Solis & Gnuva 1

Facing the Violent Past: Prevention and Repair June 10th, 2021

Script Supervisor: Tatiana Gnuva Web Producer: Erin Solis

EPISODE NOTES

Summary:

The Expressing History podcast details the many narratives portrayed throughout film and literature during and following the Holocaust. These narratives can influence public opinion which can in turn influence perceptions of events. Film and literature become means of expressing different visions of the past and contribute to shaping collective history. They were both used as political propaganda and means of conveying the truth decades after the war in the case of certain European countries. These European countries’ coming to terms with the past and their reckoning with the complicity of their political officials and population in the atrocities committed during the Second World War was delayed by political forces’ efforts to control collective memory of the war in the name of restoring national unity and countrywide reconciliation. Memories of the past were articulated through fictionalized movies, documentary films, poems, autobiographies and history books.

In Expressing History, we delve into films such as Death Mills and Shoah, detailing their role in either empowering or silencing survivor memory and study how the juxtaposition of certain pieces of literature, such as Robert Aron and Robert Paxton’s conflicting history books concerning France’s role in the Second World War reveals politically motivated efforts to rewrite history. Solis & Gnuva 2

Verbatim Transcript & Episode Notes

INTRO MUSIC- LOWER VOLUME AS SPEAKER BEGINS1

ERIN: (Excitedly) Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Expressing History! I’m

Erin!

TATIANA: (Enthusiastically) And I’m Tatiana!

ERIN: Today we are going to be taking a look at various portrayals of the Holocaust throughout literature and film. So let’s get right on that!

MUSIC FADE OUT

After the Holocaust, films and literature were used as propaganda. The process of restoration was first driven by the governments and political leaders of different European countries that wished to intervene to control the historical narrative as it first expressed itself after the war. Officials selectively remembered the Second World War and silenced Jewish memory of the Holocaust and survivor testimony. The use of different mediums such as film and literature to produce a propaganda type narrative was driven by a will to promote national reconciliation rather than accurately portray a truthful account of the events.2 The false narrative circulated by literature

1 "Leaving Home" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 2 “Histoire” class Solis & Gnuva 3 and film in the immediate period after the Holocaust silenced the parts where European countries collaborated with Nazi Germany.

TATIANA: Yes, that is exactly right Erin! In France for instance, this will to rewrite history led to the creation of an official narrative according to which all of France resisted Nazi Germany and Nazi collaboration rather than accepting that the country bore some level of responsibility for the atrocities committed in the context of the Holocaust.3 La Bataille Du Rail, directed by

Rene Clement in 1946, for instance presented an image of all French railway workers as resistance fighters who spent their days sabotaging German trains, a completely false narrative and misrepresentation of the truth.4

This narrative expressed itself through cinematography but also through literature that corroborated this falsified version of the events of the second world war and the extent of the

Holocaust. Robert Aron’s France de Vichy written in 1954 is a history book promoting a falsified narrative about the Holocaust in France such as incorrectly stating that any collaboration between Nazi Germany and France was forced upon France when the Marechal Petain, leader of

Vichy France is the one who reached out to Nazi leardership and offered to collaborate.5 The propagation of this image of Resistant France also took place in the commemoration and glorification of resistance poetry written during the war such as Freedom (Liberté) by Paul

Eluard6, This Heart That Hated War (Ce Coeur qui haïssait la guerre) by Robert Desnos,7 Song of the Partisans (Le chant des partisans) by Maurice Druon & Joseph Kessel.8 The

3 “Histoire” class 4 “La Bataille Du Rail” 5 “Histoire” class 6 “Liberte, Un Poeme De Paul Eluard” 7 “Poetes En Resistance” 8 “Le chant des Partisans: L’Hymne de la Résistance" Solis & Gnuva 4 commemoration of this type of poetry immortalizes France as a combatant nation, claiming values of liberty, freedom and passionate unrelenting revolutionary engagement as French values, continuing France’s historic image as a defender of inequality, liberty and human rights dating back from 1789. This brilliant, legendary and somewhat fictional narrative overshadowed the atrocities of the Holocaust by glorifying the Resistance and presenting the positive heroic aspects of the war as the dominant narrative.9 For years after the war, any literature or films that did not corroborate the official narrative was denounced by authorities and even censored such as

Alain Resnais’s film Night And Fog (Nuit et Brouillard).10 Night And Fog was originally directed in 1955 but its release was delayed by French authorities who even demanded that some parts of the films, those showing hints of French collaboration, be removed or censored.11

(Pause)

Other countries faced a similar delayed reckoning. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is the first to recognize the Netherlands’ role and responsibility in the Jewish genocide, noting in 2020 that while some officials resisted, most were complicit in allowing Jewish deportation and persucution to take place, failing to protect Netherlands’ population if not actively collaborating with Nazi efforts.12 Raising awareness about the Netherlands’ dark past regarding the Holocaust through the production of new films, history research efforts and literature concerning survivor memory is undoubtedly in part to thank for this newfound political recognition and increased realizations over the years that Holland’s past was not as heroic considering the Second World

War as the official narrative indicated. Goodbye Holland: The Destruction of Dutch Jewry directed by Willy Lindwer in 2004 reveals the truth about the events of the Second World War by

9 “Histoire” class 10 “Night And Fog” 11 Peter Cowie, “Night and Fog: Origins and Controversy.” The Criterion Collection 12 “Holocaust: Dutch PM Apologises over Failure to Protect Jews” Solis & Gnuva 5 offering a new version of the Netherlands’ past and affirming just as it had been disproved in

France that most of Holland’s population had not resisted Nazi intervention and had been indifferent to or even collaborated with Nazi efforts to deport the Dutch Jewish population.13

Similar to France, Holland used this official resistant and combatant narrative to achieve unity after the war, rallying behind this founding myth of heroic resistance to the Nazi oppression.14

This myth even went a step further in the Netherlands where the whole population, rather than accepting a certain level of complicity in the deportation of their Jewish population, of having participated to a certain extent in allowing the atrocities of the war to happen, created a notion of collective suffering, according to which the entire Dutch population had been persecuted and oppressed by Nazi Germany and an idea that Jewish members of Dutch society owed their survival to Non-Jewish members of society.15 Just as in France, films dealing with Dutch resistance to Nazi Germany were highlighted and overshadowed Jewish memory. The Silent

Raid directed by Paul Rotha in 1962 was one such film and depicted a heroic and thrilling prison escape orchestrated by the Dutch Resistance during the Second World War.16 Some films produced in the Netherlands to this day still seem to uphold this historically inaccurate resistant myth such as The Resistance Banker, a film telling the story of banker brothers’ decision to fund the Dutch Resistance against Nazi occupation.17 While a fraction of the Dutch population did resist Nazi efforts to deport the country’s Jewish population and deserve their stories to be told, the fact that resistance films have a monopoly in Dutch cinematography depicting events of the

13 The Willy Lindwer Film & Video Collection - Goodbye Holland - Synopsis 14 Matthijs Kronemeijer and Darren Teshima 2000 Amsterdam Fellowship. “A Founding Myth for the Netherlands: The Second World War and the Victimization of Dutch Jews.” Humanity in Action 15 Ibid. 16 “The Silent Raid (1962)” 17 “The Resistance Banker” Solis & Gnuva 6

Second World War and the Holocaust is telling of Dutch officials’ efforts to create a myth and dissimulate the more somber and less glorious facets of their nation’s past.18

ERIN: Film and literature were effective means for political propaganda but also effective means of expression for truth. They can also be employed in such a way as to understand the past and promote the emergence of the truth, allowing for survivors to discuss their experiences and fully comprehending the extent and atrocity of the Holocaust. The truthful narrative expressed itself through literature and Film during certain European countries’ usually delayed reckoning just as the falsified and selective previously circulated historical narrative concerning the

Holocaust had.

(Pause)

Films and literature were later used to promote the truth and the process of restoration took a turn in Europe: survivors were finally able to express their experiences but this was only decades after the war in the 1970s and 1980s. Literature was produced that told the truth and revealed the reality and extent of the horrors committed in the context of the Holocaust.

INSERT SIMONE VEIL PORTION OF INTERVIEW (00:37-00:49)

SIMONE VEIL: “Si nous n’avons pas parlé, c’est parce que l’on a pas voulu nous entendre, pas voulu nous écouter. Parce que ce qui est insupportable, c’est de parler et de de ne pas être entendu.”

18 Matthijs Kronemeijer and Darren Teshima 2000 Amsterdam Fellowship. “A Founding Myth for the Netherlands: The Second World War and the Victimization of Dutch Jews.” Humanity in Action Solis & Gnuva 7

END INTERVIEW CLIP

ERIN: As Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor, French literary icon, and French cabinet minister said “We didn’t speak because no one wanted to listen to us.” “France didn’t really want to know,” “It is unbearable to speak and not be heard.”19 (Slight Pause) European countries refused to confront the past, driven by a political agenda to rebuild their weakened countries and consolidate a strong common national identity, they selectively remembered the events of the war and the Holocaust. Some films, however, did not allow for this selective remembrance.

INSERT DEATH MILLS CLIP (20:14-20:55)

NARRATOR: (Music playing) Yesterday, while millions were dying in concentration camps,

Germans jammed Nuremberg to cheer the Nazi party and sing hymns of hate. (audience cheering) Today, these Germans who cheered the destruction of humanity in their own land, who cheered the attack on helpless neighbors, who cheered the enslavement of Europe, plead for your sympathy. They are the same Germans who once heiled Hitler. (music and cheering fades)

END CLIP

ERIN: The next film we’re going to talk about is Death Mills.20 This film, produced by the U.S.

Department of War in 1945 after the end of the war, was meant to show German audiences the

19 Chloé Leprince and Odile Dereuddre. “Simone Veil Sur La Shoah : ‘Nous N'avons Pas Parlé Parce Qu'on N'a Pas Voulu Nous Écouter.’” France Culture. France Culture, July 4, 2017. (0:37-00:49) 20 Death Mills (U.S. Army Signal Corps, 1945), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Death_Mills_(1945).webm#filehistory. Solis & Gnuva 8 atrocities that had occurred in the concentration camps around Europe. I will give a fair warning for anyone that hasn’t seen the film and is interested in watching it: it is extremely graphic as it does show various scenes after the liberation of these concentration camps. (Pause) Anyways, as

I mentioned before, the intention of this film was to show the German people what had ultimately happened in these camps. Different scenes for different camps are filmed, showing that no camp was spared from these cruel, inhuman treatments. The film is meant to make the audience feel guilty, so they can reckon with the atrocities committed. It did not cut corners and did not spare anyone. While the imagery there is horrific, do you think it was perhaps necessary to show this to the German audience?

TATIANA: (Pauses to Reflect) That is a hard question Erin and I don’t know if there is a right answer. This isn’t thinking specifically in terms of a German audience but perhaps, these types of films and documentaries would be effective in reaching those who does not believe in the

Holocaust. Many negationist theories and texts concerning the Holocaust started appearing in

France in the 1970s and some activists and historians in France believed that the most effective response to counter the theories denying the existence of the genocide would be to produce research and documentaries concerning the Holocaust, documenting the atrocities committed in the Second World War.21 By showing these atrocities, they wanted to make it impossible for anyone to deny the genocide had happened. Perhaps the allied effort through producing films such as Death Mills wanted to make it impossible for Germany not to confront its past or deny complicity in the horrific events that occurred. Survivor testimony expressed itself through autobiographies and books written by survivors such as One Life (Une vie), by Simone Veil

21 “Histoire” class Solis & Gnuva 9

(2007),22 If this is A Man by Primo Levi (1947)23 and literary works by other authors and

Holocaust survivors such as Elie Wiesel, Michel Leiris and Victor Frankl.24 Jewish and survivor memory was later highlighted as countries finally confronted their past. Commemoration efforts started focusing on amplifying survivor voices such as through circulating the poetry written by prisoners in concentration camps.25 Literature like Robert Paxton’s history book, Vichy France written in 197226 was used to counter Robert Aron’s previous history book, entitled History Of

Vichy: 1940-194427 that had promoted the false politically motivated version of the past.28

(Pause)

Survivor experiences expressed themselves through cinematography, namely documentary films.

Shoah produced in 1985 by Claude Lanzmann was a 6,5-hour long documentary- style cinematographic masterpiece compiling extensive survivor testimony in 14 different countries.

This work came only 40 years after the end of the war showcasing the delayed aspect of

European countries’ reckoning with their past. We’ll add the link to the trailer in the show notes so you can get a preview of the effect of the film and its message.29

ERIN: Germany’s reckoning was earlier than most European countries because the country understood that it could not re-integrate the international world order unless it confronted its

22 Le Point, magazine. “Simone Veil, Une Vie Exceptionnelle Marquée Par La Déportation.” Le Point, June 30, 2017. 23 “Primo Levi's If This Is a Man at 70” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, April 22, 2017 24 “Histoire” class 25 https://www.holocaustcenterseattle.org/images/Education/I%20Never%20Saw%20Another%20Butterfly%20Packet %20of%20Readings.pdf 26 Guay, Bertrand. “Robert Paxton : ‘La Nouvelle Génération a Confirmé Et Ajouté Une Contribution Nouvelle sans Complètement Ruiner Ce Que J'avais Fait Avant’ - Ép. 3/4 - Quand L'histoire Fait Scandale.” France Culture. France Culture, June 13, 2018. 27 “Histoire” class 28 “Histoire” class 29 IFCFilmsTube. “SHOAH - Official Trailer.” YouTube. YouTube, December 2, 2010 Solis & Gnuva 10 past: running or silencing the past was impossible.30 The different movies and literature that was written and produced after the war showcase the idea that these mediums can be used as a way to assimilate the past, to understand how one comprehends and feels about the past.

The first film to be recorded in Germany post World War II was The Murderers Are Among Us which came out in 1946.31 I’ll spare you the German title as I don’t want to completely butcher it. It was produced by DEFA, which was a state-owned film studio of the German Democratic

Republic, or East Germany. This film, with a few changes to the ending, was ultimately backed by the Soviet Union. This was Germany’s first “rubble film”, showing the destruction, bombed-down locations, and overall sad state in which the country was left after the war.

I’ll give somewhat of a simplified summary, but I’ll leave most of the story out for anyone who wants to experience the movie themselves. A link to the movie will be given in the show notes.

The film focuses on Susanne, who has returned home from a concentration camp and is hoping to live in her old place. Dr. Hans Mertens, a former Nazi soldier, has since moved into her apartment, but the two agree to live together. Dr. Mertens is obviously marked by what transpired during the war. He has turned to drinking, and has nightmares about a certain event he was unable to stop. The actions that scar Mertens were ordered by one Captain Brukner. Mertens obviously hates his former captain for this, and wants to avenge those who were the victims of those orders. The main point of the film is to call for accountability for the perpetrators and the end of the film. The film, however, is surprisingly open ended. While Brukner seems to be

“behind bars”, or rather just an iron gate, it gives the impression that he will be charged for what was committed, but it isn’t stated explicitly what happened to him. Dr. Mertens, a surgeon turned

Nazi-soldier, is shown as a victim of the war, almost as much, if not more than Susanne. Her

30 Ariella Lang & Karen Murphy, Facing The Violent Past, Summer 2021 31 The Murderers Are among Us, Kanopy (DEFA Film Library, 1946), https://www.kanopy.com/product/murderers-are-among-us-die-morder-sind-unt. Solis & Gnuva 11 character is usually seen taking care of Mertens despite her own experiences. This film therefore somewhat portrays Germans, including Nazi soldiers, as victims of war having followed the orders of a few evil men. It is interesting, I think, how the doctor seemed to be given more attention for his experiences than Susanne was.32 It makes it seem as though the movie was used as a tool after the war to show Germans the importance of accountability, and should be punished not through vigilante justice, but through a court of law. Books like Gunter Grass’s “the tin drum” written in 1959 also started to process the Holocaust.33

These mediums are effective ways to reach a wider audience and raise awareness about the holocaust even still today. Fictionalized narrative films such as the Pianist34 and Schindler’s

List35 are produced still to this day, perhaps as part of efforts to educate new generations and popularize narratives about the Holocaust, motivated by the need to never allow such an event reoccur.

(Pause)

START MUSIC QUIET36

TATIANA: (Enthusiastically) Thank you for taking the time to listen to our podcast and tune in again next week for some new insights and approaches to history. Don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast and don’t hesitate to share what you’ve learned with friends and family! We’ll see you next time!

32 Robert C. Holub, "Germans as Victims in 1995." Colloquia Germanica 48, no. 1/2 (2015): 23-33. Accessed June 10, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44478221. 33 “The Tin Drum.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 34 “The Pianist - Full Movie HD” 35 “Schindler's List (1993) Official Trailer - Liam Neeson, Steven Spielberg Movie HD.” YouTube. YouTube, May 14, 2014. 36 "Night in Venice" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Solis & Gnuva 12

MUSIC PLAYS AT REGULAR VOLUME FOR ABOUT 4 SECONDS AFTER END,

THEN FADE OUT Solis & Gnuva 13

Works Cited

Ariella Lang & Karen Murphy, Facing The Violent Past, 2021

Behn-Grund, Friedl, Eugen Klagemann, and Ernst Roters. The Murderers Are among Us. Kanopy. DEFA Film Library, 1946. https://www.kanopy.com/product/murderers-are-among-us-die-morder-sind-unt.

Cowie, Peter. “Night and Fog: Origins and Controversy.” The Criterion Collection. Accessed June 10, 2021. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/289-night-and-fog-origins-and-controversy.

Death Mills. Wikipedia. United States: U.S. Army Signal Corps, 1945. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Death_Mills_(1945).webm#filehistory.

Eichenberg, Fritz. I Never Saw Another Butterfly. Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. I Never Saw Another Butterfly Packet of Readings. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1964. https://www.holocaustcenterseattle.org/images/Education/I%20Never%20Saw%20Anoth er%20Butterfly%20Packet%20of%20Readings.pdf.

Guay, Bertrand. “Robert Paxton : ‘La Nouvelle Génération a Confirmé Et Ajouté Une Contribution Nouvelle sans Complètement Ruiner Ce Que J'avais Fait Avant’ - Ép. 3/4 - Quand L'histoire Fait Scandale.” France Culture. France Culture, June 13, 2018. https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/la-fabrique-de-lhistoire/quand-lhistoire-fait-scand ale-34-la-france-de-vichy.

“Histoire” class, Institution Stanislas (Nice, France) concerning France’s role in the Second world War (2018-2019)

“Holocaust: Dutch PM Apologises over Failure to Protect Jews.” Google. Google. Accessed June 10, 2021. https://www.google.fr/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51258081.amp.

IFCFilmsTube. “SHOAH - Official Trailer.” YouTube. YouTube, December 2, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MNUbt8HEaw.

Kronemeijer, Matthijs, and Darren Teshima 2000 Amsterdam Fellowship. “A Founding Myth for the Netherlands: The Second World War and the Victimization of Dutch Jews.” Humanity in Action. Accessed June 10, 2021. https://www.humanityinaction.org/knowledge_detail/a-founding-myth-for-the-netherland s-the-second-world-war-and-the-victimization-of-dutch-jews/.

“La Bataille Du Rail (René Clément, 1946) - Lumni: Enseignement.” Retourner à l'accueil de Lumni Enseignement. Institut National de l'Audiovisuel. Accessed June 10, 2021. Solis & Gnuva 14

https://enseignants.lumni.fr/fiche-media/00000000496/la-bataille-du-rail-rene-clement-19 46.html.

"Leaving Home" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

“Le chant des Partisans: L’Hymne de la Resistance.” Résister par l'Art et la Littérature (CNRD). Accessed June 10, 2021. https://resister-art-litterature.jimdofree.com/resister-en-france-libre/le-chant-des-partisans /.

Le Point, magazine. “Simone Veil, Une Vie Exceptionnelle Marquée Par La Déportation.” Le Point, June 30, 2017. https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/simone-veil-une-vie-exceptionnelle-marquee-par-la-deport ation-30-06-2017-2139492_23.php.

Leprince, Chloé and Odile Dereuddre. “Simone Veil Sur La Shoah : ‘Nous N'avons Pas Parlé Parce Qu'on N'a Pas Voulu Nous Écouter.’” France Culture. France Culture, July 4, 2017. https://www.franceculture.fr/histoire/simone-veil-sur-la-shoah-nous-navons-pas-parle-par ce-quon-na-pas-voulu-nous-ecouter. 0:37-00:49

“Liberté, Un Poème De Paul Eluard.” poetica.fr. Accessed June 10, 2021. https://www.poetica.fr/poeme-279/liberte-paul-eluard/.

“Night And Fog.” YouTube. YouTube, July 2, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tij8A83EnqU.

"Night in Venice" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

“Poètes En Résistance.” Retour à la page d'accueil du site cndp.fr. Accessed June 10, 2021. https://www.reseau-canope.fr/poetes-en-resistance/poetes/robert-desnos/ce-coeur-qui-hais sait-la-guerre/

“Primo Levi's If This Is a Man at 70.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, April 22, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/22/primo-levi-auschwitz-if-this-is-a-man- memoir-70-years.

“Schindler's List (1993) Official Trailer - Liam Neeson, Steven Spielberg Movie HD.” YouTube. YouTube, May 14, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG22XNhtnoY.

“The Pianist - Full Movie HD.” YouTube. YouTube, May 12, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLSNh-LwJrI.

“The Resistance Banker.” IMDb. IMDb.com, March 8, 2018. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4610378/. Solis & Gnuva 15

“The Silent Raid (1962).” ‎The Silent Raid (1962) directed by Paul Rotha • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd. Accessed June 10, 2021. https://letterboxd.com/film/the-silent-raid/.

“The Tin Drum.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Accessed June 10, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Tin-Drum-novel-by-Grass.

The Willy Lindwer Film & Video Collection - Goodbye Holland - Synopsis. Accessed June 10, 2021. http://www.willylindwer.com/library/synopsis/goodbyeholland_syn.php.