How did the world respond to Nazi oppression before 1938?

Impact of the "Night of Broken Glass" of November 1938

Wartime, 1942-1945

World Response to the Holocaust

The American press had printed scores of articles detailing mistreatment of the Jews in Germany. By 1942, many of these newspapers were reporting details of the Holocaust in stories about the mass murder of Jews in the millions. For the most part, these articles were only a few inches long, and were buried deep in the newspaper. These reports were either denied or unconfirmed by the United States government. When the United States government did receive irrefutable evidence that the reports were true, U.S. government officials suppressed the information. U.S. reconnaissance photos of the Birkenau camp in 1943 showed the lines of victims moving into the gas chambers, confirming other reports. The War Department insisted that the information be kept classified.

Photographs of mass graves and mass murder, smuggled out under the most dangerous of circumstances, were also classified as secret. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called for the death camp at Auschwitz to be bombed. He was ignored. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Jews could have been saved had the Allies agreed to bomb the death camps or the rail lines which were feeding them.

Desperate for war material, the Nazis offered the British a million Jews in exchange for 10,000 trucks. When asked why he had refused to negotiate the deal, a British diplomat responded, "What would I do with one million Jews? Where would I put them?"

Escaped prisoners from the death camps filed reports on what was occurring. Again, many of these reports were suppressed.

Eventually, President Roosevelt, under pressure from the public, agreed to issue a statement condemning the German government for its genocidal policy against the Jews. Other support followed. The Pope requested that his diplomats help hide Hungarian Jews. In September 1944, the British bombed factories and the railroad lines of Auschwitz.

Could actions of the Allies have prevented the Holocaust or limited the destruction of six million Jews and five million other innocent civilians? There is no question that the silence and inaction of the world community in the face of irrefutable evidence resulted in the senseless loss of millions of lives.

World Response - Individual and Other Nations

Of the 8.86 million Jews who lived in Europe before the Holocaust, it is generally believed that six million perished as a result of Nazi genocide. Hundreds of thousands of others would have joined them were it not for the courageous intervention of a few world leaders and thousands of individuals who risked their lives in order to save Jews from the gas chambers. Many of these men and women paid for their heroic efforts with their lives.

The Gestapo routinely offered a bounty for those who turned in Jews who were hiding. This bounty consisted of a quart of liquor, four pounds of sugar, a carton of cigarettes, or, at times, small cash payments. For many civilians, these commodities were unobtainable through normal channels, and thus they were provided with a powerful incentive to cooperate with the Gestapo above and beyond any hatred they may have harbored against the Jews.

Those who resisted the Gestapo and hid Jews did so at grave personal peril. Any person caught hiding a Jew was immediately shot on the spot or taken out to be publicly hanged by the S.S. At a time when living space, food, sanitation facilities, and medicine were at a premium, those who hid Jews from the Nazis sacrificed a great deal, including the risk to their lives.

Those non-Jews who worked at great risk to their personal safety to save Jews became known as the "Righteous Gentiles." There are thousands of stories of great valor which will never be told because the Nazis executed many of these Righteous Gentiles. Among those whose stories are the most celebrated are:

Raoul Wallenberg - He was a Swedish diplomat who made it a special, personal mission to help save the Jews of Hungary. More than 30,000 Jews received special Swedish passports from Wallenberg. He set up "safe houses," distributed food and medical supplies, and virtually single-handedly set up a bureaucracy in Budapest, Hungary's capital, designed to protect Jews. More than 90,000 Budapest Jews were deported to the death camps and murdered, and Wallenberg's efforts may have reduced the number of those murdered by half. As a diplomat, he successfully confronted the Nazis at great risk to his own safety. Following the "liberation" of Budapest by the Soviets, he was arrested by them, thrown in prison, and never heard from again. Reports often surface, unconfirmed, that he is still alive, although the Soviets announced his death two years after his arrest.

Dr. Jan Karski - He was the contact between the Polish resistance and the Polish government in exile. He was smuggled into the Warsaw ghetto to hear what was occurring there. Asked to tell the story to the rest of the world, he reported on his experience to other world leaders, including President Roosevelt.

Cardinal Archbishop of Lwow (Count Andreas Szeptycki) - He was a member of the Polish Catholic hierarchy who ordered that the clergy reporting to him act to save Jews.

Wladyslaw Bartoszewski - He was a founder of the Polish resistance who organized an underground organization, comprised mostly of Catholics, to save Jews. He worked to provide false documents to Jews living outside the Warsaw ghetto. In the fall of 1942, he helped found an organization (Council for Aid to Jews) which successfully saved many Jews from the gas chambers.

Pastor Andre Trocme and Daniel Trocme - Pastor Trocme was the religious leader of the Huguenot village of LeChambon-sur-Lignon, France, which hid and saved 5,000 Jews. Teacher Daniel Trocme was deported with his students in the only successful Gestapo raid and died in Maidanek.

Why did Gentiles risk their lives to save the Jews?

• religious beliefs and humanitarian concerns
• resistance against the Nazis regardless of feelings about the Jews
• payment provided by Jews who were hidden

• anti-Semitism
• fear of reprisals
• didn't want to get involved in the problems of others

• public pressure from the world community
• humanitarian concerns

• did not believe the Holocaust was occurring
• had leaders which were anti-Semitic
• did not feel saving Jews would have any benefit to the war effort
• felt that all war efforts to defeat the Germans would be the best
• response to stopping German atrocities against the Jews.

Yad Vashem

There is a museum in Israel, called Yad Vashem, devoted exclusively to the history of the Holocaust. The walkway which terminates at the museum entrance is lined with carob trees, each dedicated to the memory of a "Righteous Gentile." There are more than 600 of these trees. A special committee considers cases of additions to this arbor, and there are more than 2,000 cases pending. Those who are added to the list receive a certificate and a medal (or the presentation is made to that person's representative) with the Talmudic inscription "Whoever saves a single soul, it is as if he had saved the entire world." A tree is then planted on the walkway, marked by a plaque bearing the name and nationality of the Righteous Gentile.

Dr. Jan Karski

    A. Origins

• Lesser Polish nobility
• Became a lawyer
• Contact between the Polish resistance and the Polish government in exile.
• Now retired prof. of gvt. at Georgetown

Polish military (AK) sent him Aug. 42 to Warsaw

Smuggled into death camp, Belzec (camp opened in March 1942; 500,000 deaths) as Estonian guard

Returned to Scotland Nov. 15, 1942

National Responses (Immigration Policies)

Thousands of Jews in Germany were successful in fleeing before the onset of hostilities in 1939, especially in the early years of the Nazi period. Many of these refugees were able to find their way aboard ships headed for American ports. There are, however, tragic stories of these ships being turned away by immigration officials, and their occupants returned to Europe to face the gas chambers (see story about the St. Louis Voyage. Each nation had its own story of how its government and citizens responded to the horrors of the Holocaust. The following are capsules of some of these stories.

United States. Despite the fact that the U.S. received early reports about the desperate plight of European Jewry, procrastination and inaction marked its policies toward rescue. Immigration quotas were never increased for the emergency; the existing quotas, in fact, were never filled (see Evian Conference).

(Wagner-Rogers legislation) - Legislation was introduced in the United States Congress in 1939 by Rep. Robert Wagner to admit a total of 20,000 Jewish children over a two-year period above the refugee quota applicable at the time. The legislation was inspired by similar efforts by the Dutch and British government to save Jewish children from Nazi terror. The legislation was amended in committee to admit the 20,000 children only if the number of Jewish refugees admitted under the regular quota was reduced by 20,000. The bill died in the House after the sponsor withdrew his support for the bill in frustration.

(Bermuda Conference) - As the Germans advanced through Europe, more Jews and others who were targets of Nazi racial policies came under Nazi control. By 1943 the war had created millions of refugees in Europe. The Bermuda Conference, jointly sponsored by the United States and Great Britain, was held in Bermuda in April 1943 to discuss solutions to the refugee problem. The conference failed. As Michael Marrus writes in The Holocaust in History, "At the Bermuda Conference in April 1943...the British and Americans proved most adept at postponing serious efforts to change matters. By this point, opinion was mobilized on behalf of several schemes for rescue and refuge. Such views were deflected, however; the press was kept at arm's length and little was achieved."

(War Refugee Board) - U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, presented a report to President Roosevelt in 1943 providing details about the Final Solution. It was not until January 1944, however, that the President responded by establishing the War Refugee Board as an independent agency to rescue the civilian victims of the Nazis. By then, most of these civilian victims had already been murdered. The Board joined a plea to the Hungarian Regent, Admiral Horthy from Great Britain, Sweden, the Pope, and the International Red Cross to stop the deportations of Hungarian Jews. While Admiral Horthy agreed on July 8, 1944 to discontinue the deportations, fewer than 200,000 Jews of the original number of more than 600,000 remained. Thousands of those permitted this reprieve from the death camps were eventually saved through the efforts of Wallenberg and other diplomats.

Spain and Portugal. As many as 40,000 Jews who were able to make their way to Spain and Portugal were saved from the Nazi death camps. More than 20,000 Jews made their way into Switzerland, but many thousands were turned back, according to Michael Marrus' Holocaust in History.

Denmark. The rescue of Denmark's 8,000 Jews serves as an example of an entire nation mobilized to rescue humanity from the abyss of German terror. While the story may be apocryphal that King Christian X threatened to abdicate and to wear the Nazi yellow Star of David as a badge of honor, it symbolizes his opposition to all anti-Semitic legislation. Almost all of the Jews of Denmark survived the war, while those in almost every other nation occupied by the Nazis had their ranks decimated.

A September 1943 decision by the Nazi occupiers of Denmark to round up all Danish Jews for shipment to the death camps was thwarted. Courageously acting on a tip from a German shipping official, Danes from all walks of life mobilized whatever would float and ferried 5,900 Jews, 1,300 part-Jews, and 700 Christians married to Jews to safety in Sweden. Of the 500 or so Jews left in Denmark on October 1, 1943, all were deported by the Germans to Theresienstadt. Eighty-five percent survived the war.

Historians have pondered why the citizens of Denmark resisted the war against the Jews, unlike most of their European neighbors. One reason is that Denmark did not have a history of anti-Semitism. Another was that nearby was neutral Sweden, willing to accept the Jews that could be saved.

Bulgaria. Forty-eight thousand Jews in Bulgaria were also spared the horror of the gas chambers as a result of the courage of the Bulgarian people. A public outcry by Bulgarian church officials and others against a deportation order directed at all Jews forced the Bulgarian government to rescind its order. Jews who had been rounded up in Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia were not as lucky; virtually all perished in the Holocaust.

Several other governments resisted Nazi deportation orders, including Finland, Hungary, and Italy. Several embassies in Hungary acted in concert to issue passports to Jews at risk (see story about Raoul Wallenberg, above). Yet many other European governments not only complied with the demand of the Germans to deport Jews to the death camps but facilitated the deportations.

France. Pre-war France had a Jewish population of over 300,000, out of a total population of 45 million. Many thousands of these were refugees, and only about 150,000 were native Frenchmen. In May 1940, the German army invaded France and occupied three-fifths of the country in accordance with an armistice signed on June 22nd.

A government was formed in unoccupied France at Vichy. The Vichy government was dominated by advocates for cooperation with the Germans. Many of the decrees of the Vichy government in 1940-41 paralleled the anti-Jewish edicts of Germany in the mid-1930s. Jewish property was expropriated, and Jews were stripped of their basic civil rights. Non-native French Jews were singled out in October 1940 for internment in labor camps, which resulted in a large number of deaths. In March 1942, the Germans began deporting Jews from the occupied zones in France to the death camps. In July of that same year, they demanded that all Jews be rounded up in unoccupied France for deportation. The Vichy government decided to protect French Jews, but handed over 15,000 foreign Jews from the internment camps for deportation to the death camps. Many hundreds of other Jews were executed, as described in Lucy Dawidowicz's The War Against the Jews,
in reprisal for partisan activities. By the time France was liberated, 90,000 of the pre-war Jewish population in France had been killed.

BEYOND BELIEF: THE AMERICAN PRESS AND THE COMING OF THE HOLOCAUST 1933-1945 by DEBORAH LIPSTADT (THE FREE PRESS, 1986)

TEXT:

"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without government," wrote Thomas Jefferson to a friend, "I should not hesitate to prefer the latter." He understood that the public's perception is shaped by the information available, and, therefore, a free press was crucial to the proper functioning of a democratic society. The reader of this well-researched study might well wonder whether there is not a darker side to the free press imperative. During the years of the Holocaust, most reporters and editors were incapable of fathoming the significance of a story of calculated government -sponsored mass murder and gave it short shrift. In this case, freedom of the press led to the concealment of truth rather than its dissemination.

Deborah Lipstadt documents how journalists anxious to maintain balance and objectivity placed the story that would come to symbolize the decline of the West on the back pages of their newspapers. They began by misunderstanding the centrality of anti-Semitism in Nazi cosmology. When information of the systematic murder process became available, they reported it but couched it in the skeptical terms they had been taught to use in such cases. Even when the camps were liberated and photos of thousands of mangled corpses confirmed the atrocity stories, the now apologetic press could not grasp and transmit what the "final solution," the code word for the processed murder of millions, signified. Some still believed that the stories were an example of Jewish special-interest pleading.

In some measure, the failure of the press is understandable. The author points out that many Americans believed that they had been manipulated into entering World War I by British use of "gruel" propaganda. That is the reason the Gary Post-Tribune cautioned its readers not to be "deceived by our Allies into believing a lot of atrocity stories." Moreover, the war news received natural priority and tended to mute the cry of special pain emanating from the ghettos and camps. It was heard only as background noise.

The nigh insurmountable problem for the press was to get the reading public to believe the unbelievable. The sheer incredibility and irrationality of what was being done in the name of the German people beggared the imagination. Instead, the stories became discreet atrocity tales that took their place side by side with Lidice, Katyn, the Bataan death march and Malmedy. A public saturated with such stories was unable to perceive that the stories concerning the Jews represented a new order of happening. What they were reading about was a high-priority government program to liquidate a people. The reading public resisted learning of such gloomy things, and the managers of the news understood that good news sold papers better than bad. "Newspapers are read at the breakfast and dinner table," noted one publisher, "God's great gift to man is appetite. Put nothing in the paper that will destroy it."

Yet such concern for the sensibilities of their readers meant that publishers overlooked the historical significance of these stories that went beyond their sheer bloodiness. The state-sponsored liquidation of millions was being implemented by using the very industrial techniques and managerial ethos that enabled the West to dominate the world. Something had gone awry in the cltion of regnant Europe. It was consuming in fire a people who had in some disproportionate measure contributed to the very idea that Europe represented. This was no ordinary happening. Had Germany won the war, the liquidation policy would surely have gone beyond the Jews. It already had. Yet the failure of witness in the heart of Christian Europe, was almost total.

That failure is what "Beyond Belief" is about. The story of the witness to the Holocaust is qualitatively different from that of most other atrocity stories because the Holocaust witness had choice. He might have helped the victims or been indifferent to their fate or betrayed them. During those agonizing years, the first alternative was rarely chosen, and thereby hangs a tale. The failure went beyond governments. All the institutions created by society--the churches, the university, the legal system and on the international level, the Red Cross and the Vatican--failed adequately to respond to the crisis. Often they failed to perceive that there was a crisis. It is in that sense that the failure of the press was in some measure the cause of all other witness failures. This study fills in part of a puzzle that has been the preoccupation of researchers for almost two decades, the failure of the Roosevelt Administration, so concerned about human responses at home, to do what might have been done to save the victims of the Holocaust.

In Jefferson's time, the press was full of libelous personal attacks from which he was not exempt. He had ample evidence that a free press was prone to trivialize the significant and glorify the banal. Yet despite its weaknesses, he insisted upon it. Perhaps he sensed that in a free society, the distillation of truth is not automatically assured, but it is essential to create the condition for its ultimate emergence.

This study serves as evidence that such re-examinations are possible. In lesser hands, it might easily have become an overheated brief against the American press. Lipstadt might even have argued that professors like herself should determine what is printed, the same as the philosopher-kings in Plato's Republic. She does not do that. Instead, she has written a tempered, judicious account of the role of the press in a difficult period and has done it in lucid prose. Given the nature of the subject and the temper of the times, we can be thankful for that.

[Copyright Times Mirror Company 1986... Copyright 1993 Times Mirror Company]

The Holocaust and Literature
Northwestern Institute for the Jewish Civilization and the Holocaust
Notes from Lillian Kremer's Presentation -- Any mistakes or misunderstanding must rest with the note-taker -- myself, David A. Meier.

Let me start by acknowledging that here we have a form of response that might well find a place in other sections. However, as a consequence of the historical event we have come to know as the Holocaust, we could well include Holocaust literature as an attempt to come to grips with this horendous experience. Since I first wrote these notes, I must admit that my appreciation of Holocaust literature has vastly changed. Here are my notes:

My interpretation of Lillian Kremer's presentation need, first, to be understood as my reaction to the idea of Holocaust literature and what it has to offer in the realm of Holocaust studies. Recognizing my own personal bias against this approach to the study of the Holocaust.

First, Kremer began with an explanation of the choices she made regarding the literature chosen for the readings, namely, following the chronology of the Holocaust. As one of her observations, she pointed to the atomizing and dehumanizing process of experiencing aspects of the life of the survivor, namely, the hunger he is afflicted with. Within this context, there is the question of the value of his previous studies and theories. His response to the hunger which plagues him is not one that drives him into the intellectual reflection that had been part of his education and sense of self. He struggles with the physical impulses for survival which blur his sense of time, thought, as well as his relations with others. His writings are clearly directed towards himself rather than the collective. In short, his thoughts are overwhelmed by the impact of the hunger he experiences in the ghetto B and that in stark contrast to his life of but a few years earlier.

It seems equally clear that the ghetto experience for this writer did not drive him back into basic questions of religion, but perhaps because of his association with the new idea of Bildung there is simply a void replaced by the desire for a crude sense and drive for survival, e.g., he acquisition of food. It seems to me that the writer clearly is not from the community of eastern- oriented Jews but from the integrated and assimilated community. He has nothing, beyond his intellectual life, to which he could appeal to provide for a sense of reason for an explanation for the situation he is confronted with in the streets. Kremer sees this as setting the stage for the author's finally confronting a moral crisis. Only after he has satisfied his quest for a minimal amount of food in the watery soup he received does he begin to think again of the collective.

As in other authors, there is something of the apocalyptic, the experiencing of an event of biblical proportions, e.g., the Flood, all of which fits into the image of a literature directed towards lamentation. Within this context, these authors seems convinced that no previous experience in Jewish/human existence could be comparable to the one currently being experienced. For my part, it seems clear that these authors also lose historical perspective which immediately confronted with the reality at hand B no different from the first writer Kremer discussed, who lost his ability to use his scholarly tools to recover his sense of humanity of his desire to find some meaning in his news circumstances.

As for myself, the crises described as evoked by the circumstances of the Holocaust demonstrate a part of the human experience. There is a sense in these writings of feeling closer to a sense of meaningful existence precisely because of his/her personal sense of distance from what had traditionally provided them with a sense of meaning. Inversely, there are also those who abandon B at least temporarily B any sense of meaningful existence in favor of a crude willingness to pursue their own personal survival. These individuals as well as the others also commonly express feelings of guilt about their survival, which also seemed arbitrary and without meaning.

While one might argue that Jewish existence as a merger of the religious with daily life gives to the authors of Holocaust literature an unusual religious dimension, it seems to be the case that apocalyptic expectations or conditions seem to evoke from the community in question a certain set of religious and highly emotional responses. Non-religious experiences, on the other hand, continue to focus on the evolution of the event itself and the question of a meaningful response for both the short and long-term futures. In the interpretations offered, it is worth noting the emphasis placed on assumption B virtually unspoken B of a certain truth being revealed through the sufferings of these peoples and an implicit rejection of the enlightenment-inspired rationality. Almost Foucaultian in implication, i.e., the look into the darkest corners for the sharpest glimpses of an ultimate truth, these pieces of literature have an appeal that fits more into the realm of the study of the lives of the saints rather than a look at the vast scope of human responses to conditions generally perceived as well as outside the scope of what could be expected of human behavior at any time.

It is interesting, I would argue, within this context, to look less to traditionally western-educated groups than to eastern European Jewish responses to the Shoah, especially leading religious figures. How did they interpret their fate? I find it curious that those with a strong sense of religious life may have presented a variety of observations but generally do find some explanations for these events. Non-religious writers, however, seem to descend into a sort of Social Darwinistic nihilism including the loss of a sense of time. When the material circumstances for rational reflection are removed, then the western-oriented rationalist has nothing to appeal to or at least it does not appear to offer a satisfactory explanation. In addition, they have no satisfactory explanation for the behavior of those they formally identified as part of the rationalist tradition with which they had previously identified.
As a historian, I would have reservations about the application of these writings to the Holocaust as historical accounts of the event. On the other hand, I would be inclined to agree with Elie Wiesel's point that Holocaust literature should not be dismissed as an historical record of the event. As a learning tool, Holocaust literature which emerges after the Holocaust has an appeal which will keep the experience alive for the reader and make the event somewhat accessible. On the other hand, the literature also seems to perpetuate the assumptions about the unique or special knowledge these individuals have to offer the reader B as if they were intended as the notes of a individual about to die and are thus endowed with a unique insight into the secret meaning of life B or perhaps the complete absence of one.

Part II

Kremer introduced the second part of her presentation by reminding listeners of the popular belief in the new for a new type of literature to deal with the trauma and experience of the Holocaust, e.g., the appeal to the book of Lamentations. Contrary to traditional ideas of thinking that then Jews were paying form their sins, modern literature still holds to the traditional out-pouring of grief. These writers are largely non-religious writers while more traditional or orthodox writers would still hold to the idea that the Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves through the adoption of liberal Judaism. On the other hand, Zionists after the war held to their pre-war stance that the Holocaust could have been foreseen and, thus, those who chose to stay in Europe chose to take the unreasonable chance. In short, the evidence inherent in the Dreyfus affair, growing nationalism, and pogroms were evidence of the coming storm. Nevertheless, according to Kremer, the Holocaust retains theological significance even among rather non-religious Jews, who take on a more accusatory approach to their vision of god.
As for myself, I feel strong reservations B others may justifiably label this a bias B about Kremer's approach to literature and the Holocaust. It seems that attention to the details of the context from which the literature comes, namely, during or after the Holocaust, is insufficient. I also find the desire to extract from the literature deeper meaning than what is literally presented problematic as it entails a knowledge of the psychology of the writer as well as his/her knowledge of what is transpiring around him or her. Consequently, it seems imperative that literature be very carefully integrated into the actual history rather than as a replacement for the history. Given the highly subjective character of the interpretations rendered, it would seem that literature is often better understood in the context of someone's reactions to the event we know as the Holocaust. Beyond this, it is equally important to remember that no individual witness exists for all aspects of the Holocaust. Literature is approached as though it could fill gaps in our knowledge and desire to find greater meaning in the Holocaust where there in none.
Furthermore, Kremer seems to perpetuate the notion of the victims as capable of providing a unique insight into the Holocaust. While there is no doubt that this literature may well represent the only historical resource for the history of the victims, it does raise the question for me of the possible use of perpetrator literature for a similar purpose. Is it not a cultural bias that we only consider the literature of the victims? Is this not a continuation of Foucault's idea of Madness and Civilization where we are as a civilization currently attracted to those who had been marginalized by mainstream society and, on the one hand, victimized by it, while on the other is viewed as having access to a special truth? There is a certain irony that this culture reaches in the direction where little traditional documentation is to be found in order to seek that which it claims is most dear to it.
Having made the point about this pursuit of a deeper truth, it remains to differentiate between a Jewish reading of Holocaust literature and a non-Jewish literature. A Jewish reading would expectedly use references and have an appeal that would be inaccessible to the individuals without an understanding of Jewish life. A non-Jewish reading, however, could not have the same appeal. These readers, I believe, do not place significance on the Jewishness of the thought presented or the images rendered. The appeal to the reader in this context could be to some aspect of life and existence peculiar to the reader.

Elie Wiesel's Night

Published in Yiddish in 1956 and in English in 1960, the original title When the World Was Silent says more than the English translators choice of Night. The original was also considerably longer than the English version but was cut under the advisement of the editor. It was also characterized by a very revengeful tone. Whereas the ending of Night focused on the gathering of food, the original included the fantasy of raping German women. As Holocaust literature, Wiesel gives a straight presentation of an experience that includes challenges to his faith, relations with his father, and moving from the attitudes of a child to those of an old man. Contrary to other writers, Wiesel does not plunge immediately into the camps but places the event within the context of a formerly vibrant Jewish life. The principle motifs included the problems of Antisemitism, evil, the Holocaust, loss of faith in both traditional sense as well as 20th century civilization or even the inviolable bonds between fathers and sons. Radical evil and methodical brutality are the reality of the world of Night. Within the father-son imagery, Wiesel's relationship is betrayed by his own failure to help his father, guilt for his inability to care for his father in the final march. These themes are, fortunately, also more accessible for students.

Survivor guilt, as a basic theme, extends beyond the question of his relationship with his father. As a witness, a survivor, he wants to tell this story of his experiences in the Holocaust. The guilt begins with his references to the civilization that existed before the onset of the Holocaust, especially the Hungarian aspects of the Holocaust. While aware of the events unfolding around them in other parts of Europe, Hungarian Jewry seems to continue to exist as though it remained an isolated entity. Within this environment, Wiesel is presented as a young student of the Talmud, innocent and naive of greater events. There were, as Wiesel presents, those who knew what was unfolding as those who brought news into the Hungarian Jewish community of what was coming. It does not appear that the information truly changed life for Hungarian Jewry though it does change Wiesel dramatically. He does not comprehend why Hungarian Jews do not act on the information they were receiving from other parts of Europe from other Jewish communities as well as those who left Hungary and learned of the implementation of the Final Solution by the Germans.

Moving into the Passover season, Wiesel raises the issue of Passover B liberation from bondage B at a time when it appears clear that something much worse is taking place around them. Anger and irony merge in Wiesel as he rejects the possibility of going to Palestine and there is no expectation of god intervening this time to save the Jews B also reflecting something of his Talmudic education. The religious components of Nazi policy, namely, the implementation of the expulsion on the Sabbath (Saturday) and other events corresponding to Jewish traditional holidays. It does presuppose both a knowledge on the part of the German of Jewish life and assumes a certain aspect of their inherent evil. On the other hand, there may well have been a practical (Nazi) reason behind the Nazi decision to act on/during religious days and events. For Wiesel, the intimate association with a sense of religious identity certainly would have raised B for the Jews B the question of religious parallels as well as the question of god's place in the whole event. Where was god in Auschwitz?

Methodical brutality is also a central feature of Night. It is a process which strips from the individual of all sense of individuality as well as one's former familiar association. Even as a witness, the event serves as a rupture of life as it should have been in the 20th century. There is a clear sense of being a witness and the sense of helplessness being accented as children are killed and burned. Within this context, he is incensed at the Kaddish, which praises god, at a time when the Jews were not to be spared. Within the moment, Wiesel still says the Kaddish even when he does not feel his heart in it. It comes as an involuntary prayer. From other perspective, one could add that no angel would appear to hold back Abraham's knife from striking the deadly blow. Similarly, Wiesel refuses to engage in fasting as part of his response to god B even though Jewish tradition would allow him to eat especially if it would preserve his life. The final aspects of his perceived loss of faith is accented during the hanging of the three individuals before his eyes. God was hanging on the gallows. This same scene had been challenged by some as a literary metaphor although Wiesel insisted that it was an actual event. It does, nonetheless, contain for many a religious metaphor very close to the Christian imagery of Christ on the cross. The original popularity of the book emerged from the Bible belt regions of the United States B if I understand Kremer correctly. There is, in addition, the aspect of a writer/autobiographer who also survived in the greater sense of the Holocaust both religiously and personally. As time has demonstrated, this book and its canonization has taken as the status of a key work all must be acquainted with. Kremer intends this discussion of a religious Jew, namely, Wiesel, to be compared with the non-religious scientific Jew, Primo Levi, for our next discussion.

Part III

Before jumping into the Levi work, we dealt with more items from the readings. Within the work by Glatstein from 1938 (postdated?), there is the interpretation and reaction of a trained lawyer to the shtetl, which is intended as a rejection of both European Enlightenment as well as the Jewish Enlightenment. In the case of the poem by Dan Pagis, there is the use of myth in the Biblical allusion to represent the sense of rupture or a lack of closure. There was, as pointed out by Paul (Scranton University), that the original Hebrew would not have used the phrase son of man B which clearly has overtly Christian implications -- as the phrase would have been more legitimately translated as Ason of Adam.@ Turning our attention to Paul Celan's Death Fugue, we have one of the classic poems depicting the fate of the victims and the contradictions between images of culture, beauty, and extermination. Several individuals pointed out further that the term fugue has both specific musical as well as psychological meanings. Appealing back to Adorno, Kremer pointed out that Adorno's statement that there could be no poetry after Auschwitz was also recanted by Adorno later.

Primo Levi

Italian Jews, including Levi, represented a extraordinarily small percentage of the population and that even when the refugees from other countries, namely, Austria, are included. On the other hand, Italian Jews played a much larger role in the resistance than was the case in Germany or perhaps elsewhere. As a trained scientist, Levi's observations resonate with the desire to label and identify the various components of camp life. Reflecting his own classical and Jewish education, Levi also appeals to images from both the Bible, Hebrew prayers, as well as Dante (social critic and the question of justice) and Ulysses (subject to the whim of the gods and involved in a quest to survive). There was also the reference to null-achtzehn, which is also an allusion to Ano life@ in Hebrew. Kremer mentioned that she devotes two weeks to this text in class. Why not? Wiesel and Levi provide two insights into how an individual survives the camp experience.

Part IV

Borowski's This Way For the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen

The prisoner-as-victimizer presents a modestly new theme in Holocaust literature. The reference to one man's death is another man's bread is both devastating but also a new piece of the choiceless-choices of existence in Auschwitz. There is, however, a strong emphasis upon reality without embellishments. Within the camp environment, there is the understanding that morality outside the camp cannot prepare them for life or the possibility of survivor within the camp. Rather than sustain previously held notions of morality, camp inmates invent a new set of rules for survival. In this context, the exceptional or decent person does not survive. Those who survive do not respond with dismay at everyday death. This account is, however, very much at odds with the depiction of camp life outlined by Theodore Z. Weiss is the variety of his personal accounts of life in the camps. Just moments before this piece was discussed, Weiss labeled accounts of the Holocaust in art and literature as illusions, meaning one assumes that these pieces could not depict life in the camps. He added that while in the camp he did not see art or literature. After surviving camp life, however, Weiss found in the poems recited in the camp by a fellow prisoner named Kremer as one of the tools which did help him survive.

American Writers

American writers did not come to the subject of the Holocaust until then1960s but did not begin to really publish much until the 1970s and 1980s. Specifically, Kremer sees the 1967 Arab-Israeli War inspired some become of the Arab rhetoric paralleling Nazi rhetoric more closely. I suspect, however, that is more an East Coast concern than one share by the Midwest. American writers tends towards those suffering from the Asurvivor syndrom,@ e.g., The Shawl. Survivors experiences only slowly move towards other perspectives.

Gender Issues

A controversial issue, there seems to some a very inappropriate approach as it transforms the Holocaust into a feminist issue. Kremer disagrees. She underscores that they were persecuted because they were Jews and not women. Kremer rejects the notion that women suffered more. Rather, she suggests the approach of adding the female narrative exploring other aspects of the Holocaust and camp experience. As for male accounts, it is worth remembering that men and women were segregated. Kremer, rather, argues for an enlarging of the defined canons of Holocaust literature.

Men tend to define the experience as a loss of status and autonomy whether through religion or profession. Women, in comparison, experience a tremendous sense of shame and a sort of sexual violation. Physical changes were also part of reality, including the dangers of pregnancy, loss of one's period, and even traditional ideas of being a mother. On a fundamental level, men as potential fathers were less of a threat to the vision of the new Nazi order than were the women, who often arrived at the camps with their children. On the other hand, women could exchange sexual favors in exchange for a better food or work detail. Women, who cannot be identified as circumcised and thus Jewish, could play a role in the Resistance especially if they had a more Aryan appearance.

Women also had coping strategies. Men were socialized to compete whereas women were socialized to interact and more to work together. Once again, this seems at odds with Weiss's comments earlier to me about men helping one another irrespective of who the other person may have been. Kremer did add, furthermore, that women were also involved with stealing from one another. Even so, Kremer believes the literature conveys a message of women finding a way of bonding and creating surrogate families. One could argue that these literary devices within memoir literature were simply attempts to provide for the authors an explanation for their own survival. (See also Dalia Ofer, Cynthia Ozick, Karmel, Charlotte Delbow, and Ettinger's Kindergarden)

Men, as gendered, also had unique gender-related experiences, including sterilization. They could also be more easily defined as Jews, lost their traditional positions within society earlier than women.

Marge Piercy's Gone to Soldiers

Hoping to reveal the war as having more than front-line elements, her twelve-plus characters are intended to reveal the various aspects of the war. A western -- specifically French -- situation rather than the normal eastern perspective, using the diary format, she merged more than 300 memoirs and other materials to try and get into a fictional account as much history as possible regarding life in Vichy France. Her intention is to give a feel for the incremental changes in the occupation of France although sacrifices accuracy of a few dates in favor of keeping the literary presentation intact. Looking into the sports stadium and the round-ups taking place in Paris, she used the device of twins who intimately knew what the other was experiencing. A very political writer herself, she involves her characters in the Resistance (as couriers and guides) and with the French Communists, who were attempting to circulate information about the activities of the German authorities. Inversely, other characters are not as well informed about the events unfolding around them. As in other authors, there is also the issue of assimilation for French Jews and the associated identify crises. There is also a noticeable sense of tear between being French and being Jewish. Before the war, Piercy would could among those Jews virtually in love with being French and found her father's pro-Zionist stance irritating. However, her war-time experiences changes her position towards feeling France and the French had betrayed her.

Cynthis Ozick's The Shawl

A writer with a both powerful and beautiful linguistic style, in The Shawl, the main character has the name of a district where many Jews were killed. The central issue within the story of whether or not to give up her child while being marched during the Holocaust. She sees both the unnaturalness and transitoriness of life in her experiences with the Nazi. Within this context, her shawl takes on a mystical ability to nourish and preserve her child. Each stage of her child's development is received as another sign of the impending danger. The first tooth is viewed as an ivory tombstone, the first steps takes in walking as walking closer to danger. She dealt with the Nazi around her by referring to boots or other more material elements whereas in reference to herself she uses more bodily references. As for the shawl, it also becomes a means for her own survival B or metaphor for that same message. Noting that there are two stories within this same work, the shawl changes significance to survivorship in the second story. Additionally, the key character's depression at the loss of her child grows with time as did her rejection from Polish society. Liberation, thus, is not necessarily linked with relief and return to former ideas of normalcy. Survivorship, consequently, includes a variety of different types of responses ranging from personal denial and suppressing of memory of the past and/or forceful rejection of the reality and remaining mentally within the camp. Psychological issues prevail within this work, e.g., images of isolation in disconnecting the phone as well as the sexual imagery in the underpants reminding her of being raped within the camps. As Kremer points out, women's survivor literature has as a dominant theme the sense of their bodies being violated in the camps in a variety of ways. (See Alan Berger's Crisis and Covenant includes an article on this issue though Ozick rejects Berger's ideas)

Antisemitism (including the traditional and social preceding the racial), from Kremer's perspective, within this context of Ozick's writings, also permeates Jewish life as Jews internalize certain experiences, e.g., emphasizing the Polish over the Jewish or Yiddish. On the other hand, there is also a sense of spiritual return. Other works by Ozick also repeat these themes. The theme of the continuation of the war-time experience is a very much a constant theme in survivor literature -- post-traumatic stress disorder.

Art Spiegelman's Maus I & II

Holding back the idea of the appropriateness of using animal characters in a cartoon context to present various human and Holocaust experiences. Originally intended as a focus on African-American relations with Caucasian Americans, Spiegelman shifted the focus onto the Holocaust story. Kremer calls this a graphic novel. He did not consider it a fictional account but a documentary -- in many ways of a second generation survivor (including a sense of guilt) dealing with the Holocaust -- with elements of oral history.

The Holocaust and Film
Northwestern Institute for the Jewish Civilization and the Holocaust
Notes from Liebman's Presentation -- Any mistakes or misunderstanding must rest with the note-taker -- myself, David A. Meier.

After reviewing pieces of a number of films ranging from German documentaries with subsequent narration from The Warsaw Ghetto from the 1970's, a Soviet piece from the posr-war era, and The Last Stop (1947) by Helena Jakovska (Polish film-maker), it is interesting to note the differences between them. The original German film for The Warsaw Ghetto included neither music or narration but was a silent film. While probably intended for a German news broadcast at some point, it was never shown to the German public as it was feared that it might generate sympathy for the Jews rather than the more Nazistic depiction of the Jews seen in Der Ewige Jude. On the other hand, it could not be easily sustained that German intent had been upon depicting the Jews as vermin (Der Ewige Jude) given the character also of Hitler schenkt die Juden eine Stadt in which Theresienstadt was presented as preserving life-style which was not so much at odds with what the Germans themselves would have found acceptable. Missing from this discussion, however, was the question of various Nazi ideas on what should and should not be presented to the German public.

Turning to the last film witnessed, namely The Last Stop, it is worth mentioning that many of the key characters were women B both Jewish and non-Jewish. In addition, this film focused on Auschwitz and the attempts made by the prisoners to survive ranging from ideas of resistance to the circulation of rumors which gave them a cause worth living for, or perhaps, one should say, looking forward towards. The film, the first post-war film to address the question of the Holocaust, did not clearly describe the relationships between the various German organs. On the other hand, one could argue that the film focused largely and intentionally on the victims. From that perspective, it seemed interesting the extent to which women were identified as both victims and perpetrators. The lead German woman, a short cute blond, displayed more humanly emotional attachment to her puppy than to the masses she would send to their deaths.

From the side of the prisoners, the film probably presented a greater sense of cooperation and cohesion than truly existed at the time. On a more practical note, the prisoners were presented as considerably healthier than would have been the case in reality. In addition, it might be said that the film focused on the more privileged of the Jews within the camp, namely, those working in the so-called hospital, rather than those attempting to survive among the rank-and-file. The was the suggestion as well of just how far the prisoners were willing to go in order to survive, e.g., the women who convinced the nurse that she should receive medicine (the shot) as the woman it was originally intended for had died -- which was clearly not true. On the other hand, there was also the young nurse/assistant who believed the story and subsequently felt personally guilt over the death of the woman who was supposed to have the aforementioned medication. There were also the POWs from eastern Europe (assumed Russian), who were presented as not willing to completely succumb to Nazi pressure. Within the film, there is at least one acknowledgment of the gypsies in the camp in the singer for the capo. Otherwise, however there is not special or real explanation of the significance of the presence of the female gypsy.

The capos (as seen on the armband in then film) were uniformly presented as accomplices to the German efforts to liquidate the prisoners whatever their origins. The capos appear working closely with the German and even were directly implicated in the arbitrary killing of prisoners. Although one might argue that the capos were drawn largely from the ranks of criminals, it seems interesting that no attempt was made to identify or explain either the unique role of their involvement or their ultimate fate. Within the film, the capos spoke German rather than Polish or Russian.

Links with the underground played a significant part in the film. Within the film, it appears that the film-makers wanted to see in the camp inmates a direct link between the outside world and the Polish underground. It raises the question of historical accuracy verses the desire to send a message to the audience. Those who were involved with the underground were, in the end, captured, tortured, and almost executed in the end. As the film drew to a conclusion, there was a sort of tragic-romantic element as Allied bombers flew overhead signaling the defeat of Nazi Germany.

As for the films intended audience, it seemed to be directed first at the Poles and against the Americans C within the emerging atmosphere of the Cold War. There was also something of a short olive branch being extended to the French in the singing of the Marseilles and the apparent liquidation of French citizens/Jews. Within the postwar context, it is not inconceivable given the popularity of Communism in post-war France. Contrary to the general tendency in eastern Europe under Soviet influence to ignore the Jews in favor of identifying all the groups moving through Auschwitz. As for the Germans, they were clearly presented as determined to exterminate the Jews, as evil mutants of a sort, in the cases of both men and women B with the exception of a few rather striking blondes presented a key leaders. It seems as though there was an over-emphasis on the roll of German women in the camp administration as well as and planning and implementation of the Holocaust. In conclusion, I am not convinced it is a film I would easily recommend.

Part II

Night and Fog

A French film from the 1950s, Night and Fog quite consciously attempted to present history and the Holocaust. It was one of the first films to attempt to deal with the Holocaust in its entirety and emerged well before the growth of popular interest in the Holocaust in the early 1960s in Europe. This film did not see a real rise in its popularity until the early 1960s when it was shown in the United States. Earlier attempts on the part of the French government to present the film at Cannes did not initially result in the film's subsequent rise in popularity. Leibman believes these two films do interact with one another in different ways. I would disagree for what that's worth. There are the problems with the film ranging from the references to making soap from the remains of the inmates (a point also brought up by Geoffrey Giles later in discussion). While it could be argued that this film was not an attempt at a systematic history of the Holocaust, it does select for presentation a number of historically identifiable elements. Viewers would be hard pressed to deny the attempt to convey a clear historical message. On the other hand, the quick flashes of various camps, locations, bodies, postwar footage of the camps, did not present a methodical account of the Holocaust but a collage at best. It is, however, often viewed by both instructors and students as a documentary B for better or worse.

There is also the issue of the short censored elements. These were most interesting in the focus on the member of the French military and its complicity in the Holocaust. Given the time period, France was involved both in Indochina and the developing Algerian context. Given the excerpt of the French soldier from the film, it seems that the film's censorship redirects the film towards the question of the German involvement as well as postwar German rearmament via references to soldier who had originally served in the Second World War, specifically, the Holocaust.

Diamonds of the Night

A result of the recovery of Czech cinema, this modern film was characterized by the moving camera. While the symbols presented were perhaps best viewed as elements of the irrational, there were no clear references to the Jews as victims. Other images were just as problematic, for example, the old Germans engaged in the hunt of the two young men (whose only link with the Holocaust would be the KL on their backs), the lack of food and sustenance, the clearly identified camp inmates on the trains, the lack of communication between the victims and perpetrators, and the peasant women providing food and drink (namely, bread and milk). I would not advocate this film for anyone let alone film history. Actually, this film could well represent an aspect of eastern European cinematography which is new and unique, as a tool for demonstrating the impact of the Holocaust it is clearly quite weak and regarding an insight in the historical aspects of the Holocaust it has nothing to offer. Overall, this is a truly wretched film with no redeeming value.

Part III

Originally released in 1965, this film, The Pawnbroker, begins with the rather idyllic country scene of a woman getting water and picnicking with her family and children along the same river. A clearly Jewish family, they suddenly confronted with another reality B one which feels quite artificial B even if the previous scene was dramatically slowed for pact. Turning towards the culture of the 1960s, there appears the clear division of generations. At this point comes the point of reflection upon the past and a discussion about a trip to Europe. The older survivor shows clear reservations about going back to Europe whereas the rest of the family retains much of the more idealistic tourist vision of Europe. Even in the post-Holocaust world in which he walks, there are many reminders of his experiences of the camps, for example, seeing the shoes piled against the window in the shoe store or the barking of a dog.

Life in his pawnshop is truly filled with variety. This key worker (Saul Nasserman) appears constantly tired and burdened by life. His reception of those bringing in goods is always negative and limited to B it seems B offering either one or two dollars no matter what they bring in. Virtually everyone who appears in the shop is desperate. His style is both cold and distant. He is unreceptive to ideas of culture. Then the call from the apparent true owner. The reference to the worker's having been a professor earlier in life. The job appears to be linked with an illegal business activity of some sort -- although on the other hand he is willing to give to local charities. A second worker, Hispanic (Jesus Ortes) and enthusiastic, is also there.

The visitors to the shop are changing character with the arrival of several African-American groups. It seems as though they were trying to sell stolen goods. After they notice his tattooed arm, they get $30 for the machine the brought in. It is at this point that the Hispanic worker also asks about the tattoo but after asking if it is a symbol for some secret organization and wants to know how to join and gets in response only that one must learn to walk on water. Moving forward, the Hispanic worker wants to learn how to work with gold. Then comes the mysterious figure who received a check for $5000 for unclear reasons and left $5000 in cash for the store safe. What's happening is still not clear. What is clear, however, is that he is experiencing more flash-backs as the film progresses. The Hispanic worker, in the meantime, carelessly brags at a local club about the store safe's contents while flirting with the girl (prostitute?) he brought to the club. Back home at the professor's home, he plays cards with his apparent second wife, who apparently had been married before as well. The Aprofessor's@ former wife also seems to have died in the Holocaust.

There appears in a shop a pregnant girl wanting to sell her ring, which she thought had a diamond in it. The professor sends her away after declaring the diamond to have been glass. During those same moments, he flashes back to the time in the camps and how rings were taken from the prisoners. The Hispanic worker wanting to know the secret of the business success of his people. The professor snaps and provides a quick and brutal outline of the course of Jewish history. Back home, the professor is accused by his father-in-law (Mendel) of being among the walking dead, of having no feeling B he trades a dream for a dollar in the shop. Nasserman does go so far as to admit that he can no longer feel pain.

Within another stage of this film, a woman (Marilyn) seeking a donation for a local activity, who also decides to befriend the professor even against the will of the professor. Where she suggests that the greatest pain is in loneliness. The professor, in angry response, demands that his experiences are well beyond her's and that he does not want changes brought to the way he has chosen to live or view the world. Back in the shop the violent exchange between the professor and a visitor on signing some piece of paper goes without explanation. The Hispanic worker begins to push the professor to explain what is bothering him. A few moments later he reveals his vision of those coming into the shop: They're scum. As for god, art, philosophy, and literature, they are all described as nothing. Money is all that matters and that's what life is all about. Money is the whole thing. Ortes is clearly distraught by the answer and it clearly embitters him towards the world. He chooses a pool-hall as his retreat to think things over.

Called from home from his wife announcing his father-in-law's death, Nasserman is confronted back in the shop with an African-American woman who was desperate for cash to pay her boss. After she strips, he has difficulty watching her and experiences flash-backs into the camp and fate of his former wife. Back in the camp, was forced to witness how his wife was violated by SS guards. The film clearly presents Jewish women being used as prostitutes within the camp. Nasserman's anger is revealed again. He then goes to the African-American who runs the brothel down the street demanding that their business is over given the origins of the money. Nasserman is then confronted with the reality of the extent to which he played a central role in the process, his home-life, salary, and life-style. Nasserman is then accused of being one those unable to feel and thus is Anothing@ as well. Nasserman is clearly breaking down. He then agrees to sign the papers. One sense the extent to which Nasserman feels as though the camp experience in all its demeaning components had never left its central role in his life. On the other hand, it is equally clear that he is beginning to feel again.

As a surprise move, Nasserman then visits the woman who wished to befriend him earlier on and lived in a high-rise condo. This is the point where he starts to tell his story and needed to be with someone. Fear combined with images of the past seemed to be overwhelming him. On this anniversary, he expresses his sense of guilt at surviving. Nothing, he states, he could do to stop it. Over-whelming helplessness. Returning home on the subway, his mind transports him again back to the trains of the Holocaust. The memories are becoming more intense. Open the doors to the pawnshop, Nasserman and Jesus enter. The situation changes as Nasserman begins to pay too much for items from the poor and gives little to thing to those bringing in stolen goods. As for Ortes, Nasserman rejects Ortes's idea of being his student and labels him as nothing ...just like the others. Ortes, in turn, begins to iron out his plans to rob the store.

Once the African-American mobster (Rodriguez) and his cohorts arrive wanting the signed papers, he discovers that Nasserman refused to sign, was beaten, and practically begged to be killed. The mobster, however, realized this and refused to kill him. As this point, Ortes and those intending to rob the store arrive. Flashing back to the final moment of peace with his family, Nasserman sees the thieves enter the store. They want the money. Ortes has a change of heart and is shot trying to protect Nasserman. Nasserman is powerfully struck by Ortes's willingness to protect him with his life. It seems that Nasserman is increasingly unable to avoid his feelings or his memories. The film concludes without any resolution of the conflicts presented.

Comments

Back at this point in the 1960s, there were relatively few films dealing with the Holocaust, though including Judgment at Nuremberg and Young Lions. Contrary to social norms of 1965s, this work also included erotic elements and nudism. The time when the film emerged also a time of a growing sense of social dislocation and problems, the civil rights movement, while there were still some reservations about talking about the Holocaust in America. Within this context, however, these nascent sentiments did pull together certain elements of the Jewish and African-American communities. Within the film, however, a positive relationship between the African-Americans and the Jews is not evident. Since that time, the two communities have moved away from one another rather violently.

What about the Eichmann and Auschwitz trials? Did they have any impact? Perhaps indirectly, but it seems more that this film represents a belated American response to the Holocaust experience.
Life in Harlem like life in the camps!? The film, however, strongly links Jews and African-Americans in the city under-life with African-Americans appearing largely as the evil perpetrators.
Flashbacks as psychological disorder for investigation. Hidden memory or suppressed memories are being evoked by everyday events. Suppressing his emotions and experiences could be the way to interpret his piercing of his hand at the end on the receipt spike on the desk.


Part IV

Film: Life is Beautiful (on DVD -- via eBay)

An Italian film, very colorful and lively, it is set in Mussolini's Italy of the late 1930's. It moves through a series of events that generate a great deal of sympathy for the central character, an Italian Jew named Guido Orifege (classic Jewish name meaning gold smith). After he marries an Italian woman and has a son, he suddenly finds himself on a truck with his son and separated from his wife. In the course of camp life, he uses a series of tricks to get information to his wife and to help his son transform the experience into a game. His son's stubbornness and unwillingness to take a shower demonstrates in part the factor of luck in survival as well as stubbornness. The mixture of comedy and suffering allows one to develop both a feeling for the victims as victims and as human beings. Though it seems to lack in realism, it is based upon historical research but it is not intended as an accurate reproduction of the Holocaust in Italy. The film is even, one could argue, the attempt to present/invert a classic myth, namely, the Orpheus myth, where Orpheus attempts to bring his wife out of Hades by playing the flute. Though a foreign film, this film had a very positive reception in a number of countries including the United States. There is, as of 1999, an English language version but it did poorly for the English language audience -- it should have been aired in Italian and German as it was intended. Nevertheless, it is estimated that some forty-million people have seen the movie. It is to be recommended.

It could be criticized for a variety of technical reasons relating to the history of the times. Guido appears to have considerably more freedom of movement than would ever have been the case. The film was not intended as a historical statement but those behind its production did attempt to generally place it within the correct historical context. However, I would suggest that it does serve to humanize the victims more than most films have. It brings the whole event of the Holocaust closer for the viewer. It should not be the final word in the process. It would be well supplemented by other films which would take the viewer/student into other aspects of the event. While there is the comical component, it could also be argued that the unreality of the event, the complete irrationality of it all -- the game -- suggest the new rationality that was imposed upon those in the camps. Within the context of Italian cinema, it represented a new interest in the Holocaust and how it impacted upon the Italians.

September 1943 represented the historical beginning of the Holocaust in Italy and corresponded to the fall of the Mussolini regime and the emergence of another Italian government, which immediately surrendered to the Allies. Of the Italian Jews deported, 85% perished but about the same percentage -- 85% -- remained outside the areas under the control of German authorities. Geoffrey Giles found the film offensive given the images presented of the prisoners and camp life -- quite true from the perspective of the historian. Implicitly, there remains the question of the extent to which art, literature, and film can accurately present an image of the Holocaust. It seems as though the fallacy here is in finding a satisfactory medium which everyone feels comfortable with. There is no perfect book, art work, film, poem, et cetera presentation of the Holocaust. Should fiction be part of Holocaust studies? But then, to what extent can it truly be excluded?

A vast array of opinions were aired over the appropriateness of this film's approach to the Holocaust. As Paul Vincent said, there is no doubt that those going to see the film thought they were going to see a Holocaust film in some sense of the phrase. It does raise a very serious question about the medium used for the message. On the other hand, several individuals also emphasized the medium as making the issue of the Holocaust accessible to some who felt that Schindler's List did not appeal to them. Last but not least, there were several voices that felt the film had an educational potential that if catered to the class or special presentation could readily be used. Lillian Kremer made an important point of separating the film into two parts with the first past being useful and the latter being the problematic piece.

© 2006 David A. Meier