The Dark Side of the Miracle Touch: A New Film Unravels the Myth of Himmler's Masseur
There are stories that beg to be told, and then there are stories that demand to be untold. Felix Kersten's is the latter. For decades, the world believed in the miracle of his hands — hands that soothed the aching back of Heinrich Himmler, the architect of the Holocaust, and in doing so, supposedly persuaded him to spare thousands of lives. It was a tale so cinematic that, as the producers of a new film put it, 'If Steven Spielberg had known about Felix Kersten, he would have shot a film about him, not about Oskar Schindler.' But as German writer-director Felix Randau discovered, the truth is far more unsettling — and far more fascinating.
In his new film, 'I Is Another,' premiering this week at the Locarno Film Festival, Randau strips away the varnish of heroism to reveal a man of mercurial charm and profound moral ambiguity. Played with slippery elegance by Danish actor Claes Bang, Kersten is no saint. He is a survivor, a fabulist, a man who danced on the edge of the abyss and somehow emerged with a story that the world desperately wanted to believe. The film follows Kersten on a train journey to Oslo, where he hopes to claim a Nobel Prize — a journey that becomes a psychological duel with a fictional journalist, Hedda Wohmann, who suspects the masseur's memoir is a web of lies.
Randau's research uncovered the smoking gun: Kersten's SS membership card, a detail that casts a long shadow over his postwar claims. The card, discovered in the archives, suggests that Kersten was not merely a neutral party who happened to treat Himmler, but an active participant in the regime's inner circle. This revelation turns the story on its head. Was Kersten a hero who used his access for good, or a charlatan who manufactured a heroic narrative to escape prosecution? Randau's film suggests the latter, and the implications are as chilling as they are compelling.
For the luxury traveler, this story offers a different kind of journey — not to a five-star resort, but into the dark heart of history. It is a reminder that the most exclusive access often comes with a price, and that the corridors of power are rarely as clean as they appear. The film's setting — a long train ride through Europe, with its velvet curtains and clinking glasses — evokes an era when travel was a performance, and every passenger played a role. It is a world that still exists, in the private jets and superyachts of today, where the wealthy can buy proximity to power, but never certainty about its true nature.
The story of Kersten also speaks to a growing appetite among the ultra-wealthy for 'dark tourism' — not the macabre souvenir-hunting of the masses, but a curated, intellectual exploration of history's most troubling chapters. Private tours of Auschwitz, guided by historians, are now a staple of high-end travel itineraries. The film taps into this desire to understand, to peer behind the curtain of evil, and to ask uncomfortable questions about complicity and survival.
Randau's film is not a comfortable watch, and it shouldn't be. It is a mirror held up to the present, where truth is increasingly a matter of narrative, and where the most persuasive storyteller wins. For those who travel to understand the world, 'I Is Another' is an essential stop — a reminder that the most profound journeys are not to places, but into the human soul. And for those who seek wellness in its purest form, it offers a cautionary tale: the touch that heals can also deceive, and the peace we seek may be built on lies we choose to believe.
As the credits roll, one is left with a question that lingers like a half-remembered dream: What stories are we telling ourselves today, and who will be the Kersten of our era? The film is a call to travel with open eyes, to question the narratives we are handed, and to seek the truth — even when it is ugly. In the world of luxury travel, where every experience is curated and every story is polished, that is the rarest luxury of all.
