Pool parties, gardening pleasures, horseback rides. Occasionally a servant brings a delightful little treasure, such as a fur coat. It’s quite delightful, being the wife of the Auschwitz commandant.
Such is the premise of Jonathan Glazer’s staggering “The Zone of Interest,” a Holocaust movie unlike any other. Confining itself almost entirely to events just outside the extermination camp, where a senior SS officer and his family enjoy life in a charming little villa, it depicts no violence, and barely even shows any Jews being menaced. Yet it’s lacerating, a master class in how to show without showing.
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The Zone of Interest, written by Booker Prize-winning author Martin Amis, is his latest exploration of the Holocaust in a unique and gripping novel. While much of literature pertaining to the Holocaust typically examines the suffering of the victims, Amis’ story focuses instead on the members of the German regime responsible for the horrific practices.
Published in 2014, the novel focuses on the lives of three characters living in Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. Angelus (“Golo”) Thomsen is an official of the camp, recently promoted by his uncle who serves as the camp’s commander. Susanne Strasser is a college student and love interest of Golo. And Paul Doll, Golo’s rival for Susanne’s affections, is an inspector at the camp and a high-ranking Nazi official.
Throughout the novel, Amis employs a skillfully applied atmosphere of antiseptic gentility that belies the horrors of the concentration camp surrounding it. Characters discuss music, literature, and art as if each scene were taking place in France rather than Auschwitz. Fischer calls it a “parlor game” because “the more normal the atmosphere, the more outrageous the horror it contains”.
Amis’ story is infused with dark humor. In one memorable moment of the book, SS officers discuss the efficiency and organization of the camp while waiting in line for dinner. As Chef Lehmann calmly prepares meals for the camp’s prisoners, the officers comment on the delicious aroma.
At the end of the novel, Amis deftly presents the absurdity of the Holocaust that so many have failed to capture before him. Near the end of the novel, Golo realizes that the Holocaust wasn’t a rational event, but rather an insane dream by a few powerful people.
The Zone of Interest is an examination of the human spirit in the face of atrocity. Amis’ haunting exploration of the Holocaust offers a glimpse of the banality of evil and the extent to which memories can be distorted. While it is an uncomfortable read, Amis skillfully captures the message of his novel by creating an unsettling, yet engaging story.
