Goldhagen & Spielberg's Zwolfkinder

[davemarc]

At 04:02 PM 6/12/96 -0700, Steelhead wrote:
>
>>>Spielberg ends his film with the
>>>"Schindlerfolk" in Isreal doesn't he? That's a stab at reality, isn't it?
>>>No. SS played this film as a scrupulously faithful docu-drama. That it
>>>wasn't, is a big part of the problem.
>>
I had responded:

>>We disagree.  But maybe you'll modify your opinion upon realizing that the
>>original source is a work of fiction.
>
>I absolutely modify my opinion. I now have none. Only questions: Were those
>people in the movie's final scene "real" Schindler-Jews or just actors
>playing them in the movie? Who can tell, and why bother.

It was the actors meeting the "real" Schindlerjuden.  It's schmaltzy, but
it's also a clear indication of the way that a kind of union, a bridge, can
be achieved between those who have gone through the Holocaust and those who
attempt to learn from their personal experiences.  That's a key concern of
the movie's "sequel," the Shoah project.
>
>>Well, you can go ahead and make that version.  There were definitely
>>"personification of evil" officials at death camps.  Your own
>>former-professor pal was butt-fucked at 11 by guards.  Maybe they did go
>>home at night for a stereotypically German version of a relaxing evening.
>>There were others who should have.
>
>They weren't "personfications of evil." They were just regular Germans,
>mechanics, shopkeepers, tuba-players, biermeisters, and sausage-makers, the
>uncles and aunts of Marge Schott.

They weren't all "personifications of evil" in the Sadean sense.  The
manifestations of evil were varied, from the banal to the extraordinary.
The sadistic superintendant in SL was realistic; there were other officials
and lackeys who weren't as sadistic as well.

davemarc