New movie depicts a vicious Nazi death camp guard, who lived for years in Queens undetected

Key Points:

• "The Housewife," premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, dramatizes the true story of Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan, a former Nazi concentration camp guard who lived undetected in New York for years before being exposed.
• Ryan, known as “the stomping mare” for her brutal treatment of prisoners at Majdanek, was convicted postwar in Austria of lesser crimes and served only four months before emigrating to the U.S., where she became a naturalized citizen.
• The film explores the investigation and eventual deportation of Ryan in the early 1970s after it was revealed she lied on her citizenship application; she was later tried in Germany and sentenced to life in prison.
• While Naomi Watts’ portrayal of Ryan has been criticized as overacted, the movie highlights the chilling reality that evil can exist hidden behind a façade of normalcy and neighborly charm.
• The story underscores the shocking truth that a seemingly sweet, hardworking American homemaker was responsible for horrific war crimes, challenging assumptions about appearances and evil.