A very troubling documentary about the fallout of trauma for both the survivor and the perpetrator's offspring, "Inheritance" introduces us to Monika, daughter of Amon Goeth, Nazi concentration camp leader and vicious murderer, who was played by Ralph Feinnes in Schindler's List. Monika's life has been haunted by the sympathizers, like her mother, who hid the truth from her and taught her their own kind of hatefulness, and the growing realizations of from whom she came. She is a sad person, whose shoulders slouch and whose hair falls in her face, attempting to conceal the shame and fear she bears.Monika contacts Helen, a survivor of the camp who worked in Goeth's home as a servant, who now lives in New Jersey with her three adult children. They arrange to meet to provide information and closure for each other.
But while Helen is able to come to a greater sense of personal closure through the trip, Monika remains thoroughly shattered by the shadow of her father's brutality. She is so shamed to have come from such a monster and so afraid of becoming him, that she willingly tortures herself by meeting with one of his surviving victims and visiting the actual location of the brutality.
This film revisits one my current themes: children filter the trauma of their parents. If we are all fortunate to live lives without further trauma, perhaps we can come to a greater society. Until then, the tortures and miseries of previous generations will be worked out by their children, who are better capable of seeing their parents' ills, but will necessarily inherit and absorb some of them.
And so Helen, who survived such horrors, has made a kind of peace with herself, but the somewhat younger Monika has been handed the full weight of her father's sins without anyone to help her comprehend their ramifications. She is crippled by her upbringing and the realization that her father was a monster. There is a mention early on that Monika and her husband are raising their grandson because their daughter has a drug problem. It seems to me like so many children are burdened with things they were not present for, but whose results profoundly affect their approach to life, and they are unable to cope. So perhaps Monika's grandson will find a healthier state of mind.
The film was so uncomfortable with Monika's sorrow, but I came away with a pondering question. How can we help each other heal? Monika expresses fear that Helen's daughter will look at her with hate, and she also recognizes the terror in Helen's eyes when she discusses Amon. Can the next generations assist the previous? How can one face such circumstances, or accidents of birth?
It's so sad how much we desire to know our parents, as if we can get a firm grasp on ourselves through understanding them, and as if we could gain control or power over them by understanding them better. Monika's desire to know and understand her father seems to hold a need to be loved and I suspect she hopes that she might meet someone who might one day tell her something good.
The two moments of greatest tension between Monika and Helen point to some of the greatest fears present in our social unconscious. Helen becomes overwhelmed by the power of Monika's feelings and she must walk away to protect her own fragile feelings. And later, Helen makes it clear that she cannot even hear the lies that Monika was told. While Monika wants to express the change between her and her parents' generation to gain appreciation from Helen, Helen simply cannot accept a discussion of the lies because it is so offensive to her. Other peoples' experiences can be so upsetting whether because of empathy and/or because of our ego-centric perspectives on their experiences. What does it mean for me?
Reason # 594985 that film is important:
In a post-screening interview, Helen says that "Schindler's List" made it possible to discuss the horrors of the Holocaust with family members and strangers. By having a reference point, others became more able to understand, and after becoming engaged by the film others have more of a desire to understand the experiences.
