Disco dancing at Auschwitz
The Telegraph (not JTA's catch-all blog, but the British newspaper) is reporting that some Holocaust survivors are upset over a viral video of a survivor and his daughter and grandchildren boogying down at various concentration camps to the Gloria Gaynor's disco hit "I Will Survive."
Why the upset?
Kamil Cwiok, 86, who was a child when he and his family were rounded up by the Nazis, condemned the footage.
Mr Cwiok, most of whose family died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz, said: “I don't see how this video is a mark of respect for the millions who didn't survive, nor for those who did.
“It seems to trivialise the horrors that were committed there.”
Mrs Korman defended her work, saying: “I wanted to make artwork that creates a fresh interpretation of historical memory.
“It might be disrespectful, but he (Adolk) is saying ‘we're dancing, we should be dancing, we're celebrating our survival and the generations after me’ – the generation he created.
“We are affirming our existence.”
My brother sparked a back-and-forth with an e-mail titled, "Owning it or desecrating it? or both?"
BROTHER: I think in the end, I like the idea of it as an in family project. Not sure I like it as a public art piece (the choreography just wasn't good enough).
JTA EDITOR: It works for me.
FRIEND WHOSE HUSBAND SPENDS TOO MUCH TIME ON HOLOCAUST ISSUES: I was prepared to hate it, but I found myself smiling at the old guy and thinking "owning it." And I think the cheese ball choreography contributes heavily to the owning it side. Anything more accomplished would have been untoward.
Why did it work for me? The clinchers came at 1:10 and 1:38 -- the grandfather's willingness to revel in the most outrageous shots imbues the video with an earnestness that left me feeling OK with it.
That said... I can't shake Cwiok's point -- it's all very nice for the survivor to prance around. But what about respect for the millions who actually died.
Please weigh in.
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I think that the message is strong- he survived, he has children and gradnchildren and being able to revisit the death camps makes a strong statementt hat Hitler did not succeed!. It is a fresh approach and we should appecicte the sentiment it represetns for this family.
My wife and I have a difference of opinion. She’s the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and said that the video moved her to tears.
I thought the video was bizarre, to say the least. Dancing to disco music on the hallowed ground where people were tortured and murdered is just outrageous. Even the choice of song “celebrating” women’s liberation—not Holocaust survival—was inappropriate. Imagine pulling a stunt like that at Yad Vashem, where visitors respectfully speak in solemn whispers. They would have been rightfully booted out.
It works because the family who made this video is Jewish and are survivors… if anyone else had made this video it would have been morally wrong…
The creator of this video is following the bad examples of Roberto Benigni and Quentin Tarantino, who were not being antisemitic but crassly uncomprehending when they capitalized on the topic of Jewish suffering and the Holocaust for the sake of entertainment. I wouldn’t be so similarly harsh in judging a real survivor, but the video offends me as well.
A survivor has a right to celebrate his survival, but not by dancing on the gravesites of others. His doing so sets a bad example for those who didn’t suffer at the site but will now be emboldened to trivialize it without comprehension or real experience of the horror.
I am a child of survivors. The recently published opinion of a prominent “New Jew” pundit notwithstanding, there is no elite status, which he seemed to envy, to be conferred on those who suffered the Holocaust and certainly none on their descendants. All that can be said is that they MAY have some closer awareness of what happened.
Although the survival does merit celebration, the suffering brings no particular nobility or wisdom or taste.
This is awesome! It is a wondrous work of art. This shows that AM YISRAEL CHAI—the Jewish people have endured and live and we celebrate life!!! One narrative that has emerged out of the Shoah is that of sadness and grief. This is another narrative that is also important—survivors of the Holocaust have had children and grandchildren and can return to the camps and proclaim their survival and celebrate their life.
A man who survived the Holocaust and is now back at Auschwitz dancing with his grandchildren as his daughter films them is a beautiful thing. What a message this is to send to anti-Semites and Neo-Nazis. Hitler didn’t live into old age to dance with his grandchildren, but this man and millions of other survivors did!
Amen.
I am more than a little dismayed that even some Jewish “professionals” don’t “get” what’s wrong with this kitsch.
My survivor father now uses a “walker” to get around, so he doesn’t dance much anymore, but he “lights up” when he sees his grandchildren.
I don’t have a problem with the survivor himself, bless him, or even his family, or even the concept of dancing to celebrate that Jews did survive the horrors of Hell to raise new families, etc.
But Gloria Gaynor is singing about an individual relationship, not real survival, and the sites they are dancing on are “gravesites” in a very real sense. Some of us have a firmer grip on reality and decorum.
I could even hear “I Will Survive” sung and danced to and followed by “Am Yisroel Chai” at simkhas where the context is clear. This Youtube video is kitsch for the sake of web hits. It may not even be very original. See
http://www.tabletmag.com/life-and-religion/38292/viral-zionism/
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David
07/13/10 07:52 PM
Sure, these folks could have been just about any Jewish family. The film maker was not afraid to push the boundaries of taste in order to get across a human message of gratitude for survival and hope for something better. I especially liked the segment where the family appeared before a monument where the universal message “Thou shalt not kill” appears prominently. This could have been some sappy political piece festooned with Israeli flags like the Birthright teenagers who overrun such destinations, but it was simply a family—that had survived. Bravo!