Zyklon Portrait

Many of the stories and images of the holocaust are known to most people. Precisely because of this common knowledge, director Elida Schogt could permit herself not to use these images. Her ZYKLON PORTRAIT offers an almost scientific description of the pesticide that was used by the Nazis in the gas chambers of their concentration camps. For example, the film says that Zyklon, the commercial name for the chemical substance hydrogen cyanide, was produced in the potencies A up to E. Apparently, Zyklon-B sufficed to kill people. The convulsing effect on cockroaches is shown in old footage. Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höss later wrote in his memoirs: ‘I must admit openly the gassings had a calming effect on me.’ Old family photographs and the stories of Schogt’s mother make up the personal background to this story, which the maker dedicated to her grandparents who died in Auschwitz. Underwater shots underline the fact that hydrogen, an element of Zyklon, is also an element of the water that we need to survive.