Inheritance

Inheritance is the story of Monika Hertwig, a soft-spoken woman grappling with a profound legacy left to her by a father she never really knew.

Monika’s father was Amon Goeth.

Often described as a “monster” and “inhuman,” Amon Goeth was the prominent Nazi leader and commandant of the Plaszow Concentration Camp. Utterly ruthless and sadistic, he murdered thousands of Jews and others during the war.

When Schindler’s List opened in 1993, Monika watched Ralph Fiennes’ chilling portrayal of Amon Goeth. She found this depiction of her father so disturbing that she left the theater more than once.

The fact that this man was her father is a brutal reality that Monika didn’t know anything about until her teen years. It is a fact that Monika still cannot reconcile. Feeling an aching need to come to terms with this legacy of evil, Monika reaches out to Helen Jonas, a survivor of the Holocaust. Helen lived enslaved under Goeth’s roof, serving as both his maid and prey for nearly two years.

Sixty years after Amon Goeth’s arrest and the liberation of Plaszow, Monika and Helen meet for the first time at what was once Goeth’s luxurious villa overlooking the concentration camp. It’s a brutally honest, gut-wrenching and emotional meeting that brings both closure and new questions for these women.

READ MORE: Director's Notes

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