sheisawonder:

The Holocaust Movie and the Goy

Alright, gather round kids, because we’re going to talk about Jewish represention.

This isn’t my first essay about Jewish representation in Hollywood, but while that one focused on the development of Jewish characterization in television and especially in media set in modern times, this one will focus on the role Jews play in Holocaust related narratives.

I will focus specifically on Holocaust movies, that is, movies that take place in territories in belonging to Germany or experiencing German occupation led to any of the deaths included in the six million figure. While one might be tempted to include movies taking place during the war (anything from Casablanca to Captain America: The First Avenger), their relevance to an essay about Jewish representation in their own narrative is minimal at best, as the Western narrative of World War II centers on the West (specifically, the United States and Britain) and its defeat of the Germans.

What do I mean by Jewish representation in their own narrative? The Holocaust is a historical event, not a story, after all. However, collective memory associates the Holocaust with the Jews – and for good reason. The Jews were the main target of the Nazi regime, and although exactly when the Holocaust began is hard to determine – did it start with the first concentration camp, the first anti-Jewish discriminatory law, or the rise of Hitler? – there is no question that not only were more Jews murdered than any other group targeted by the Nazis (the second largest group to be targeted while under German rule were the Poles, not including the Soviets, at an estimated 1.3-3 million victims, while famously, as I previously stated, six million Jews died {although I’d argue that the Romani population, which lost a much larger percentage of their total population, were more affected by the Holocaust, and numbers can be misleading}), but also, in addition, Jews faced public restrictions not shared by other groups – “no entrance for dogs and Jews”, the ghettos, etc, were all reserved for Jews (not to say that no other group faced humiliation, just that the Jewish one was the most prevalent, early, and widespread).

So the Jews were the main targets of the Holocaust, and the historical narrative – our collective memory of the Holocaust – tends to reflect that. And yet, the stories actually bring told about the Holocaust, specifically and especially in Hollywood movies, aren’t at all about Jews.

Take the Boy in the Striped Pajamas, for example. The tragic story of a German boy who discovers a concentration camp near his house, befriends a Jewish boy, and one day sneaks in and (spoiler) ends up being gassed. Or Schindler’s List, the touching story of a man who, although starting the movie as a ruthless capitalists, ends up saving 1200 Jews. The Book Thief, about a girl adopted by a German family who hide a Jewish man in their basement, her friendship with a boy who joins Hitler Youth, and her relationship with Death.

Beginning to see a pattern?

This isn’t to say that there are no Jewish narratives out there. A notable exception is The Diary of Anne Frank, who was a real Jewish girl writing in hiding about her thoughts and feelings as a teenager. But this is type of exception that proves the rule – after all, Anne Frank doesn’t exemplify the Holocaust as we think of it – humans treated worse than animals, slaughtered in the millions. The Diary ends before we could get to the part. It doesn’t discuss the horrors that Jews experienced, but the supposedly universal experiences of a teenage girl, no matter that – and perhaps despite the fact that – she happened to also be Jewish and in hiding the entire time.

Jews aren’t allowed to express our own grief over the Holocaust. We must be seen through a filter – specifically, through the heroism of “The Good Gentile”, and at times, “The Good Nazi”. We are taught to be sympathetic not to the often dehumanized or minor Jewish characters, who are background, the backdrop for the true heroes of the story – not the survivors or victims, but the goyim.

The worst aspect of this is The Good Nazi trope. Where Hands Touch is a very recent and horrifying example of it, about a biracial (half black!!!) girl falling in love with a Nazi’s son. I genuinely cannot imagine a worse story to be telling right now, with racism and antisemitism on the rise. This insistence on humanizing the Nazi is born not out of good will, but a fascination with them. Literally romanticizing the Nazis is a bad thing – it creates an image of a state that was filled with unwilling Nazis, people who were simply there to survive.

Only that’s bullshit. There’s a reason we can count the Righteous Among the Nations – because they were rare. We’re talking about a culture in which antisemitism was so ingrained, not only did people not object when sanctions against Jews were enacted, but they cheered. “The Jews taking our jobs, engineering our fall from former glory…”

Sound familiar?

They were buying newspapers with racist cartoons, posting signs in their windows saying “no entrance for dogs and Jews”, vandalizing Jewish property, beating Jews in public, kids mocking and bullying their former classmates… They were active participants every step of the way, even if they didn’t vote for Hitler (although a great deal of them did). They were sending their children to Hitler Youth, indoctrinating the next generation in the same drivel they were being taught – in movies, in books, on the radio, on the backs of fucking cigarette cartons, they were all being taught to hate Jews, and they did. They believed that Germany was being brought to its former glory, that Hitler was doing it, and that the Jews were at fault for their fall and defeat in WWI in the first place, so all of this was justified. And in case you were wondering, people knew about the camps. They always knew – it’s mentioned in letters and diaries. People knew about the horrors, and they went on with their normal lives. Jews would come to them for help and they would report them. The would loot the houses of their Jewish neighbors, even just move in because, well, the Jews probably stole the money used to buy it, so why not steal it back? It’s not like they were returning to take it back from them.

And yes, they went about their ordinary lives. They had jobs, and friends, and hobbies. Many of them were “nice people”. Except that they were Nazis. And they were teaching their children to be Nazis. And we don’t need stories about them being good people. Especially not now.

We need stories about Jews and Romani people and all the other victims. We need to focus on the stories of those who the Holocaust changed, to the point that you can see it in their DNA. We need to stop looking at the Holocaust through the eyes of the perpetrators, and start looking at it through the eyes of the people who’s stories we keep dismissing.

Stop erasing Jews from our own fucking narratives, is what I’m saying here.