When the Kaddishis for our Children and for the Children of Others: Social and Cultural Strategies of the Sonderkommando in Saul fia/ Son of Saul, by László Nemes

Abstract

In a crucial sequel to the film Saul fia/Son of Saul, 2015, by the Hungarian director László Nemes, we accompany, at the height of the "Final Solution" of the Shoah, a member of the Sonderkommando, Saul Ausländer (Géza Röhrig) approach a rabbi in the territories of Auschwitz-Birkenau: “Rabbi: -Get rid of him. Do you know the prayer? I willpray. His name. You can not do anything else. Saul: That's not enough. You know it. You know!” Saul, in this context, obsessively wishes to perform the Kaddish ritual for a boy, presented as his supposed son, who had recently died in the gas chamber and should have the body cremated as hundreds of thousands of people in these specific concentration camps. Having such a film as a corpus of study, we will observe and analyze how a religious and cultural practice is able to reestablish memories of the tradition of the Hebrew people during Shoah, to resuscitate dehumanized subjects by the varied and chronic devices of violence, as well as, and above all, to extend such practice of human care and respect for the other peoples involved in the tragedy.