The Last Nazi

The first day of Rosh Hashana; in a park, a close-knit family performs a prayer ritual. Two characters in their early 30s, Josh and Olivia are soon to be married. He is a Modern Orthodox Jew, and she has converted from Catholicism to Judaism. Josh’s father, Harry, is a sardonic agnostic. Claire, Josh’s great-grandmother, stays mostly silent but is clearly full of affection. After the marriage, Claire meets Josh and Olivia on a beach outing and makes a startling confession. She initiates it indirectly, by showing them photos that she’s been holding in a safe deposit box. It’s an odd place to keep one’s past, but Claire has very good reason to have hidden hers. Not only is the beloved matriarch not a Jew, she was herself a member of the Nazi Party in World War II Germany. Claire, who remains an anti-Semite but nevertheless also continues to insist that she loves her Jewish children, has brain cancer. She wishes to travel out of New York for an assisted suicide. Some of her family …