Czech Republic – Nazi Film Showcases Theresienstadt as ‘Paradise’ for Inmates

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    Czech Republic – “The Fuehrer Gives the Jews a City” may rank as the oddest film fragment in cinematic history.

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    The 23 minutes of raw, unedited footage is all that has been found of a Nazi propaganda project to prove that the “model” Theresienstadt camp was a veritable paradise for its Jewish inmates.

    Shot in early 1944, when the horrors of Hitler’s Final Solution finally trickled out to the West, the film was part of an effort to hoodwink a visiting International Red Cross delegation that all was productive work and wholesome recreation in Theresienstadt, and by extension in other concentration camps.

    During the day, contented workers shoed horses, made pottery and designed handbags. Children played soccer or gorged themselves on sandwiches. In the evenings, well-dressed men and women attended concerts and lectures.All this to the incongruous background music of Offenbach’s “Gaite Parisienne” or a jazzy “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen.”

    The director of this curiosity was a mountainous Jewish inmate, Kurt Gerron, whose strange story of pride and self-deception is documented in a companion film, “Kurt Gerron’s Karussel (Carousel).”

    Gerron, a native Berliner born Kurt Gerson, was a towering figure both in girth and as a leading impresario in the swinging Berlin cabaret scene of the 1920s.

    He was sent to Auschwitz in October 1944 and killed one day before SS chief Heinrich Himmler gave the order to shut down the gas chambers for good.

    “Karussel” director Ilona Ziok combines footage of Gerron’s halcyon days in Berlin with testimony of surviving Jewish camp prisoners to draw a picture of Gerron as a tragic, self-deluded figure — “a big, strong man with the mind of a child,” in the words of a fellow Theresienstadt prisoner.

    “Kurt Gerron’s Karussel” is available as a DVD, but distribution of “The Fuehrer Gives a City to the Jews” has been sharply limited by the distributor.

    A spokesman for Seventh Art Releasing said the film fragment was available for free, but fearing misuse of the material, he stipulated that it could only be used for educational and scholarly purposes by schools or religious institutions, and had to be clearly labeled as Nazi propaganda.

    Read full article at JTA


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    6 Comments
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    12 years ago

    When I was at university many years ago I saw something like this (it may have been the same film.) Was this footage just discovered or released? Does anyone else recall having seen it 30+ years ago?

    FinVeeNemtMenSeichel
    FinVeeNemtMenSeichel
    12 years ago

    Saw a documentary about Gerron… So sad what ego can do. He had ample opportunity to escape to LA but opted instead to stay in Germany thinking his social status would be his ticket out of ghetto/conc’n camp.

    Mentsh
    Mentsh
    12 years ago

    Some of this is widely known. I discuss Terezin every year with my public school history students when we study World War II and the Holocaust. They are taught to recognize propaganda and analyze how it can shape one’s opinions for better or worse.

    I haven’t seen this particular part of the footage before, but some of this film became quite famous several years ago when it was used in a mainstream American movie called “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.” In that film, the commandant’s son at Auschwitz overhears uproarious laughter in his father’s office. He climbs on a chair, looks into the room, and sees his Nazi father and his associates joking about how fantastically ridiculous this film is. In the movie, they are watching a scene where the children are jumping on stepping-stones and people are eating in a “cafe.” The footage used is real and the film is fantastic.

    Member
    12 years ago

    If you notice in the upper right hand corner of this propeganda film, there seems to be a shadow of what might be a skull. Was this added later to indicate that this film means “death” or was this part of the original cinema demonstration?

    Pereles
    Pereles
    12 years ago

    “Hitler Builds a City for the Jews” was screened at MOMA quite a few years ago along with an exhibit at the Drawing Center (Shoho) of drawings made by Jews at Theresienstadt

    Michael_Lesher
    Michael_Lesher
    12 years ago

    Gerron’s story (including, of course, his work on this piece of propaganda) is well documented in the film “Prisoner of Paradise,” which is (or was) available on hulu.com.