Rudolf Hoess, Kommandant Auschwitz 1940-43, is very interestingly portrayed here in my opinion. I had often wondered as to whether or not this once-devout Catholic suffered any misgivings during his reign at the well-concealed killing factory Auschwitz, and having read the majority of Herman Wouk's "War and Remembrance," recalling his reaction to the girl with the apple blossoms, was this fact or fiction? His subsequent testimony at the Nuremberg Trials revealed something of a man who could care less one way or the other, about the war or any such thing. To my understanding Hoess's residence was several miles from the actual camp, but in "Sophie's Choice" it's separated from the camp by a high wall. Frau Hoess and young Emmi appear to be as ardent Nazis as the Kommandant himself. Baldur von Schirach and Gertrud Scholz-Klink must have had a field day with Emmi, a deutsche Maedel if ever was. There seems to be genuine love and affection between Hoess and his wife, the way they seem completely at ease with one another. He also is quite civil towards Sophie, business-minded and somewhat unsure of himself. THEN all of a sudden he flips his nut. I don't think it would have mattered if Hitler was in the room instead of Sophie, with a migraine attack like that he'd have still curled up with a pillow. I am of the opinion that Hoess was probably an insomniac, although I can't say for certain. To live in such luxurious surroundings with his loving family adjacent to, well, Auschwitz-Birkenau with its most unpleasant atmosphere, would have some kind of an effect on even the most heartless ruthless bureaucratic SS-Mann.