The Nazis Thought They Were Ordinary People

My favorite movie is the 2023 film The Zone of Interest. It follows the everyday experiences of a German family in 1940s Poland. We watch as they go swimming, do gardening, and have family dinners. We watch them argue about moving, play with toys, and accommodate their grandmother for a visit. We see their maid. We watch as their maid prepares tea and set the table.

The movie would really be quite boring if it weren’t for one thing - the father of the family is the chief commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp, and their house is only a stone’s throw away from it. We, the viewers, never see inside of the camp. We never see people being executed or separated from their families. We never see people being made to do forced labor or to grieve the loss of their loved ones. We never see people resisting their treatment or finding solace in religion.

But, we do get glimpses of the camp in other ways. We see the trains coming by. We overhear gunshots and screams. We hear the furnaces bellowing. We also see blood being washed off the commander’s boots, and we see architects discussing plans for new gas chambers.

What makes the movie so horrifying is the way in which we know that one of humanity’s greatest atrocities is occurring so close by and, yet, it’s never really acknowledged. We never see what’s happening inside, and we never hear anyone in the family speak out about it.

It’s as though the Holocaust was just a normal fact of the world. A boring and bureaucratic process, not dissimilar to the production of furniture.

After you watch this movie, the horror of this sits with you for a long time. You wonder how humanity ever got to a point where it would be willing to execute its fellow countrymen by the millions. And, you wonder how it could ever have become so normal to them.

At the same time, though, the move is quite hopeful. By showing us that the perpetrators of the Holocaust were everyday people like you and I, it argues that anyone can be a participant in atrocities. And that, as such, if we want to make sure that we are not participants, we have to ask ourselves, “How can we make sure it never happens again?”

For the first couple of months after watching this movie, I thought about this question a lot. I don’t have the full answer. None of us do. But, I have some ideas.

First, to make sure that we are not participants, we have to pay attention when someone tells us that we are causing harm. That German family accepted the Holocaust because they allowed themselves to view Jews as less than human. Even though they could hear their screams, they didn’t let themselves get bothered by them.

If we want to make sure that we are not blind to the worst things humanity does, we have to be willing to accept the idea that we could be doing harm. We have to hear people out when they voice concerns. And, we have to be willing to continuously reflect on our values. I know it’s easy to feel that you’re on the right side of history for everything, but that German family felt the same way too. The fact is that, if you really want to be on the right side of history, you have to be willing to entertain the idea that you’re not.

Second, to make sure that we are not participants, we have to speak out. If you believe that something is wrong, you have to voice it. This will be painful. People will dislike you for mentioning it, and you will likely get into some arguments. But, if you don’t speak out, nothing will change. The people who have created change in the past where everyday people like you and I. And, as such, this means that you too can create change for the future.