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SON 509 S. X-XXV Neu SON SON 509_S.XXVI-XL_neu_SON 509 18.02.2015 08:24 Seite XXVI XXVI Introduction Hanns Eisler composed the film music for Nuit et brouillard – d’Ulm in Paris. On 10 November 1954, the day the exhibition “Night and fog” – in the few weeks between late November opened, its two curators – the historians Olga Wormser and and mid-December 1955. Nuit et brouillard was the first com- Henri Michel – mentioned in a radio interview4 that they were prehensive documentary film about the Nazi concentration planning a film about the concentration camp system. camps.1 It was directed by Alain Resnais and the commentary According to Wormser, it would “only contain purely histori- was by the writer Jean Cayrol, who had himself been a prisoner cal documents that are absolutely confirmed by all our experi- in the concentration camp of Mauthausen/Gusen. This short ence with this subject”.5 Wormser and Michel had been film Nuit et brouillard is underlaid throughout its 30 minutes researching the topic of deportation and concentration camps by both Eisler’s music and the commentary, which was spoken for several years. In 1940–41, Wormser had worked in the by the actor Michel Bouquet. The title of the film refers to the Centre d’information sur les prisonniers de guerre (“Centre of “order of the Führer” of the same name from 1941, according information on prisoners of war”) and in September 1944 had to which the Resistance fighters captured in France, Belgium, been employed in the Commissariat aux Prisonniers, Déportés the Netherlands and Norway were placed under the special et Réfugiés (“Commissariat for prisoners, deportees and jurisdiction of the “Reich” in order for them to disappear refugees”, PDR) of the provisional government of the French without trace in prisons and concentration camps in a “cloak Republic under Minister Henri Frenay – this was the board and dagger” operation (in German: “bei Nacht und Nebel”, concerned with registering, returning and resettling deported literally “in night and fog”).2 people and POWS. Her work also meant travelling to In 1956, Nuit et brouillard was awarded the Jean Vigo Prize. Germany and Poland in order to investigate people who had It was the subject of intense political controversy while it was disappeared in Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz. As one of those still being made, and even more so after it was nominated responsible for “Opération Lutetia” she had documented the for the ninth Film Festival in Cannes in 1956 and during the reports of former inmates of concentration camps upon their subsequent preparation of different dubbed versions for the return home; she had also been involved in a volume about two states of divided Germany, East and West. But ultimately, Ravensbrück6 and had worked for the public prosecutors it had a major international impact on the discussion about the Edgar Faure and Charles Dubost during their preparation for crimes of National Socialism, especially in the Federal the Nuremberg Trials for war crimes. In 1952, she was then Republic of Germany in the West, where the version with Paul called to join the Comité d’histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Celan’s translated commentary was used as an official teaching mondiale (“Historical committee for the Second World War”, aid in schools from 1957 onwards. Its considerable impact was CHDGM) by Henri Michel. She also became a member of the not least thanks to its rigorous aesthetic design. In Nuit et recently founded “Réseau du souvenir” (the “remembrance brouillard image, commentary and music unite in a dialectic network”), an association set up by former fighters in the in which the commentary – mostly spoken in a tone that is Resistance whose aim was to ensure that the deportations deliberately unemotional and occasionally ironic – together were commemorated. Wormser was appointed a researcher for with the generally extreme understatement of the music CHDGM and was brought into a sub-commission that had together create a “dramatic counterpoint” to the harrowing been created in June 1951 to prepare a history of the deporta- images we see.3 tions. Its other members included representatives of various ministries and of the Réseau du souvenir who worked togeth- er with the Centre de documentation juive contemporaire Plans for a concentration camp film (“Contemporary Jewish Documentation Centre”, CDJC). The aim of this commission’s work was on the one hand to From November 1954 to late January 1955, as part of the com- sort, archive and inventarize sources in the form of eye-witness memoration of the tenth anniversary of the liberation from interviews, written documents, photos and films and on the German occupation, the exhibition “Resistance, Liberation, other hand to make its research results generally available in Deportation” was shown at the Musée pédagogique in the Rue published form. 1 Before this, there existed only documentary films about the liberation of the concentration camps, such as Deathmills by Billy Wilder in 1945, or autobiographically inspired feature films about the topic, such as Wanda Jakubowska’s Ostatni etap (“The Last Stage”, 1947) about Auschwitz or Alfred Radok’s Daleká cesta (“Distant Journey”, 1949) about Theresienstadt. 2 In music, this saying is notably featured in the third scene of Richard Wagner’s Rheingold, where Alberich places the “Tarnhelm”, an invisibility helmet, on his head. He says: “Dem Haupt fügt sich der Helm | ob sich der Zauber auch zeigt | Nacht und Nebel – niemand gleich!”. 3 See in this regard Theodor W. Adorno / Hanns Eisler: Komposition für den Film. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2006, p. 30. 4 This interview is included on the DVD of Nuit et brouillard. Argos Films / Arte Vidéo, 2003. 5 Transcription of the interview (in French) by Sylvie Lindeperg: “Nuit et brouillard”. Un film dans l’histoire. Paris: Éditions Odile Jacob 2007, p. 43. 6 Ravensbrück. Neuchâtel, 1946 (= Les Cahiers du Rhône No. 20). SON 509_S.XXVI-XL_neu_SON 509 18.02.2015 08:24 Seite XXVII XXVII Although the fragmentary state of the relevant archives meant of her work with the Commission d’histoire de la Déportation that results were still unsatisfactory, in 1954–55 Olga Wormser were of particular significance here. With his eye firmly on fac- and Henri Michel published Tragédie de la Déportation tual description, Michel had initially envisaged merely creating 1940–1945. Témoignages de survivants des camps de concentra- a montage of weekly news reports, which would be given new tion allemands7 and a special number of the Revue d’histoire de commentaries and edited so as to make longer films. While la Deuxième Guerre mondiale.8 This was not least in order to planning the exhibition “Resistance, Liberation, Deportation”, fulfil the expectations of the associations representing the however, former inmates provided a wealth of varied personal deportees. These two publications documented various aspects memorabilia10 from the time of their deportation, and it pos- of the German concentration camp system. While the CHDGM sessed such impressive iconographical and historical value that (founded in 1951 by uniting the Commission d’histoire de it seemed no longer justified to document the life in the camps l’Occupation et de la Libération de la France and the Comité without incorporating this inside perspective. These objects d’histoire de la guerre) was primarily devoted to research, the allowed not just a more vivid insight into the inmates’ every- Réseau du souvenir under Annette Lazard (which had been day experiences than could any weekly news reports,11 for founded by former members of the Resistance who belonged they also did it more objectively than many eye-witness to the new political élite) had devoted itself primarily to PR accounts, which often embellished the historical truth with and to lobbying in the service of a culture of remembrance. For tales of heroism. Furthermore, potential exhibits were now example, it had helped to establish days of commemoration, found that illuminated an aspect that had been hitherto largely vigils and monuments. From 1953 to 1956 Henri Michel was ignored on account of the specifically French perspective, the General Secretary of both organizations, and as such had focussed as it was on the fate of the Resistance fighters. been responsible for an institutional linkage of historical Although already documented by the CDJC in scholarly research on the one hand (through the CHDGM) and interest- fashion through archival research and publications,12 the geno- driven commemoration oriented on patriotic, “heroic” models cide of the Jews was treated in French remembrance as more of on the other (through the Réseau du souvenir). This link was a side issue – something that was in any case supposedly a matter somewhat problematical, and Wormser, who at the time was for the Jews themselves and not for the majority of society. working on her doctoral thesis about the Système concentra- Michel and Wormser might have wanted scholarly objectivity tionnaire nazi,9 was not uncritical of this state of affairs. She instead of the heroism favoured by the deportees’ associations argued in favour of a more scholarly approach that would (in which above all former members of the political and military analyze the concentration camps as a systematically organized, resistance were organized), but nevertheless the Holocaust had norm-driven microcosm and their economic significance for remained a blind spot even for them. In the anthology Tragédie the German war economy. While the research of the CHDGM de la Déportation there is no differentiation made between was far more susceptible to the ideological influence of veterans’ deportation and extermination camps. Belzec, Chelmno, associations, Michel’s dual function offered the possibility of Sobibor and Treblinka are not even mentioned in the overview getting state support for his research interests through direct, of camps. Instead, Buchenwald is held up as a typical concen- personal contacts, thereby placing the work of the CHDGM tration camp, not least because most contemporary accounts on a broader societal, institutional and financial footing.
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