蜜芽传媒

In a cinema in south-west Germany an audience is gathered to watch an Oscar winning film, Zone of Interest, about the life of Rudolf H枚ss, Commandant of Auschwitz. Those present comprise Jewish people from around the world, and the special guest is Rudolf鈥檚 grandson.

The topic was rarely visited during Kai's childhood. It was only after a school history lesson that Kai began to comprehend Rudolf鈥檚 role as head of the largest mass murder site in history.

Reporter Shiroma Silva travels to his home in Germany to interrogate Kai on his personal struggle. She tracks Kai鈥檚 outlook today through Christianity, in which he uses his past to look forward and understand the particular place of Jewish people in the Bible. He questions how anti-Semitism thrived in Christian societies and his grandfather鈥檚 early life in a devout Catholic family.

Awaiting execution at Nuremberg in 1947, Rudolf H枚ss returned to Catholicism, regretting his unquestioning pursuit of Nazi ideology and crimes against humanity. But little was said about the Jewish prisoners who made up the majority of the dead at Auschwitz.

Today his grandson speaks to Jewish communities globally, and Shiroma Silva talks to Pastor Kai H枚ss as he seeks to disabuse congregations of the thinking that has all too often blamed Jewish people for all the world鈥檚 ills, and describes himself as a Gentile who has been saved by Jewish leaders.

Producer/presenter: Shiroma Silva
Executive Producer: Rajeev Gupta
Editor: Chloe Walker
Production co-ordinator: Mica Nepomuceno

(Photo: Kai Uwe H枚ss attends the Berlin premiere of Der Schatten Des Kommandanten at Delphi Lux,10 June, 2024, Berlin, Germany. Credit: Gerald Matzka/Getty Images)

This content was edited on 02/04/25