The reality exceeds fiction. When we read a book, we expect the twists and turns of the story to be plausible, but there are real stories that surpass our ability to fable.
Sometimes we resist believing that there are bad people. We try to justify certain attitudes by factors external to human nature: the situations that someone has experienced, personal circumstances, precariousness and drama.
However, the really bad guys exist. A very clear example is the Jewish Holocaust. Numerous literary and film adaptations have been made on the subject. Schindler’s List (1993), directed by Steven Spielberg, is a film in which the evil that the Nazis did in the concentration camps is brilliantly explained.
Another film that reflects the horror of the Holocaust is The Zone of Interest, filmed in 2021 in Auschwitz, directed by Jonathan Glazer and starring Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller. It is an adaptation of the novel by Martin Amis.
On one occasion I visited Auschwitz. It was a journey to pain and silence. It had never happened to me: we tourists who toured the concentration camp did not speak. We were dumbfounded by the impact of what we saw. It is not possible to smile in Auschwitz, where pain still permeates the atmosphere, as if the trace of evil persisted there.
Glazer’s film is set in 1943, focusing on the daily life of Nazi commander Rudolf Höss, his wife, Hedwig, and their five children. The family lives in a house whose garden is next to the concentration camp. They strive to build an idyllic life next to the wall that separates them from horror. The father takes his children fishing. The mother takes care of the garden where flowers grow. They try to invent a paradise that borders on hell. There are no images showing the interior of the field. Everything happens outside, in the house that pretends to be a home but turns out to be macabre. The atmosphere of evil is also present in Mica Levi’s soundtrack, in which the squeaks of crematory ovens, distant laments and anguish merge.
A few days ago I had the opportunity to see an interview with Sebastià Comas, the “compassionate” kidnapper of Maria Àngels Feliu, the pharmacist from Olot, kidnapped on November 20, 1992 in the garage of her house, held in a cell in comparable conditions. to which the Jews lived in a concentration camp. She was 35 years old, had three small children, and had a 492-day ordeal ahead of her.
Although years have passed, that kidnapping lingers in the memory of many. Surrounded by insects, rats and her own excrement, without any possibility of showering, she demonstrated enormous human strength. “Underground, time stops,” she said later. Her kidnappers were two corrupt police officers from Olot and some forest guards. Among them was Sebastià Comas, who provided her with snacks, allowed her to walk a few steps outside her cell, and calmed her down when they threatened to cut off her limbs. Did she play the good cop and the bad cop at the same time? One night he dared to free her at a gas station. When María Àngels returned home, her children did not recognize her.
Was Comas the least bad bad guy or someone who was struggling with an internal conflict? In the interview, he claimed that he had tried to protect her. We do not know if it is from others or from his own fears, overwhelmed by not knowing how to control evil.
