The banality of evil,
and the courage of ordinary men.
(Brief research shows that the Jewish days of Remembrance [Yom Hashoah], since set on the Jewish calender, sort of migrate around our Gregorian calender.)
Showing posts with label Holocaust Remembrance Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holocaust Remembrance Day. Show all posts
Friday, April 17, 2015
Friday, January 10, 2014
"Arbeit Macht Frei"
Great art exists to hold a mirror up to the face of humans so we can see the good and evil which exists within all of us, whether we want to admit it or not.
At certain times, the mirror gets held underneath the nostrils to detect any signs of life given the monstrous, heinous depths to which humans sink, or worse yet willfully choose whether led by others or proudly chosen on their own, the mirror showing us the festering fetid corpse of certain societies.
Even given this artistic expression however, time dulls the senses, the memory, perception our our very conception of ourselves; decades and then centuries pass to obscure the monsters among us, within ourselves. False prophets come and go, and we console ourselves in essential goodness of humanity.
So we now bandy about metaphors using the word "holocaust" and rob the word of meaning as our accusations and condemning little Hitlers among us.
Bullshit, great art cries; we must always hold vigil against the darkness in our souls and fend it off.
So soon comes a film perhaps edited by Alfred Hitchcock made from film shot by British camera men documenting the horrors of the death camps.
[The British Army Film Unit cameramen who shot the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 used to joke about the reaction of Alfred Hitchcock to the horrific footage they filmed. When Hitchcock first saw the footage, the legendary British director was reportedly so traumatised that he stayed away from Pinewood Studios for a week. Hitchcock may have been the king of horror movies but he was utterly appalled by "the real thing".
In 1945, Hitchcock had been enlisted by his friend and patron Sidney Bernstein to help with a documentary on German wartime atrocities, based on the footage of the camps shot by British and Soviet film units. In the event, that documentary was never seen....
Five of the film's six reels were eventually deposited in the Imperial War Museum and the project was quietly forgotten.
In the 1980s, the footage was discovered in a rusty can in the museum by an American researcher. It was eventually shown in an incomplete version at the Berlin Film Festival in 1984 and then broadcast on American PBS in 1985 under the title Memory of the Camps but in poor quality and without the missing sixth reel....
Now, finally, the film is set to be seen in a version that Hitchcock, Bernstein and the other collaborators intended. The Imperial War Museum has painstakingly restored it using digital technology and has pieced together the extra material from the missing sixth reel....
As Toby Haggith acknowledges, the film is "much more candid" than any of the other documentaries about the camps. Haggith also describes it as "brilliant" and "sophisticated"....
"It's both an alienating film in terms of its subject matter but also one that has a deep humanity and empathy about it," Haggith suggests. "Rather than coming away feeling totally depressed and beaten, there are elements of hope...."] emphasis added 'cause I'm trying ti have faith.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/alfred-hitchcocks-unseen-holocaust-documentary-to-be-screened-9044945.html
At certain times, the mirror gets held underneath the nostrils to detect any signs of life given the monstrous, heinous depths to which humans sink, or worse yet willfully choose whether led by others or proudly chosen on their own, the mirror showing us the festering fetid corpse of certain societies.
Even given this artistic expression however, time dulls the senses, the memory, perception our our very conception of ourselves; decades and then centuries pass to obscure the monsters among us, within ourselves. False prophets come and go, and we console ourselves in essential goodness of humanity.
So we now bandy about metaphors using the word "holocaust" and rob the word of meaning as our accusations and condemning little Hitlers among us.
Bullshit, great art cries; we must always hold vigil against the darkness in our souls and fend it off.
So soon comes a film perhaps edited by Alfred Hitchcock made from film shot by British camera men documenting the horrors of the death camps.
[The British Army Film Unit cameramen who shot the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 used to joke about the reaction of Alfred Hitchcock to the horrific footage they filmed. When Hitchcock first saw the footage, the legendary British director was reportedly so traumatised that he stayed away from Pinewood Studios for a week. Hitchcock may have been the king of horror movies but he was utterly appalled by "the real thing".
In 1945, Hitchcock had been enlisted by his friend and patron Sidney Bernstein to help with a documentary on German wartime atrocities, based on the footage of the camps shot by British and Soviet film units. In the event, that documentary was never seen....
Five of the film's six reels were eventually deposited in the Imperial War Museum and the project was quietly forgotten.
In the 1980s, the footage was discovered in a rusty can in the museum by an American researcher. It was eventually shown in an incomplete version at the Berlin Film Festival in 1984 and then broadcast on American PBS in 1985 under the title Memory of the Camps but in poor quality and without the missing sixth reel....
Now, finally, the film is set to be seen in a version that Hitchcock, Bernstein and the other collaborators intended. The Imperial War Museum has painstakingly restored it using digital technology and has pieced together the extra material from the missing sixth reel....
As Toby Haggith acknowledges, the film is "much more candid" than any of the other documentaries about the camps. Haggith also describes it as "brilliant" and "sophisticated"....
"It's both an alienating film in terms of its subject matter but also one that has a deep humanity and empathy about it," Haggith suggests. "Rather than coming away feeling totally depressed and beaten, there are elements of hope...."] emphasis added 'cause I'm trying ti have faith.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/alfred-hitchcocks-unseen-holocaust-documentary-to-be-screened-9044945.html
Sunday, January 30, 2011
International Holocaust Remembrance Day: "Auschwitz was liberated on January 27, 1945"
[The anniversary of the camp's liberation has been observed by different groups and nationalities for some time, but it was only in November 2005 that the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 60/7, deeming January 27 an international day of remembrance.
Before the commencement of the ceremonies Thursday, German President Christian Wulff said that each generation must grapple anew with the questions of how civilization broke down in the Nazi era and work to prevent such crimes from ever being repeated.] emphasis added
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