NGO buys Auschwitz commandant's villa, ignoring history

A New York-based NGO, the Combat Extremism Project, has purchased the villa of Rudolf Höß, the former commandant of Auschwitz, made famous by Jonathan Glazer's film 'The Zone of Interest'. The organization stated it is not interested in Höß's history. The house, located adjacent to the Auschwitz I camp, appears smaller and grayer than in the film, with the camp's watchtowers, barracks, and the gallows where Höß was hanged in 1947 visible beyond the garden wall. Höß, before his execution, remarked that the extermination of Jews 'did not serve' antisemitism and that the public would never understand that he had 'a heart' and 'was not bad'. The purchase raises questions about the preservation and interpretation of Holocaust-related sites.