Shoah (Attempt 2)

Second crack at Shoah. I'm not 6 hours, 30 minutes in (3 hours to go!)

The repetition of atrocities is getting to me. If it were the same story over and over, I imagine I'd eventually get bored but the variety of plot and intensity of the stories ensures things never get predictable. The stories are told over footage of reenactment on over-grown ruins. At one point, we re-walk the steps of new arrivals at Auschwitz.

I was particularly struck by one segment following a survivor brought back to his home village. He used to sing on barges piloted by the Germans, so they let him live longer. Of course, they still put a bullet in his head later, but he somehow survived this and therefore the war. He re-enacts his singing on the barges and is later surrounded by Christian Poles as they celebrate the Madonna's birthday. The film maker asks the Poles about a massacre which had happened in the town. He asks them about the quality of the screaming of the victims, about their professions and how long they had to wait, trapped in this very church. The conversation moves on to antisemitism in the general populous and how much gold all the Jews had. The camera tightens in on the survivors face and he is smiling, seemingly untouched by everything around him.

Another memorable scene is recounted by a barber. He recalls cutting the hair of the women in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The film maker mercilessly grills him about his feelings and he finally admits 'look, it was hard to feel anything back then.' Feelings were a luxury that he could not afford. He breaks down as he recounts how one of the other barbers cut the hair of his own wife and sister.

The film maker is merciless not only to the survivors but to the ex-Nazis as well. He aggressively grills the man I thought was an official in the last attempt (it turns out he was a not-very-high-up guard) refusing to believe him when he claims that women were not beaten at his location. He concedes that they were 'undoubtedly' beaten at the mouth of the gas chambers but, he insists, not before!

A deeply depressing film. There is no one scene that I could show in isolation which would convey this awfulness to you. The horror of this film comes from the endless, numbing parade of new information. It's enough to wear down anybody. Not visceral enough to be stomach-turning, it instead works on our ability to meditate on information. Enough.