Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cinema ……………………………………………………………. 4
Music ………………………………………………………………. 6
Interview …………………………………………………………. 9
Conclusions …………………………………………………….. 12
Bibliography …………………………………………………… 13
Our project will deal with the holocaust issue through cinema, music
and an interview:
First – The holocaust is always an actual topic, and every time we hear
about this topic, we can learn something new that we haven't known.
This is also the reason that the holocaust is raised for discussion in every
education framework.
The second reason we have chosen this topic is – The people who
succeeded to survive the horrible holocaust-actually our holocaust
survivors, are still alive! But, they become old from day to day, and at
some stage, we won't have holocaust survivors who will be able to tell
us their experiences from the war. Because of it – We saw fit to raise it
and to write about it, but this time – From a special point of view. And
because of people who think that the holocaust is a banal topic – We
have related to this from a modern angle.
Chapter 1:
CINEMA
Holocaust movies tell the story of the Jews in Europe during World War
II.
There are different kinds of holocaust movies:
Some tell an individual's surviving story, like "The Pianist".
Others tell the made-up story during the war, like "Life Is
Beautiful" which we will talk about more.
Some movies describe the war from a Jewish point of view.
Another type of movies is about the time before the war started
like "Conspiracy", and about the time after the war
The first half of the movie is a romantic comedy set in the years before
World War II. Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni), a young Italian Jew,
arrives in Arezzo where he plans to set up a bookstore, taking a job as a
waiter at his uncle's hotel. Guido is both funny and charismatic,
especially when he meets a local school teacher, Dora, saying she looks
like a princess. Dora, however, comes from a, non-Jewish Italian family.
Several years pass, Guido and Dora get married and have a son, Giosuѐ,
but the peaceful life does not last for long. Guido and Giosuѐ are taken
to a work camp. In the camp, Guido hides his son from the Nazi guards,
sneaks him food and tries to humor him. Guido convinces him that the
camp is just a game, in which the first person to get 1,000 points wins a
ride on tank. He tells him that if he cries, complains that he wants his
mother, or says that he is hungry, he will lose points. Guido convinces
Giosuѐ that the camp guards are mean because they want the tank for
themselves, Guido manages to keep the illusion for his son, right until
the end when, in the chaos caused by the American advance, he tells his
son to stay in a sweatbox until everybody leaves.
He told him this is the final test before he wins. When trying to find
Dora, Guido gets caught, taken away and shot dead by a Nazi guard, but
not before making his son laugh. Giosuѐ manages to survive and thinks
he has won the game when an American tank arrives to liberate the
camp. He is reunited with his mother, not knowing that his father has
been killed.
Music
In our project, we have decided to write about holocaust music.
These days, a lot of artists write and sing songs about the holocaust,
from various points of view:
Some artists choose to tell about the life of the Jews during the
holocaust and the war, through survivors' stories or through their
imagination.
Others prefer to talk in their songs about the life after the war, about
the survivors who succeeded to start over and restored their lives.
The third type of the artists is the artists who have some connection to
survivors' holocaust.
The songs that tell about the holocaust we hear mainly in the Memorial
Day for the holocaust victims.
There are artists who are second generation to holocaust survivors, their
work is influenced with their memories and stories that their parents
told them.
Among those artists, we can find Shlomo Artzi with his song: "In
Germany before the war"
Hava Albershtein, with her song: "Ponar"
Yehuda Poliker – With his album: "Efer ve'avak" ("ash and dust")
There are other songs which were translated to Hebrew from Yiddish.
For example – The song "The village is on fire", and "Ponar".
The song "Kshetigdal" of Yehuda Poliker is not talking directly about the
holocaust, it has a deeper and hidden meaning.
As opposed to "Ponar" of Hava Albershtein which is a very direct and sad
song.
When you grow up ("kshetigdal") – Yehuda Poliker
When you grow up
Wait till you'll grow up, they tell you all time
One tall man and a short woman.
If you won't eat, you'll never grow up
A good boy leaves the plate empty.
When you hear this song on the first time, you don't think it's a song
which has a connection to the holocaust. It sounds like a lullaby. The
rhythm and the singer's tone are very calming and the words are not
associated with death, ghettos or sorrow. But, if you listen carefully and
know Yehuda Poliker's work, you can see the hidden meaning in the
song.
In our opinion, the most powerful part in the song is the line –
A big woman and a man with glasses Will be chasing you till the end, till your
grave.
This line shows that the singer feels toward his parents who were
holocaust survivors. He sees them as foreign people that are chasing
after him and will never let go.
We think it's a metaphor for their memories and stories that he feels he
will carry with him till his last day.
3. Where were you living before you were taken by the Nazis ?
Me and my family lived in Hungary. The Nazis arrived there toward
the end of the war. First, we were in a ghetto in our town, Slovakia
.From there we were taken to Auschwitz.
5. After all the horror that you passed how you succeeded to
survive?
I think that all what happened to me was a miracle. Every week the
Nazis did a medical examination for all the prisoners. These
examinations were to check who can continue to work .The ones who
were weak or sick were taken to the crematoriums. Luckily, I always
passed those exams, and the Nazis decided I could work in the
factory and that’s how I survived from week to week, thanks to the
food there, though the work was very difficult. The main thing that
helped me survive was my self-confidence. Every Sunday I'd tell
myself: "This must be the last week of the war. I'll survive that week
and then I'll be free and happy". Every Sunday I believed the war is
about to be over, and that helped me. My optimism and mental
strength held me through the days till it really was the last week of
the war.
7. Tell us about your life after the war. How did you start your life
over?
When I came back to Hungary, my home was ruined. I had a gentile
childhood friend there, so I lived with her for few months. She always
said I could stay as long as I wanted.
Few years later I met my husband, who was also a holocaust survivor.
We got married and lived in Budapest. After 5 years in Budapest my
husband really wanted to live in Israel, When we came to Israel I
worked in a little restaurant and my husband was working too. We
had a baby daughter, Hava. At the age of two and a half years Hava
got very sick and passed away. That was very difficult for us, but few
years later we had another baby daughter, Yehudit. Yehudit is 60
years old today, and has children and grandchildren of her own.
After the war I felt a great need to live my life. As a young woman
who has been through such awful things, I felt a great need to
compensate myself and my family. This is why I wanted so badly to
have my own family. Thank God, today I'm happy for what I did with
my life. I feel my whole life is one big miracle.
After finishing the project, we noticed that there are two opinions about
creating art out of the holocaust:
Some people think it is wrong, they are against it because of two
reasons:
First – The holocaust is a holy topic. 6,000,000 people and children were
tortured and killed in the strangest ways we can even imagine! It is too
tragic to create funny arts like comedies and to laugh at it.
Secondly – The survivors who are still alive can be deeply hurt,
humiliated and sorry. They suffered, their relatives died, and who are we
to make laugh on it?! There is no reason to cause them more pain, and
therefore people are against it.
The second opinion about creating art out of the holocaust is: In our
days, there is no much awareness to the importance of the holocaust.
The teenagers always are connected to technology, to the computer and
the TV, and because of it, they choose to express their pain through
movies, music, and even comedies. And if that is the only way which
makes them to remember and never to forget the holocaust, it is
acceptable!
The second reason is – There are a lot of people or children who cannot
hear about the holocaust, the real stories remind them terror and death
and it's too hard for them, because, as you know, the holocaust is a very
traumatic topic. But, when we hear a hard story about the holocaust
through a movie or song, it makes it easier. The combination between
horror stories by technology and especially by a funny way-like comedy
– Is good for sensitive people.
In light of these two opinions, we decided, according to this,
that we actually agree with the second opinion which says –
It is moral to have different kinds of art about the
holocaust!
Because, our main goal should be to remember and to remind our
generation and all the future generations, Jews and non
Jews, all over the world, that this horrible, unbelievable "Holocaust"
really happened and will never be forgotten.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://he.wikipedia.org\wiki
(The plot of the movie "Life Is Beautiful)
http://www.youtube.com
(Holocaust songs – Ponar, Kshetigdal)