> 00:52:50,587 I don't know why I should get so old, really. 443 00:52:50,587 --> 00:52:53,214 There must be a reason somehow. I mean, 444 00:52:53,214 --> 00:52:59,637 some of us, thank God, who lived in those days are still alive. 445 00:53:01,264 --> 00:53:04,642 But, when we've gone, finished. 446 00:53:04,642 --> 00:53:11,316 Mom always says she hates birthdays, she hates fuss, leave her alone, 447 00:53:11,316 --> 00:53:13,651 so on and so forth. 448 00:53:13,651 --> 00:53:19,032 But, today, she celebrated her-- she's celebrating her 98th birthday 449 00:53:19,032 --> 00:53:22,243 and is surrounded by very dear people. 450 00:53:22,243 --> 00:53:26,247 It's quite incredible, Anita, to think that your parents 451 00:53:26,247 --> 00:53:29,542 were such close friends of my grandparents. 452 00:53:29,542 --> 00:53:31,544 Yeah, we were tremendous friends. 453 00:53:31,544 --> 00:53:36,675 My story's the typical Jewish story because Judy's grandfather and my father, 454 00:53:36,675 --> 00:53:39,552 we lived very happily in Germany. 455 00:53:39,552 --> 00:53:41,471 And when the trouble started, 456 00:53:41,471 --> 00:53:45,058 Judy's family had the intelligence to leave. 457 00:53:45,767 --> 00:53:47,852 And they encouraged my father to leave as well. 458 00:53:47,852 --> 00:53:51,648 My father went to Palestine, and he came back and said, 459 00:53:51,648 --> 00:53:54,234 "I don't want to live in the desert." 460 00:53:57,320 --> 00:54:00,865 But Judy's family survived, and my father did not. 461 00:54:21,928 --> 00:54:25,557 And this is the place where my family were from. 462 00:54:30,645 --> 00:54:33,815 Now it's called Wroclaw, and it's Poland. 463 00:54:34,399 --> 00:54:38,695 Although it's not Breslau anymore, it will always be to me. 464 00:54:40,196 --> 00:54:45,869 I want to, I have to, I must connect the parts of our family history 465 00:54:45,869 --> 00:54:50,331 into one narrative that lives on. 466 00:54:51,750 --> 00:54:54,753 And so, I have to be here 467 00:54:55,587 --> 00:54:58,590 because it's all part of one story. 468 00:55:15,190 --> 00:55:18,693 The recollection of my youth is a very happy one. 469 00:55:20,653 --> 00:55:24,282 I had two sisters, Marianne and Renate. 470 00:55:26,117 --> 00:55:28,495 My father was a lawyer, 471 00:55:28,495 --> 00:55:31,956 and my mother was a very, very accomplished violinist. 472 00:55:34,334 --> 00:55:37,837 I mean, culture was written in very big letters in our house. 473 00:55:44,260 --> 00:55:48,431 We have a large collection of Wroclaw photographs, 474 00:55:48,431 --> 00:55:53,395 and the home that my mother lived in, which was a residential, 475 00:55:53,395 --> 00:55:57,023 beautiful outbound apartment house 476 00:55:57,023 --> 00:55:58,983 with a wonderful terrace. 477 00:55:59,359 --> 00:56:03,029 I knew that didn't stand anymore, 478 00:56:03,029 --> 00:56:06,574 but I hadn't imagined what's in its place. 479 00:56:13,540 --> 00:56:16,751 We were, yeah, just a normal family really. 480 00:56:16,751 --> 00:56:19,838 We became abnormal with the advent of Hitler. 481 00:56:29,556 --> 00:56:30,974 The front just closed, and 482 00:56:32,600 --> 00:56:35,145 it was all too late for a whole family to get away. 483 00:56:37,689 --> 00:56:39,733 And then, the war broke out, 484 00:56:39,733 --> 00:56:42,485 and then that was obviously the end of everything. 485 00:56:45,989 --> 00:56:47,699 And in 1942, 486 00:56:48,700 --> 00:56:50,702 the deportation started. 487 00:56:57,709 --> 00:57:01,421 And my parents were deported to the east. 488 00:57:21,900 --> 00:57:24,861 My grandparents were given 489 00:57:24,861 --> 00:57:28,907 24 hours' warning by the Gestapo 490 00:57:29,699 --> 00:57:32,535 but they had to report the following day 491 00:57:32,535 --> 00:57:35,997 to where the rounding up of the Jews was happening. 492 00:57:39,292 --> 00:57:42,962 So my mother spent that last night packing, packing 493 00:57:42,962 --> 00:57:47,550 and my grandmother was in another room, crying. 494 00:57:49,511 --> 00:57:53,056 And I know that my grandfather's hair turned gray that night. 495 00:57:55,975 --> 00:58:02,315 My mother wanted to go with her parents, but my grandfather said, 496 00:58:02,315 --> 00:58:07,487 "No. Where we're going, you will get there soon enough." 497 00:58:20,875 --> 00:58:24,295 My grandparents were deported 498 00:58:24,295 --> 00:58:28,008 to a place called Izbica. 499 00:58:35,515 --> 00:58:38,768 We need to leave something symbolic 500 00:58:38,768 --> 00:58:42,772 to let you know that your daughter, my mom's cello, 501 00:58:42,772 --> 00:58:45,608 literally saved her life. 502 00:58:53,241 --> 00:58:58,830 Miraculously, my grandfather was able to smuggle out 503 00:58:58,830 --> 00:59:02,500 two notes to my mother and her sister. 504 00:59:03,793 --> 00:59:06,963 The last one being the psalm, 505 00:59:06,963 --> 00:59:10,967 "I lift up mine eyes from whence cometh my help. 506 00:59:10,967 --> 00:59:13,595 A help coming from the Lord." 507 00:59:13,595 --> 00:59:18,808 "Send food. Mutti can't write. She isn't well." 508 00:59:18,808 --> 00:59:22,604 Which I always understood that she was dead already. 509 00:59:24,647 --> 00:59:28,318 I've been driven by the need to create some sort of 510 00:59:28,318 --> 00:59:31,613 in perpetuity for my grandparents. 511 00:59:31,613 --> 00:59:34,699 This happened, these people existed, 512 00:59:34,699 --> 00:59:38,953 and these people happen to be my grandparents, 513 00:59:38,953 --> 00:59:42,123 and the millions of others who have no graves. 514 00:59:48,797 --> 00:59:51,007 I think I want to call my mom. 515 00:59:51,800 --> 00:59:52,634 Hello, Mom. 516 00:59:52,634 --> 00:59:54,719 Hi. Where are you? 517 00:59:54,719 --> 00:59:56,304 Can you see? 518 00:59:57,555 --> 00:59:58,765 Can you see? 519 00:59:58,765 --> 01:00:00,016 What is it? 520 01:00:00,016 --> 01:00:01,851 - Your parents. - What? 521 01:00:02,811 --> 01:00:06,773 Pictures of your parents and the candles I've lit. 522 01:00:08,525 --> 01:00:11,653 Yeah, I can't really recognize it. Very nice. 523 01:00:11,653 --> 01:00:14,406 But, I'd like to-- 524 01:00:14,406 --> 01:00:16,574 Oh, yeah, yeah. I can see now. 525 01:00:16,574 --> 01:00:20,328 I was smoking in front of my grandparents, 526 01:00:20,328 --> 01:00:22,747 and I felt guilty. 527 01:00:26,876 --> 01:00:29,921 So, where are you exactly now? 528 01:00:29,921 --> 01:00:32,007 Standing in the middle of Izbica. 529 01:00:32,007 --> 01:00:33,883 What village, is it? 530 01:00:33,883 --> 01:00:38,221 No. I'm in like a big wood. 531 01:00:43,893 --> 01:00:46,312 - What is that? - Another memorial. 532 01:00:46,312 --> 01:00:48,189 What does it say? 533 01:00:48,189 --> 01:00:52,027 I can't read Hebrew or Polish, 534 01:00:52,652 --> 01:00:55,530 but I did what I wanted to do. 535 01:00:56,823 --> 01:00:59,159 - Good choice. - Bye-bye. 536 01:00:59,159 --> 01:01:00,994 Bye-bye. 537 01:01:49,042 --> 01:01:50,043 Ja. 538 01:03:31,811 --> 01:03:32,687 Nein. 539 01:04:21,945 --> 01:04:25,240 I have memories of my grandma, Hedwig. 540 01:04:25,240 --> 01:04:28,159 She would sometimes visit when we were small. 541 01:04:28,159 --> 01:04:30,203 She was like the lady of the manor, 542 01:04:30,203 --> 01:04:33,039 where my mom always felt, like, intimidated by her. 543 01:04:33,039 --> 01:04:35,166 She'd wear this white apron, her hair in a bun. 544 01:04:38,420 --> 01:04:40,964 And she was kind of rigid, too, in her views. 545 01:04:40,964 --> 01:04:42,799 Now, I never talked to her about the Holocaust 546 01:04:42,799 --> 01:04:44,968 as a child, you know? 547 01:04:44,968 --> 01:04:47,846 What my mom told me that there was, 548 01:04:47,846 --> 01:04:51,599 you know, a sort of reluctance to actually own up, 549 01:04:51,599 --> 01:04:54,227 to call it for what it was, you know, a mass murder. 550 01:04:54,227 --> 01:04:59,566 Holocaust. Shoah. Millions of people killed by, you know, by her husband. 551 01:05:02,652 --> 01:05:04,738 My grandmother, Hedwig Höss, 552 01:05:04,738 --> 01:05:08,324 she got a one-way ticket to visit Aunt Püppi, 553 01:05:08,324 --> 01:05:11,828 but the rumor has it that she took this cyanide pill 554 01:05:11,828 --> 01:05:14,164 that she had actually showed to members of the family 555 01:05:14,164 --> 01:05:17,792 years earlier, that she still was in possession of this, 556 01:05:17,792 --> 01:05:19,753 you know, suicide device from the Second World War 557 01:05:19,753 --> 01:05:23,381 that they were all handed or all issued to commit suicide 558 01:05:23,381 --> 01:05:25,800 if they were captured by the enemy or something. 559 01:05:27,469 --> 01:05:31,389 What do you think of the rumors that she committed suicide 560 01:05:31,389 --> 01:05:35,060 - by biting into a cyanide pill? - Who? 561 01:05:35,060 --> 01:05:37,479 - Your mother. - No way! 562 01:05:37,479 --> 01:05:39,064 No way. 563 01:05:39,814 --> 01:05:41,066 Who said that? 564 01:05:42,567 --> 01:05:44,152 It's not true. 565 01:05:47,113 --> 01:05:50,325 I just would love to die the way she died, 566 01:05:50,325 --> 01:05:54,079 just go to sleep and wake-- not wake up. 567 01:05:57,999 --> 01:06:00,794 She had these ideas that it just all went wrong, 568 01:06:00,794 --> 01:06:04,589 that it could've been so good, you know, if given the chance. 569 01:06:04,589 --> 01:06:08,134 As she said, "We rose with that star, and we fell with that star." 570 01:06:14,933 --> 01:06:17,352 The Fuhrer was dead. 571 01:06:19,813 --> 01:06:23,191 My wife and I had the same thought at the same time. 572 01:06:23,900 --> 01:06:26,277 Now, we, too, must go. 573 01:06:28,113 --> 01:06:30,156 Our world had gone down with the Fuhrer. 574 01:06:32,909 --> 01:06:35,245 Did it make any sense for us to go on living? 575 01:06:37,497 --> 01:06:40,792 We would be hunted. They would search for us everywhere. 576 01:06:53,304 --> 01:06:55,098 We wanted to take poison. 577 01:06:56,391 --> 01:06:59,394 We did not do it for the sake of our children. 578 01:07:00,645 --> 01:07:03,398 Later on, I regretted it again and again. 579 01:07:05,316 --> 01:07:07,861 We were bound and chained to that world. 580 01:07:08,528 --> 01:07:10,530 We should have gone down with it. 581 01:07:14,034 --> 01:07:18,038 I knew that the English Field Security Police were looking for me, 582 01:07:18,038 --> 01:07:21,249 and also that my family was strictly monitored, 583 01:07:21,249 --> 01:07:23,668 and that there were constant searches of their quarters. 584 01:08:21,351 --> 01:08:24,688 On the 11th of March, I was arrested. 585 01:08:24,688 --> 01:08:28,191 My poison ampule had broken two days before. 586 01:08:28,858 --> 01:08:32,195 I was treated very badly by the field security police. 587 01:08:33,446 --> 01:08:37,659 I was paraded around like a particularly interesting animal. 588 01:08:39,160 --> 01:08:41,162 The interrogations were not very pleasant. 589 01:08:42,664 --> 01:08:47,502 I cannot resent the interrogators. They were all Jews. 590 01:08:57,721 --> 01:08:59,973 I'm gonna see Mom now, and I'm gonna show her 591 01:08:59,973 --> 01:09:05,854 some absolutely remarkable papers that I just received 48 hours ago, 592 01:09:05,854 --> 01:09:09,941 and I think she'll be kind of pretty stunned by. 593 01:09:17,032 --> 01:09:22,245 "I, Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss, 594 01:09:22,245 --> 01:09:27,125 "alias Franz Lang, having been duly warned, 595 01:09:27,125 --> 01:09:31,713 hereby declare that the following statements are true." 596 01:09:32,172 --> 01:09:38,386 They are, apparently, the first interrogation documents 597 01:09:38,386 --> 01:09:44,976 when Rudolf Höss was arrested when he was found on the run. 598 01:09:44,976 --> 01:09:47,395 God. Who sent that to you? 599 01:09:47,395 --> 01:09:49,647 Somebody who wrote to me saying, 600 01:09:49,647 --> 01:09:54,361 "My uncle, who died recently, they were found in his attic, 601 01:09:54,361 --> 01:09:56,363 "and I don't know what to do with them. 602 01:09:56,363 --> 01:09:58,740 Can I send them to you?" 603 01:09:58,740 --> 01:10:01,201 What a find. What a find. 604 01:10:01,201 --> 01:10:04,913 He says here, "I was ordered to report to Berlin 605 01:10:04,913 --> 01:10:07,290 "in June 1941 to Himmler, 606 01:10:07,957 --> 01:10:12,629 "where he told me approximately the following. 607 01:10:12,629 --> 01:10:16,174 "He wanted me to produce, within four weeks, 608 01:10:16,174 --> 01:10:20,470 "construction plans in accordance with these directions. 609 01:10:20,470 --> 01:10:27,018 "He added that the task was so difficult that he could only trust me with it. 610 01:10:28,478 --> 01:10:32,273 "Prisoners had to be gassed, then the doors were... 611 01:10:32,273 --> 01:10:36,653 "screwed tight, and two canisters of Cyclone B 612 01:10:36,653 --> 01:10:39,364 "were thrown in through small holes. 613 01:10:39,364 --> 01:10:42,659 "People would die within three and ten minutes. 614 01:10:42,659 --> 01:10:48,164 "After half an hour, the doors were opened and the bodies extracted 615 01:10:48,164 --> 01:10:51,251 "by a special squad of prisoners 616 01:10:51,251 --> 01:10:54,254 who were permanently employed for this job." 617 01:10:57,632 --> 01:10:59,134 What a find. 618 01:10:59,801 --> 01:11:01,803 Now, you go and deny that. 619 01:11:58,276 --> 01:12:02,864 On the 25th of May, our wedding anniversary of all days, 620 01:12:02,864 --> 01:12:08,495 I was driven to the airport and handed over to Polish officers there. 621 01:12:11,373 --> 01:12:14,334 An American plane took us to Warsaw. 622 01:12:35,939 --> 01:12:37,482 You darling little fellow, 623 01:12:38,066 --> 01:12:40,694 may you keep your affectionate nature. 624 01:12:40,694 --> 01:12:45,407 Life, my dear boy, will wrench you too soon from the world of childhood. 625 01:12:45,949 --> 01:12:49,703 Now, you poor boy only have your dear good mommy left. 626 01:13:22,569 --> 01:13:24,779 You know, throughout my years of ministry, 627 01:13:25,530 --> 01:13:27,532 I've spoken to a number of people. 628 01:13:28,199 --> 01:13:31,578 People whose lives were marred by trials and tribulations, 629 01:13:31,578 --> 01:13:33,163 hardship, 630 01:13:34,706 --> 01:13:36,207 calamity. 631 01:13:37,459 --> 01:13:40,128 And some of them were wondering whether their plight, 632 01:13:40,128 --> 01:13:43,465 their suffering, was due to a generational curse, 633 01:13:43,465 --> 01:13:46,426 brought upon them by an ancestor. 634 01:13:47,135 --> 01:13:50,638 This hits particularly close to home in my own life. 635 01:13:52,265 --> 01:13:55,268 I mean, being the grandson, right, of Rudolf Höss. 636 01:13:58,146 --> 01:14:03,526 The infamous, ruthless SS Commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. 637 01:14:03,526 --> 01:14:08,490 Just imagine having such a person as your grandfather. 638 01:14:09,491 --> 01:14:12,160 I mean, you hear people say, "Like father, like son." 639 01:14:13,119 --> 01:14:15,080 And so, when I considered my own ways, and I thought, 640 01:14:15,080 --> 01:14:17,290 you know, "Am I like my grandfather? 641 01:14:18,333 --> 01:14:20,001 Am I like him to some extent?" 642 01:14:21,086 --> 01:14:24,506 When I first read Exodus chapter 20, verse 5, 643 01:14:24,506 --> 01:14:27,467 I was horrified by the thought at having been born 644 01:14:27,467 --> 01:14:30,470 into the second generation after Rudolf Höss, 645 01:14:30,470 --> 01:14:33,056 that God's wrath was upon me. 646 01:14:35,433 --> 01:14:37,394 Because of the wicked, cold-blooded evil 647 01:14:37,394 --> 01:14:41,439 that my grandfather had inflicted upon the Jews. 648 01:14:43,400 --> 01:14:46,903 God's people. The people of Israel. 649 01:14:46,903 --> 01:14:48,988 And, of course, many others. 650 01:14:51,366 --> 01:14:54,661 Let me just read it again what God says here in verse 5. 651 01:14:55,328 --> 01:14:59,124 "I will visit the iniquity the sins of the fathers 652 01:14:59,124 --> 01:15:02,627 "upon the children and the children's children, 653 01:15:02,627 --> 01:15:05,422 to the third and fourth generation." 654 01:15:06,131 --> 01:15:08,091 But God says that any generational curse 655 01:15:08,091 --> 01:15:11,970 and the guilt and suffering and the pain that comes with it 656 01:15:11,970 --> 01:15:15,849 can be canceled by earnest repentance. 657 01:15:15,849 --> 01:15:18,977 In other words, what breaks the curse of sin 658 01:15:18,977 --> 01:15:23,440 is the blood of God's spotless lamb, and he is Jesus Christ. 659 01:15:23,440 --> 01:15:27,193 Believe and you shall be saved. 660 01:15:29,863 --> 01:15:33,825 When I am in awesome wonder 661 01:15:34,200 --> 01:15:37,787 Consider all the worlds 662 01:15:37,787 --> 01:15:40,999 Thy hands have made 663 01:15:41,666 --> 01:15:44,461 I see the stars 664 01:15:44,461 --> 01:15:49,007 I hear the rolling thunder 665 01:15:49,007 --> 01:15:52,010 Thy power throughout 666 01:15:52,010 --> 01:15:55,805 The universe displayed 667 01:15:55,805 --> 01:15:59,309 Then sings my soul 668 01:15:59,309 --> 01:16:03,355 My savior God, to thee 669 01:16:04,105 --> 01:16:07,108 How great Thou art 670 01:16:07,817 --> 01:16:10,653 How great Thou art 671 01:16:11,571 --> 01:16:14,115 Then sings my soul 672 01:16:14,115 --> 01:16:17,994 My savior God to Thee 673 01:16:21,706 --> 01:16:24,376 The Holocaust throws a long shadow. 674 01:16:24,376 --> 01:16:28,797 The trauma is not only on the survivor side. 675 01:16:28,797 --> 01:16:32,300 How many German families are traumatized, 676 01:16:32,300 --> 01:16:37,514 who know or don't know what their grandfathers have done? 677 01:16:51,069 --> 01:16:55,532 With a very small "a," I think of myself as an activist. 678 01:16:55,532 --> 01:16:59,994 And one of the key parts is to work with 679 01:16:59,994 --> 01:17:04,833 and understand the experience of the children of perpetrators. 680 01:17:08,044 --> 01:17:12,007 This trip to London is very much about seeing my mother, 681 01:17:12,007 --> 01:17:16,011 and I come this time with a very big request 682 01:17:16,011 --> 01:17:20,015 which provokes some anxiety for me. 683 01:17:27,105 --> 01:17:28,314 Hi, Mom! 684 01:17:29,607 --> 01:17:30,900 I'm here. 685 01:17:32,485 --> 01:17:33,737 I made it. 686 01:17:33,737 --> 01:17:36,072 Good. Had a good trip? 687 01:17:36,072 --> 01:17:39,284 Yeah, not too bad compared to some times. 688 01:17:40,702 --> 01:17:42,162 How are you? 689 01:17:42,162 --> 01:17:44,956 - I'm okay. - What's news? 690 01:17:46,124 --> 01:17:48,001 News is that I can no longer drive, 691 01:17:48,001 --> 01:17:51,296 and I feel a bit like a trapped animal, but I'll get used to it. 692 01:17:51,880 --> 01:17:54,549 Anyway, that's how it is. Can't be helped. 693 01:18:01,264 --> 01:18:02,390 So, Mom. 694 01:18:03,224 --> 01:18:05,185 I'm going to be meeting 695 01:18:05,602 --> 01:18:07,437 the son of the Commandant 696 01:18:07,437 --> 01:18:11,024 and grandson of the Commandant in Auschwitz. 697 01:18:13,360 --> 01:18:14,569 Yes? 698 01:18:14,569 --> 01:18:17,947 Partly motivated-- Well, I actually would say 699 01:18:17,947 --> 01:18:22,619 largely motivated by what I've learned from you 700 01:18:22,619 --> 01:18:24,704 and the things that you've said. 701 01:18:25,455 --> 01:18:28,333 And what do you think about that? 702 01:18:28,333 --> 01:18:31,169 Well, I think it's fantastic. 703 01:18:31,628 --> 01:18:33,797 Since the hatred goes on 704 01:18:33,797 --> 01:18:37,509 and antisemitism is absolutely flourishing, 705 01:18:38,093 --> 01:18:40,303 it's very important to talk about these things. 706 01:18:41,179 --> 01:18:44,224 I wanted to ask you whether you would consider 707 01:18:44,224 --> 01:18:46,309 coming to Auschwitz with me. 708 01:18:48,895 --> 01:18:50,563 Not really, no. You know, 709 01:18:50,563 --> 01:18:53,108 my Auschwitz is very different from your Auschwitz. 710 01:18:53,108 --> 01:18:57,779 You haven't actually been in it, I mean, that's what I mean. 711 01:18:57,779 --> 01:19:00,907 You haven't actually been in this situation 712 01:19:00,907 --> 01:19:04,494 where you didn't know whether you're going to live another hour or not. 713 01:19:04,494 --> 01:19:07,789 You don't know what my Auschwitz is. 714 01:19:09,249 --> 01:19:13,128 And I want it left alone. I want it left alone. 715 01:19:13,128 --> 01:19:17,048 I have nothing against meeting the son of Höss, 716 01:19:17,048 --> 01:19:18,591 but I'm not going to Auschwitz. 717 01:19:18,591 --> 01:19:21,845 He should come to my house. You know, I'm pretty disabled. 718 01:19:21,845 --> 01:19:24,973 If anybody wants anything, has to come here. 719 01:19:24,973 --> 01:19:28,059 - That's quite a thought. - What? 720 01:19:28,059 --> 01:19:30,770 Kaffee und kuchen in your house. 721 01:19:30,770 --> 01:19:33,481 Yes, why not? If he brings the kuchen. 722 01:20:00,508 --> 01:20:03,178 So this is Oswiecim, 723 01:20:03,178 --> 01:20:05,930 infamously known and will always be remembered 724 01:20:05,930 --> 01:20:07,766 as "Auschwitz." 725 01:20:11,603 --> 01:20:15,106 It's a very strange thing that there is a town 726 01:20:15,106 --> 01:20:19,361 so close to the actual concentration camp. 727 01:20:32,082 --> 01:20:38,004 When this possibility came up that I could accompany 728 01:20:38,004 --> 01:20:43,385 the son of the Commandant of Auschwitz, who had never been to the camp... 729 01:20:45,053 --> 01:20:47,514 and his son, my contemporary, 730 01:20:47,514 --> 01:20:54,187 that I could witness them witnessing what they had never seen before 731 01:20:54,187 --> 01:20:57,524 was somehow, in some perverse way, a gift. 732 01:21:34,644 --> 01:21:38,356 The Hösses and I met for the first time in the cafe 733 01:21:38,356 --> 01:21:41,609 of the last remaining synagogue of Oswiecim, 734 01:21:41,609 --> 01:21:44,946 which used to have a thriving Jewish community. 735 01:21:47,157 --> 01:21:52,495 It was as if time stood still. I felt we were all breathless. 736 01:21:58,043 --> 01:21:59,502 - Ja. - Hello. 737 01:21:59,502 --> 01:22:02,088 It's difficult to find words. 738 01:22:03,923 --> 01:22:05,925 - Yeah. I know. - Yeah. 739 01:22:07,177 --> 01:22:09,471 It's been a heavy on-- in my heart, 740 01:22:09,471 --> 01:22:10,513 - you know, just-- - Yes. 741 01:22:30,200 --> 01:22:33,203 Yeah. I understand that. 742 01:23:05,276 --> 01:23:08,530 By the will of the Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler, 743 01:23:08,530 --> 01:23:12,242 Auschwitz became the greatest human extermination facility 744 01:23:12,242 --> 01:23:13,827 of all time. 745 01:23:20,000 --> 01:23:23,128 When he personally gave me the order to prepare a place 746 01:23:23,128 --> 01:23:25,714 for mass extermination in Auschwitz 747 01:23:25,714 --> 01:23:28,675 and to personally carry out this extermination, 748 01:23:28,675 --> 01:23:33,346 I did not have the slightest idea of the scale and consequences. 749 01:23:39,936 --> 01:23:42,355 This order was unusual. 750 01:23:42,355 --> 01:23:44,649 Indeed, monstrous. 751 01:23:44,649 --> 01:23:49,904 But the justification made the process of extermination seem right to me. 752 01:24:41,831 --> 01:24:44,334 So, this is the crematoria. 753 01:24:45,335 --> 01:24:47,337 - The gas chamber. - Right. 754 01:24:48,672 --> 01:24:50,173 Which, 755 01:24:50,715 --> 01:24:53,009 believe it or not, was maybe 756 01:24:53,009 --> 01:24:58,682 100 steps from where my mother and the women's orchestra played. 757 01:25:01,685 --> 01:25:06,856 Transport after transport would walk this way 758 01:25:06,856 --> 01:25:10,276 and hear music, and people 759 01:25:11,027 --> 01:25:13,530 who were coming to their deaths, 760 01:25:14,489 --> 01:25:16,991 would come to this building, 761 01:25:18,076 --> 01:25:19,911 be asked to undress, 762 01:25:19,911 --> 01:25:23,248 thinking that they were going to have a shower, 763 01:25:23,957 --> 01:25:28,712 and told to put their shoes and their clothes neatly, 764 01:25:28,712 --> 01:25:32,132 so that they could find them again easily. 765 01:25:34,801 --> 01:25:39,305 And within the next 30 minutes, they were gassed. 766 01:25:50,442 --> 01:25:53,278 It's just shocking how there was this evil deception 767 01:25:53,278 --> 01:25:55,488 that was kept up for these people to believe 768 01:25:55,488 --> 01:25:57,907 that there was something. There was a silver lining, 769 01:25:57,907 --> 01:26:00,535 some offer them safety, perhaps. 770 01:26:00,535 --> 01:26:03,663 Even having, when you said sh-- you know, having to fold their clothes, 771 01:26:03,663 --> 01:26:05,665 that they were gonna have a shower, 772 01:26:05,665 --> 01:26:08,585 and perhaps to keep people from panicking 773 01:26:08,585 --> 01:26:11,171 because if all these thousands of people had panicked... 774 01:26:11,171 --> 01:26:12,088 Yeah. 775 01:26:12,088 --> 01:26:14,174 ...it would've been very difficult to contain that. 776 01:26:14,174 --> 01:26:17,218 I think this is so terrible. 777 01:26:17,510 --> 01:26:21,848 Schrecklich, as they say in German. It's a horror. 778 01:26:21,848 --> 01:26:25,310 And then the realization hits home, 779 01:26:25,894 --> 01:26:27,395 who did this? 780 01:26:28,438 --> 01:26:31,483 And it is actually no other than my grandfather. 781 01:26:45,830 --> 01:26:46,706 Yeah. 782 01:27:13,775 --> 01:27:18,780 I had to witness death itself through the spyhole of the gas chamber. 783 01:27:34,796 --> 01:27:37,298 I had to witness all the processes. 784 01:27:41,845 --> 01:27:44,305 I had to watch, day and night, 785 01:27:44,305 --> 01:27:47,225 the dragging and the burning of the bodies. 786 01:27:51,980 --> 01:27:53,481 The removal of the teeth. 787 01:27:55,358 --> 01:28:00,447 The cutting off of the hair. All this ghastliness, for hours on end. 788 01:28:10,415 --> 01:28:13,626 I had to do all this because I had to show everyone 789 01:28:13,626 --> 01:28:16,921 that I was willing to be present everywhere myself 790 01:28:16,921 --> 01:28:20,008 as I had to demand of those I was commanding. 791 01:28:21,843 --> 01:28:25,180 The smell of the burning was carried many kilometers away 792 01:28:25,180 --> 01:28:26,473 and led to the whole population 793 01:28:26,473 --> 01:28:29,017 talking of the burning of the Jews. 794 01:28:33,188 --> 01:28:37,734 I think there is no one else that did what he did on such a scale. 795 01:28:37,734 --> 01:28:44,574 It is a fact, an undeniable fact, that my grandfather is really the... 796 01:28:46,076 --> 01:28:49,329 the greatest mass murderer in human history. 797 01:30:16,416 --> 01:30:21,296 May the public continue seeing in me the bloodthirsty beast, 798 01:30:21,921 --> 01:30:23,923 the savage sadist, 799 01:30:25,133 --> 01:30:26,843 the murderer of millions 800 01:30:27,927 --> 01:30:30,680 because the mass of people cannot imagine 801 01:30:30,680 --> 01:30:34,142 the Commandant of Auschwitz to be anything other. 802 01:30:36,478 --> 01:30:40,315 They would never understand that he had a heart, too. 803 01:30:41,608 --> 01:30:43,109 Rudolf Höss. 804 01:30:49,532 --> 01:30:53,203 I think he was kinda polishing his image a little bit. 805 01:30:53,203 --> 01:30:56,873 He had come to the end of the line. Death was inevitable. 806 01:31:58,518 --> 01:32:00,979 This is the last statement Rudolf Höss, my grandfather, 807 01:32:00,979 --> 01:32:02,772 made before his execution. 808 01:32:04,024 --> 01:32:07,527 "My conscience compels me to make the following declaration. 809 01:32:08,236 --> 01:32:11,740 "In the solitude of my prison cell, I have come to the bitter recognition 810 01:32:11,740 --> 01:32:14,743 that I have sinned gravely against humanity." 811 01:32:21,583 --> 01:32:23,293 As Commandant of Auschwitz, 812 01:32:23,293 --> 01:32:26,046 I carried out part of the cruel plans 813 01:32:26,046 --> 01:32:29,132 of the Third Reich for human extermination. 814 01:32:31,843 --> 01:32:36,723 In so doing, I inflicted grievous damage onto humans 815 01:32:36,723 --> 01:32:38,725 and humanity. 816 01:32:44,064 --> 01:32:47,901 I'm to pay with my life for what I'm responsible for. 817 01:32:53,156 --> 01:32:56,868 May the Lord God forgive me one day for what I have done. 818 01:33:05,627 --> 01:33:08,046 Do you think we could see something like the Holocaust 819 01:33:08,046 --> 01:33:10,924 - happening again? - It could happen again, 820 01:33:10,924 --> 01:33:12,884 something like the Holocaust could happen again. 821 01:33:12,884 --> 01:33:14,719 I mean, look at the world now. 822 01:33:15,136 --> 01:33:19,599 It looks different. Yes, it can happen again because I think 823 01:33:19,599 --> 01:33:22,686 we humans behave atrociously badly. 824 01:34:36,176 --> 01:34:38,178 - Guten tag. - Come in. 825 01:34:48,229 --> 01:34:49,522 Oops. 826 01:35:01,534 --> 01:35:04,120 Wunderbar. Fantastisch. 827 01:35:17,217 --> 01:35:18,718 Ja. 828 01:35:23,056 --> 01:35:24,057 Ja. 829 01:35:53,712 --> 01:35:55,130 - Ja. - Ja. 830 01:36:02,429 --> 01:36:07,892 So do you hate your grandfather now? What is your feeling? 831 01:36:07,892 --> 01:36:10,020 I would hate him, yes. I could say that. 832 01:36:10,020 --> 01:36:12,605 - I hate him, yeah. - What about you? 833 01:36:30,999 --> 01:36:32,542 - Ja. - Ja. 834 01:36:32,542 --> 01:36:35,837 Very peculiar situations that we should be sitting here together 835 01:36:35,837 --> 01:36:39,466 and talking about these terrible days, yes? 836 01:36:40,091 --> 01:36:44,012 And there are you, who knew nothing about it 837 01:36:44,012 --> 01:36:47,098 because there was a fence between the horror 838 01:36:47,098 --> 01:36:49,517 and a normal life, yes. 839 01:36:50,060 --> 01:36:56,775 To somebody like your father, I suppose, these Jews seemed like vermin, 840 01:36:56,775 --> 01:36:59,152 - not people. Vermin. - Yeah, yeah. 841 01:36:59,152 --> 01:37:01,946 You need the Jews to have something to let 842 01:37:01,946 --> 01:37:04,949 your own shortcomings out on, you know? 843 01:37:04,949 --> 01:37:07,535 - Yeah. - The Jews are original. 844 01:37:07,535 --> 01:37:13,917 They're just people. And it's time to stop that stupid hatred of Jews. 845 01:37:15,377 --> 01:37:17,212 The Jews are God's chosen people. 846 01:37:17,212 --> 01:37:19,422 Only what for are we chosen? 847 01:37:19,422 --> 01:37:21,925 You know the famous prayer of the Jews... 848 01:37:24,511 --> 01:37:26,346 "Why don't You choose somebody else for a change 849 01:37:26,346 --> 01:37:29,432 as the chosen people?" You know, what have we done? 850 01:37:31,142 --> 01:37:33,520 What have we done? 851 01:37:34,813 --> 01:37:38,775 I mean, today, a boy wears a koppel on the head 852 01:37:38,775 --> 01:37:40,944 is not out of danger. 853 01:37:40,944 --> 01:37:43,488 So, we haven't really made so much progress yet, 854 01:37:43,488 --> 01:37:46,032 so we have still got lots to do. 855 01:37:46,032 --> 01:37:49,786 We have a responsibility, the second generation, 856 01:37:49,786 --> 01:37:52,664 to continue to communicate 857 01:37:52,664 --> 01:37:55,917 and speak about humanity 858 01:37:55,917 --> 01:37:57,836 and the absence of... 859 01:37:57,836 --> 01:38:00,171 And make sure it's not forgotten, move on. 860 01:38:02,132 --> 01:38:03,883 You can't forgive what-- what's happened, 861 01:38:03,883 --> 01:38:07,345 but the important thing is that we talk to each other 862 01:38:08,513 --> 01:38:09,973 and understand each other. 863 01:38:14,561 --> 01:38:18,231 This is going to the next stage, not what we've done, 864 01:38:18,231 --> 01:38:21,484 but what are we doing now. That is important. 865 01:38:24,863 --> 01:38:27,532 Yeah, it certainly was a unique moment, 866 01:38:27,532 --> 01:38:31,578 of the son of the Commandant of Auschwitz walking into my house, 867 01:38:31,578 --> 01:38:37,000 sitting down in a chair opposite me, and we're having a cup of coffee together. 868 01:38:37,000 --> 01:38:40,587 I mean, in a way, that was beautiful. 869 01:39:08,281 --> 01:39:10,283 My grandfather, Rudolf Höss, 870 01:39:10,283 --> 01:39:15,663 was instrumental in the annihilation of two-thirds of Europe's Jews. 871 01:39:29,135 --> 01:39:32,097 Thirty years after he had crossed the Judean Desert 872 01:39:32,097 --> 01:39:36,685 during the First World War, a Jewish state was proclaimed here 873 01:39:37,727 --> 01:39:40,730 in the hope that it would protect future generations.