By
Joel A. Moskowitz, M.D
Can Jews learn anything about survival by attending a
screening of The Aryan Couple? This film about a family fortunate
enough to escape the Holocaust stars Martin Landau. It was
shown at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival on Sunday, Feb. 12.
The film, said by some to be "third rate" but also winning
awards, raised the issue: how does one survive anti-Semitic killers? Buying them
off is the method this movie portrays. Is this the best or only remedy?
Some may argue that relinquishing the settlements to the Palestinians is a
recent
example of the same strategy. The Aryan Couple says Jews can
escape, if rich enough.
The never ending cycle of persecution of the Jews through the millennia is
rarely a topic heard from the bima or discussed in Temple groups. Perhaps
in not merely reveling in the miracle of the Maccabees and the long-lasting
cruse of oil, or the symbolic pleasure of drowning out the name of Hamen with
noise and enjoying the taste of a confection named after this tyrant, Jews might
become serious. Destruction of Jewish communities is a recurring horror.
What can we learn? It is sufficient to suffer the blows and to survive
until the next tyrant? We all know that there are
many currently who want to play that part.
How did the fictional Krauzenberg family escape? Was it because
Himmler was an "honorable" man? In return for the factories and
art- filled palace of a Hungarian Jewish industrialist, he and his family are
permitted to flee. When it is revealed that the Aryan Couple, who work for him,
are actually Jews, they too are bartered for and achieve freedom. The plot
thus stated would seem a happy one. Yet Director John Daly's opening
remarks at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival repetitively reassured the
audience that they would "like" the outcome. Why was this
necessary? As the drama unfolds we see that jeopardy exists at every
moment. Throughout the movie, sinister nazis torture their Jewish
victims with a sword of Damacles ever hanging over them. Their
persecutors have quixotic temperaments. Facing uncertain death may be the most
barbaric victimization.
The nazis do not shrink from violating the person and the institution of
marriage. In the name of a totalitarian 'right and obligation' to multiply
Aryans, a lecherous SS fiend demands the right to rape the pregnant wife of the
married Aryan Couple..
Nazis make a wicked caricature of civility. Himmler insists on a
command performance dinner where the wealthy Krauzenberg is compelled to
give away his entire estate in return for the promise of freedom and life.
The industrialist must trust this avowed murderer of his fellow Jews.
Is the movie viewer to believe that Himmler is less evil than
Eichmann?. Is it out of Himmler's sensitivities that Eichmann is not to be
a guest at the dinner table but is asked to appear when papers must be signed?
Eichmann the enforcer is the not so veiled threat. Sign or die!
Now that is a standard to shoot for.
The subplot concerns a guard who enjoys greetings from the "Aryan"
wife. The guard too has a wife who is also two months pregnant. When he is
asked to be a participant at the murder of The Aryan Couple, he becomes tearful,
reflects on what waits for him on the Russian Front, and
shoots himself in the head. Are we to infer that this symbolizes that some
Germans were so repelled by the murder of nice people that he took his own life.
Or confronted with the evil and his own uncertain future on the Russian front
does he escape by suicide ?. If this occurred at all, it is doubtful that
it was statistically significant.
Director Daly, in the Q-and-A following the showing, said that American
soldiers during war behaved like some German soldiers did. (Daly also
directed Platoon which was not flattering to American military). Several
offended audience members left. To compare Abu Graib with the
mass killing of six million Jews and millions of others is an irrational
distortion.
This film is thinly based on the negotiations to give the Weiss Manfred Works to
Himmler in exchange for releasing the owners. Research reveals the following:
The Nizkor Project (transcript of testimony in the Eichmann Trial) reveals that
Kurt Becher, who had some knowledge of this
transaction, was assigned to Hungary, not by Himmler, but by the Command
Office of the Waffen SS. His assignment was to procure horses and equipment
for horse-drawn Army vehicles. Becher discovered that a Ferenc
Choren, in custody, could help him obtain the
supplies he was seeking. He had him released and the "amicable"
conversations led to a deal where Choren and the Manfred Weiss family were
allowed to leave Hungary.
About that time, Joel Brand was offering "trucks" for Jews or between
$1-2 million to save the Jews. SS Obersturmbannfurher Becher was 'unable'
to identify Eichmann as intrinsically involved with the bribes to save the Jews.
The Europa Plan, money for Jews, actually began in Slovakia in
1942. Funds could not be raised. The Chronology of the Holocaust at
Vad Hashem reports concludes that a true history has not been confirmed.
There was a "blood for goods" exchange proposed with respect to the
Hungarian Jews but this, too, didn't help many. Director Daly repeatedly
admitted he was not "an expert" in these matters and made the film
because he had a
cache of investors money and the skeleton of a play on this subject, shared an
office with Martin Landau, found that photographic arrangements could be made
more cheaply in Poland, and simply wanted to create a drama. Daly's message
remains his secret.
Irrespective of Daly's motives, the theme of The Aryan Couple
offers an opportunity for Jews to consider their security.
When last did a topic at your Synagogue focus on how to deal with anti-Semitism?
Our few triumphs: the story of the Maccabees or Esther's conquering Haman are
celebrated annually. Post Biblical experience of pogroms, expulsions,
forced conversions, rape, looting and murder of Jewsare seldom mentioned.
A sardonic joke says, "They tried to kill us. We won. Let's
eat."
While it may be true that the United States is the "goldena medina"
for Jews, it is important to remember other countries and regimes were
hospitable to Jews, for a time. Think Spain. Most will agree
thatanti-Semitism is on the rise throughout the world. Muslim hostilities
are
invariably directed against Israel and Jews in general, irrespective of whom or
what they perceive offended them. Jews are the universal punching
bag.
Jews thirst for understanding. When a Pope visits Jewish sites, issues an
apology, instructs the Church to no longer preach Deicide, Jews are elated.
Admittedly, the Vatican's new spirit is welcome. But the historical truth
is that various Popes accepted the Jews, protected them,
and used them as counselors, physicians and financial advisors. With
subsequent Popes, all the gains were reversed and the Jews often found
themselves even further beleaguered than before.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it! Are there
Jewish organizations that have as a primary agenda the teaching of the cyclical
swing of Jewish existence through the ages? Should Rabbis remind their
congregants of how brittle is our survival? Would that frighten Jews to abandon
their religion? Too late, it didn't help in the nazi era.
There are organizations such as the Anti Defamation League which monitor
anti-Jewish sentiment. When offenses are perceived, complaints are made, with
variable success. Needed is an active program to study the dynamics of
anti-Jewish behavior. Cheek turning, sympathetic understanding, ambivalent
inclinations to use all legal restraints encourage the enemy.
The repetitive pattern is familiar. Attack the Jew, the Jew whimpers
and offers a deal to buy peace. These temporary remedies only broadcasts
our weakness.
Israel's affirmative response, while criticized as being too aggressive, is
admired and most of all, respected. Sadly, increasingly many American Jews
see Israel as not their problem. Were there no Israel, it would be a major
problem for all of us in the Diaspora. Jews are not protected by
geography, masquerading as non-Jews or by seeking safe havens. There is
nowhere to flee. Jews need a new strategy. Marveling in the miracle of the
enduring oil of Chanukah or enjoying the satisfying hamantashen won't do it.
Educating our people about our uncertain past is the place to start.
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