The Holocaust, the extermination of the Jewish people
Shoah
January 25, 2005
Shoah on DVD:
DVD Zone 2:
http://www.fnac.com/Shelf/article.asp?PRID=1248322&Origin=GOOGLE_VIDEO&OriginClick=yes/
DVD Zone 1:
http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005JM8V/qid=1106499339/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/171-4622482-3311423/ ---
I watched long excerpts of the incredible film made by Lanzmann and titled "Shoah" last night. I didn't know that the film lasted about nine hours. I managed to stay up until five in the morning. At first, I regretted that, given the importance of such a document, which could have enlightened many, it had not been broadcast on one of the channels, in episodes, at a time of high audience. Even by scheduling the recording, it was impossible, unless you stayed awake, to tape a nine-hour film.
I hope that Shoah exists in the form of a series of avi files, downloadable from an Internet site, otherwise it should be put online, given the importance of the document. I would be the first to download these documents, whose memory should keep track of without time limits.
Why is Shoah important to me? Is it regarding the suffering endured by the Jewish people? Is it regarding the excesses committed by the representatives of a group from the German nation, the Nazis? I think it goes much further than that. Shoah allows us to see how far man is capable of going. I believe it is urgent for people to remember this, otherwise they might not perceive similar horrors that are currently being set up, in my humble opinion, and which could surpass what we can see in this film.
Before returning to this theme, what do we see without Lanzmann's documentary? Only first-hand testimonies. Some protagonists are filmed without their knowledge, using a small video camera connected by an antenna to a receiver located in a van parked nearby. Lanzmann does not mix any archival documents, nor even fixed shots. There is no "display." It is all the more powerful. I confess that I have difficulty recovering, not so much from what I saw, because there is not much to see in this film, but from what I heard. We plunge into the monstrous beyond anything imaginable. I will give some examples.
A hairdresser, working in Israel, testifies. He was deported to Auschwitz. There, the camp's administration decided one day to collect the women's hair before they were sent to the gas chamber. There were two reasons for this. With the hair, some manufactured objects could be made, perhaps cushions. But this haircut, before going to the gas chamber, could have the effect of calming those who would undergo this martyrdom a few minutes later. Therefore, seventeen hairdressers operated. They were first brought directly into the gas chamber, where they entered. Their "clients" were sitting on benches. They had no clippers, only combs and scissors. This haircut had to look plausible. They spent two minutes per client, a time that allowed a good professional to produce a presentable haircut.
What constantly emerges from all these testimonies, which we have difficulty imagining, is the "mass execution" aspect. When the gas chamber doors were closed, people were killed in about fifteen minutes, not instantly. Inside the gas chamber, the lights were turned off. The place then became a scene of horrors. People climbed over each other. The children had their skulls crushed. People, instinctively, pressed toward the doors and at the place where the Zyklon B crystals fell, a vacuum was created, where the gas density was highest. Members of a "commando," prisoners temporarily left alive, then recovered the bodies to drag them to the rooms where cremation ovens were installed. Very often, individuals were still alive when the doors were opened and were introduced, half-conscious, into the ovens still alive. A member of these commandos, a survivor, testifies:
*- When we opened the doors, the people fell like a compact mass. They had emptied themselves of everything they contained on the way. They had vomited, urinated, and defecated under themselves. Blood flowed from their noses and mouths. The gas chamber was emptied and cleaned in a few minutes (...) to be ready to serve immediately. At first, we tried to warn the people of what awaited them, although it was strictly forbidden. But we understood that this would only increase their suffering unnecessarily, so when we escorted them, we tried to reassure them with our behavior and words. *
He continues:
- One day, a contingent of thousands of Hungarian deportees arrived at Auschwitz. Surprisingly, instead of being immediately exterminated, they were taken to a separate enclosure, protected by an electrified fence. Families were not separated. They received good food and were treated well. They were only asked to perform work related to their barracks, to maintain and beautify them. They were allowed to write to their families and thus gave good news for six months. But we knew that it had been planned to exterminate the one million Jews living in Hungary. We tried to warn them of what was really happening in the camp and we had great difficulty convincing a man who had become, by his influence, a kind of guide for this community. During an interview that took place forty-eight hours before they were all led to death, we proposed to him to lead a revolt at the moment they would all be led to the gas chambers and we told him that if they revolted, the members of the commandos would join them. He then said that this act seemed difficult to consider to him, because of the children. I told him that in any case, they would have no chance of escaping. He then asked me for an hour to think about it, but when I came back, he had committed suicide with barbiturates. The moment then came when all the people were led to the gas chambers, but unlike others, they knew what was going to happen. The Nazis then displayed an unprecedented violence to lead them there. When I witnessed this scene, I decided that continuing to live had no meaning anymore and I wanted to join them in the gas chamber. But men pushed me out, saying "don't do that. Your death would be useless. Instead, stay alive to testify about what was done to us."
It is learned that at Auschwitz, where up to 6,000 people were exterminated in a single day in the gas chambers, underground chambers that could accommodate up to three thousand people at a time. They were preceded by changing rooms. It is known that the new arrivals were told, convinced that they were being received in a work camp, whose entrance bore the inscription:
Arbeit macht frei
"Work makes free"
were announced "that they were going to be disinfected." In the changing rooms they dev...