Highbrow Magazine - nazis https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/nazis en The Unsettling Banality of Evil in ‘The Zone of Interest’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24497-unsettling-banality-evil-zone-interest <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 03/01/2024 - 08:35</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1zoneofinterest.jpg?itok=vj7SvTg6"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1zoneofinterest.jpg?itok=vj7SvTg6" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">I never thought of myself as Jewish—if anything, I was culturally Jewish. I never practiced Judaism growing up, besides going to Hanukkah and Passover every year to pay respect to my grandparents and my heritage. Yet, the world sees me as Jewish. Maybe it is my last name, my curly hair, my big nose, or my Woody Allen-like mannerism, but my heritage is easy to guess. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Thus, to the world, I’m Jewish. Which means that, as a film critic, I now have a responsibility to seek out movies about the Holocaust and Jewish suffering. Inevitably, family members, friends, or colleagues will ask my thoughts on the film, and if there’s a new movie about the Holocaust, we all know what movie I will be fielding questions about. Sometimes people share anecdotes of how much it moved them, and ask what I thought. Best case, I nod politely and say, “Yeah it’s a harrowing story.” Worst-case scenario, maybe they ask me about how I viewed this film given everything going on in Israel and Palestine (a question far too complicated to explore, especially, as I’m just trying to enjoy my brunch). In reality, I often find myself wanting to respond: “Here we go again, another Holocaust movie.” </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2zoneofinterest.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">That sounds terrible to admit out loud and admittedly is probably politically incorrect of me to say, but it’s  the truth. This is not to say that I believe artists are creatively bankrupt when they choose to tell a story centered around the Holocaust. Far from it. Wonderful filmmakers have broached the subject to great achievements. But for every <em>Schindler’s List, </em>there exists <em>The Reader -- </em>movies that are so shallow in their approach and worldview that they use the backdrop of genocide to elicit tears from viewers, often in the hopes of a successful Academy Award’s FYC campaign. I love Kate Winslet but did she really need to win her Oscar for a movie in which she plays a sympathetic Nazi who falls in love with a teenage Jewish boy? So, when I started hearing critics rave about the Oscar-nominated film, <em>The Zone of Interest</em>, which is centered around a Nazi family trying to build a perfect suburban life, all while living next door to Auschwitz, I must admit I was dreading the experience.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Ninety-nine out of 100 times, <em>The Zone of Interest </em>is a disaster waiting to happen and derail any director’s career. The premise alone is enough to turn off a majority of the audience and leave the remaining viewers apprehensive. I mean, a family drama about Nazis? That’s a tough sell.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Watching the movie, it became clear right away that any apprehension I had was replaced with sheer horror. Not a horror, brought about by discomfort in narrative focus, but rather the director’s truthfulness. Most period pieces try to replicate an aesthetic, but Glazer wisely chooses to replicate an atmosphere. In this world, the sound of a train signifies the loss of hope and the air one breathes consists of the ashes of the dead. Glazer forces the audience to experience Hell on Earth, and in doing so reveals a horrifying reality: If one lives in Hell long enough, one becomes indifferent to Hell.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3zoneofinterest.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The film follows Rudolf and Hedwig Höss, a married couple with five children who live their idyllic middle- class suburban fantasy full of laughter and love in a beautiful home, with a picture-perfect backyard. A good father, Rudolf takes the kids on outdoor activities like swimming and fishing, while Hedwig stays at home and tends to the garden and prepares the meals. All the while, in this wonderful dream home that borders the wall of Auschwitz concentration camp, the sounds of gunshots, screams, trains, and furnaces serve as white noise for Rudolph, the Nazi commander, and his family. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Technically speaking, little happens within Glazer’s story, besides Rudolph working on a new crematorium, which he believes will increase productivity, all while trying to get a promotion to better support his family. Yet, the film rarely speaks about the intent of the crematorium. In fact, any variation of the word “Jewish” is missing from the character’s vocabulary. Rather, the language of genocide becomes statistical, so as to best increase efficiency, and in doing so, strip the prisoners of identity.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Everyone knows the feeling of hatred and being hated. It is a human emotion; thus, when Jonathan Glazer strips hate from the Nazi’s motivation, something feels disconcerting. Bigotry is easy to grasp. Racism comes from a place of stupidity. In <em>The Zone of Interest, </em>I never was under the impression that these Nazis hated Jews. I’m sure they did, but propaganda, offensive stereotypes, and bitterness never seemed to drive these characters. Rather, their appearance was that of indifference— indifference to suffering, indifference to humanity, indifference to the lives of Jewish people. In the eyes of the Höss family, they simply did not exist.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4zoneofinterest.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Watching the movie, I was waiting for an angry outburst from Rudolf and Hedwig where they parrot Hitler’s rhetoric, lies, and propaganda. It would have come as such a relief because I could compartmentalize their hatred and understand it as stupidity. Yet that outburst never comes to fruition, leaving me distraught. I had no answers as to how and why this family could lack passion in the killing of my people. Simply put, how could someone be a part of genocide of this magnitude without being overtly, comically, over-the-top racist? Hitler was a screaming maniac. Joseph Mengele, a mad scientist. Heinrich Himmler was a calculated, cold, military leader. In <em>The Zone of Interest, </em>Rudolf and Hedwig seem normal. They could be my neighbors, and I would never think twice about them. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">What differentiates <em>The Zone of Interest </em>from other lesser films centered around the Holocaust is its refusal to engage in the tropes. The atrocities of the Nazis are so inhumane that filmmakers humanize these characters. Whether it is Winslet in <em>The Reader</em> falling in love with a boy, all while “accidentally” committing genocide due to her inability to read, or Tom Cruise in <em>Valkyrie </em>playing a real- life German soldier who conspired to kill Hitler. Even films that I love, such as Taika Waititi’s <em>Jojo Rabbit, </em>portray Sam Rockwell’s character, a Nazi officer disheartened by Hitler’s war. These portrayals of Nazis signify a belief in the artist that some form of humanity must have existed within some of those committing war crimes. After all, 8.5 million people were deemed members of the Nazi Party in 1945. They couldn’t <em>all</em> be perpetrators of genocide, could they?</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5zoneofinterest.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The brilliance of Glazer’s direction and screenplay is its refusal to answer this question. We want to believe that the cruelty humans inflict on each other is explainable. Instead, <em>The Zone of Interest </em>forces audiences to sit with the psychological torment that evil is often inexplicable. Jewish people know this reality to be true. In some way or another, every Jewish person has some connection to the Holocaust. It’s unavoidable. Even if we didn’t lose relatives, our Jewish identity makes us synonymous with the 6 million Jews killed between 1941-1945. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">I myself have heard countless times the concept of “the banality of evil” in my studies of the Holocaust. However, to understand is not the same as to accept. Maybe it was my naivete. Maybe deep down, I wished the truth to not be as simple as indifference towards my existence and the existence of my ancestors was the reason for the death of 6 million-plus people. To see it played out on screen was horrifying. I wept the entire runtime. I wept for the lives lost in the Holocaust. I wept in horror of the inhumanity on display. I wept in mourning to my Jewish identity that I may never fully understand.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Ben Friedman is a freelance film journalist and a contributing writer at </em>Highbrow Magazine<em>. For more of his reviews, visit bentothemovies.com, his podcast Ben and Bran See a Movie, or follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube: The Beniverse.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/zone-interest-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the zone of interest</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/oscars" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oscars</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/oscar-nominated-films-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">oscar-nominated films</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/world-war-ii" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">world war II</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nazis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nazis</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hitler" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hitler</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/holocaust-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the holocaust</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/films-about-nazis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">films about nazis</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/banality-evil" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the banality of evil</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/foreign-films" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">foreign films</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/holocaust-movies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">holocaust movies</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Ben Friedman</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-videos field-type-video-embed-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <div class="embedded-video"> <div class="player"> <iframe class="" width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/r-vfg3KkV54?width%3D640%26amp%3Bheight%3D360%26amp%3Bautoplay%3D0%26amp%3Bvq%3Dlarge%26amp%3Brel%3D0%26amp%3Bcontrols%3D1%26amp%3Bautohide%3D2%26amp%3Bshowinfo%3D1%26amp%3Bmodestbranding%3D0%26amp%3Btheme%3Ddark%26amp%3Biv_load_policy%3D1%26amp%3Bwmode%3Dopaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> </div> </div></div></div> Fri, 01 Mar 2024 13:35:15 +0000 tara 13071 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24497-unsettling-banality-evil-zone-interest#comments Burkhard Bilger’s Discovery of a War Criminal in the Family in ‘Fatherland’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24200-burkhard-bilger-s-discovery-war-criminal-family-fatherland <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/books-fiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Books &amp; Fiction</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 11/29/2023 - 13:23</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2nazicriminals.jpg?itok=FZxXbF2J"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/2nazicriminals.jpg?itok=FZxXbF2J" width="480" height="332" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Consciences, and Family Secrets</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>By Burkhard Bilger</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Random House </strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>314 pages</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“I was twenty-eight years old when my mother first told me that her father had been imprisoned as a war criminal.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">So Burkhard Bilger, a staff writer for <em>The New Yorker</em>, tells us in the early pages of his new memoir, <em>Fatherland. </em>Bilger’s maternal grandfather, Karl Gönner, served as a school principal, responsible for “re-educating” local children on behalf of the Third Reich. He was later named Nazi Party chief in the French province of Alsace, a region between France and Germany hotly disputed for centuries.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Some inhabitants of the border town of Bartenheim recalled Gönner as a man who intervened on behalf of villagers, saving them from Nazi persecution. But when the war ended, he stood accused of ordering the murder of a local man. (Gönner was eventually acquitted of this charge, though suspicions lingered.)</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Many years after learning about his grandfather, Bilger decides the time has come to get at the truth buried in the past. He travels to the region, conducting both archival research and interviews with a few remaining survivors. This prompts ruminations on the nature of memory and the past:</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1nazicriminals.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“The further events recede from view, the more we flatten and simplify them in our minds, till history is just a series of cautionary tales: crime and punishment, heroes and villains.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The opening chapters of <em>Fatherland </em>proceed at a leisurely pace. In a lengthy genealogical preamble, we learn in some detail about Bilger’s extended family and their upbringing before, during, and after the Nazis took power. There are long stretches about his grandfather’s personal history, most importantly his military service in the First World War. This seems notable mainly for cataloguing the severe injuries he sustained in combat; less compelling are authorial digressions such as a description of the all-Black 369<sup>th</sup> Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army, known as the Harlem Hellfighters. Why this material is included is hard to say. We get more than a third of the way into <em>Fatherland </em>before delving into the Nazi years.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Soon after the liberation of France, Karl Gönner (called “Karl” throughout the book) was charged with ordering the execution of a villager aligned with the Resistance. A series of investigations followed, leading—many years later—to Karl’s official exoneration (though even that label was later rescinded by a German investigative committee, noting tersely “the above facts do not suffice to classify [Karl Gönner] as exonerated.”)</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The horrors of the Second World War lived on for years. In the 1950s, German children enjoyed romping in long-vacated tunnels behind a church:</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3nazicriminals.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“Scampering through them after school, they found old rifles and bayonets, spades, human skulls, and unexploded shells … Old tanks became truck chassis, bayonets became screwdrivers, rifle barrels became garden stakes for tomato plants.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">At one point, Bilger happens upon a boisterous oom-pah band in the town of Aulfingen—“a few hundred half-drunk Germans” celebrating a crafts and music fair. This happy crowd, he writes, is “unconcerned by history,” caring little, it seems, that “Hitler and Goebbels reveled in the same country garb.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Near the end of this somber, thoughtful memoir, the author makes an uneasy peace with his grandfather’s legacy. We find ourselves in difficult times, he concludes, all too eager to pass judgment on others and “fix” the past. “But the guilt that drives us can reach beyond penance or restitution to a conviction that something in us, or in our culture, is broken beyond repair. That our history is irredeemable.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">To his credit, Burkhard Bilger immediately adds, “I have never believed that.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Lee Polevoi</em>, Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief book critic</em>, <em>is the author of a new novel, </em></strong><a href="https://www.leepolevoi.com/press" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong>The Confessions of Gabriel Ash</strong></a><strong>.</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong> Photo credits:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Bundesarchiv, Bild 119-0289 / Unknown author (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_119-0289,_M%C3%BCnchen,_Hitler_bei_Einweihung_%22Braunes_Haus%22.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>-- Unknown author (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nazis_beim_Sch%C3%A4ferlauf_AGD.jpg" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Wikimedia</a>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Random House</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/burkhard-bilger" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">burkhard bilger</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fatherland" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">fatherland</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new books</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-criminals" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war criminals</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nazis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nazis</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/war-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">war books</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/historical-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">historical books</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nonfiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nonfiction</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lee Polevoi</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 29 Nov 2023 18:23:18 +0000 tara 12818 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/24200-burkhard-bilger-s-discovery-war-criminal-family-fatherland#comments An Eerie Plot and Hyperrealistic Narrative Dominate Thriller ‘Six Minutes to Midnight’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12008-eerie-plot-and-hyperrealistic-narrative-dominate-thriller-six-minutes-midnight <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 04/04/2021 - 16:39</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1sixminutes.jpg?itok=Whi-F5bX"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1sixminutes.jpg?itok=Whi-F5bX" width="480" height="289" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>A peculiar, little-known episode that preceded World War II has offered a springboard of sorts for <em>Six Minutes to Midnight</em>, a new film starring and co-written by the legendary comedian Eddie Izzard.</p> <p> </p> <p>For a period in the 1930s, there was a finishing school in South East England for the daughters of high-ranking Nazi officials. The girls were given lessons in English, tennis, customs, and proper behavior and manners. The school ceased operating in September 1939 — days before Hitler invaded Poland. </p> <p> </p> <p>One can understand the appeal of the school’s setting for a film. Izzard, who grew up in the town where the school existed, reportedly spent years researching the school before devising a story with the Welsh actor and writer Celyn Jones. Director Andy Goddard (<em>Downton Abbey, Doctor Who</em>) collaborated with them on the screenplay.</p> <p> </p> <p>This isolated historical event presents a challenge. If one were inclined to take a hyperrealistic approach to the narrative, you wouldn’t have much to work with because it’s essentially a snapshot of a finishing school. The wild twist is the fact that they’re young Nazis in training, poised to join English society and, perhaps, normalize their government-enforced ideology upon the young Englishmen they’re bound to marry. But that would require a “what if…” alternative history scenario, which doesn’t seem aesthetically ideal. The other possibility is simply showing the culture clash in the school: English educators struggling to contend with German teenage girls beholden to the Nazi Party.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2sixminutes.jpg" style="height:444px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>There’s not really a story there. Yet, Izzard and his collaborators seemingly couldn’t shake off the shock of the alliance. How, for a brief period, did there exist a school with an insignia that features the German imperial flag, the UK flag, and a Swastika?</p> <p> </p> <p>Without a conceivable enticing excuse for depicting the world of this bizarre moment in time, the screenwriters opted to wrap a third-rate spy thriller around the main setting. Izzard plays an instructor who’s hired by the headmistress (Judi Dench) for a trial period. Alliances and counteralliances reveal themselves predictably until we arrive at a murky, maybe even implausible, climax that tosses out a few hifalutin CGI fireworks.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is a paint-by-numbers British Spy Thriller, and the setting isn’t enough to make the narrative singular. Dramatically useful information is coyly withheld for the sake of unsurprising reveals. Overall, it’s a strangely mundane movie — stoic, stodgy, straightlaced, and humorless. That’s not to suggest that the film should be a madcap, absurdist laugh riot (like <em>Jojo Rabbit</em> or <em>The Producers</em>). But some sense of originality — beyond that strange albeit authentic setting — is critical.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3sixminutes.jpg" style="height:443px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>It’s worth mentioning that <em>Six Minutes to Midnight</em> (a rather outdated reference to the Doomsday Clock, if today’s moviegoers even know what that is) has a few unintentional laughs. It’s tough not to giggle when Jim Broadbent, when threatened with being scalded by the contents of a squealing tea kettle, says, with the kind of conviction that only a master craftsman can muster, “I’m not a bloody traitor. He’s half German, half English. I helped the English half of ‘im.” Broadbent, bravo. Screenplay, facepalm. Small wonders of ill-conceived dialogue will keep the sleepy viewer alert. Lines like “I believe the word you’re looking for…is ‘danke’” are a highlight amidst the drab color palette and the TV-style efficiency of the cinematography. Judi Dench’s flawless diction is always a treat, even when the lines are flavorless.</p> <p> </p> <p>A final disappointment is the insufficient use of Izzard. He has a unique screen presence that deserves juicer roles. There’s something puckish and imperceptibly playful behind his eyes. His expressions tell a story. He has pathos, and that invaluable quality is hindered in the feeble story of the movie.</p> <p><strong><em>Six Minutes to Midnight was featured as part of the </em></strong><a href="https://www.cinequest.org/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><strong><em>Cinequest Film Festival</em></strong></a><strong><em>.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Christopher Karr is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/six-minutes-midnight" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Six Minutes to Midnight</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eddie-izzard" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Eddie Izzard</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/judi-dench" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">judi dench</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jim-broadbent" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Jim Broadbent</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-films" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new films</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cinequest-film-fest" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">cinequest film fest</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nazis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nazis</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/world-war-ii" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">world war II</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/finishing-schools" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">finishing schools</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/wartime" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">wartime</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Christopher Karr</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 04 Apr 2021 20:39:18 +0000 tara 10253 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/12008-eerie-plot-and-hyperrealistic-narrative-dominate-thriller-six-minutes-midnight#comments ‘German Doctor’ Sheds Light on Nazi Atrocities and Josef Mengele’s Life After WWII https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4344-german-doctor-sheds-light-nazi-atrocities-and-josef-mengele-s-life-after-wwii <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 10/06/2014 - 14:31</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1germandoctor.jpg?itok=x848V2VL"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1germandoctor.jpg?itok=x848V2VL" width="480" height="310" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>“The German Doctor”</strong></p> <p><strong>3 out of 4 stars</strong></p> <p><strong>Rated PG</strong></p> <p><strong>Samuel Goldwyn Films</strong></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Hundreds of senior Nazi officials fled to South America following WWII, including most famously Adolf Eichmann and Dr. Josef Mengele.</p> <p> </p> <p>They escaped the clutches of Allied Forces and certain death by handing or life in prison and were able to easily assimilate into the large (and largely sympathetic) German populations in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.</p> <p> </p> <p>“The German Doctor,” an adaption by Argentine Lucia Puenzo of her own novel, “Wakolda,” tells the fictionalized story of Josef Mengale, the former German SS officer and so-called “Angel of Death” of the Auschwitz concentration camp, of his years in hiding in Argentina.</p> <p> </p> <p>The film is set in 1960 in a Patagonian enclave of expatriate Germans and centers on the mutual fascination between Mengele (Àlex Brendemühl), who calls himself Helmut Gregor, and Lilith (Florencia Bado), the daughter of an Argentinian couple in whose guesthouse Helmut decides to rent a room.</p> <p> </p> <p>The true identify of Gregor isn’t revealed until the end of the film, but it takes only a cursory knowledge of WWII history and Mengele for us to figure out not long into the movie who he really is.</p> <p> </p> <p>It is with that knowledge that we watch uneasily as Gregor insinuates himself with the unsuspecting family in the hopes of continuing his various genetic experiments.</p> <p> </p> <p>The family’s daughter, 12-year-old Lilith, narrates the film, which is a cross between a coming-of-age drama and a twist on an often-told historic documentary drama.</p> <p> </p> <p>Lilith, eager to end the teasing of her Germanic-looking classmates who call her dwarf, submits herself to the Gregor’s growth hormone shots. Her fascination in the handsome German smacks of an adolescent crush, which is exploited by the knowing doctor toward his own end.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2germandoctor.jpg" style="height:469px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>At the same time, Gregor begins treating the family’s matriarch, Eva, who is pregnant with twins—a subject Mengele was focused on during his time at Auschwitz.</p> <p> </p> <p>Eventually, the father Enzo (Diego Peretti) becomes suspicious of Gregor’s intentions, as does the town’s photographer, Nora Eldoc (Elena Roger).</p> <p> </p> <p>Aside from Gregor (Mengele), Nora is the only other character in the film that is real:  she’s the Israeli Mossad agent who was known to be hunting him.</p> <p> </p> <p>Surprisingly, the “German Doctor” doesn’t climax with a big bang given the film’s subject matter. It ends rather as one would expect it to.</p> <p> </p> <p>The film, Argentina’s selection for the foreign language category at this year’s Academy Awards, is chockfull of well-thought out Nazi symbolism and does a solid job conveying in a subtle way the unremitting perversions that were part and parcel of Mengele’s genetic experiments at Auschwitz.</p> <p> </p> <p>The actors all do a superb job of playing unsuspecting, knowing, or conniving, depending on their role in the film.</p> <p> </p> <p>Overall, “The German Doctor” doesn’t break new ground, but is a well-made, well-acted film covering a topic that has not been told too many times given the seemingly never-ending interest in Nazi Germany and Nazis, nor should be given the evils that were unleashed.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Author Bio:</em></strong></p> <p><br /> <strong><em>Mark Goebel is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/german-doctor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the german doctor</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/josef-mengele" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">josef mengele</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nazis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nazis</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nazi-germany" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nazi germany</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/adolf-hitler" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">adolf hitler</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/movies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Movies</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/independent-films" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">independent films</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/foreign-films" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">foreign films</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mark Goebel</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 06 Oct 2014 18:31:55 +0000 tara 5268 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4344-german-doctor-sheds-light-nazi-atrocities-and-josef-mengele-s-life-after-wwii#comments At the Neue Galerie, A Look Back at Hitler’s ‘Degenerate Art’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4039-neue-gallerie-look-back-hitler-s-degenerate-art <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 06/05/2014 - 10:28</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1degenerate--Ernst%20Ludwig%20Kirchner%2C%20A%20Group%20of%20Artists%2C%201925-26.jpg?itok=6YHIMgHf"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1degenerate--Ernst%20Ludwig%20Kirchner%2C%20A%20Group%20of%20Artists%2C%201925-26.jpg?itok=6YHIMgHf" width="357" height="480" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>If it’s true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the beholder happened to be Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich henchmen, then the likes of Kandinsky, Kirchner, Kokoschka, and Klee (and that’s just the early 20<sup>th</sup> Century artistic giants whose names start with “K”) were in big trouble.  By the time the Nazi campaign to purge the world of modernist art ended, some 20,000 pieces were confiscated, hidden, sold, or destroyed.  Some survived, and for those of us fortunate enough to visit New York City’s Neue Galerie where “Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937” is on display, we can celebrate this moving and unforgettable exhibit.</p> <p>Housed in one of the most elegant mansions on Fifth Avenue, the Neue Galerie’s home was built in 1914 by the firm of Carrere &amp; Hastings, which also designed the New York Public Library.  Once acquired by Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III, it was purchased in 1994 by art collector Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky to showcase an expansive collection of German and Austrian art.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2degenerate--Lasar%20Segall%2C%20Eternal%20Wanderers%2C%201919.jpg" style="height:466px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>An integral part of the exhibit centers on the “Entartete Kunst” (Degenerate Art) show which debuted in Munich in 1937.  Fortunately, a number of examples first shown in Munich make an appearance here.  Max Beckmann’s <em>Cattle in a Barn</em> (1933) and Oskar Kokoschka’s <em>Poster with Self-Portrait </em>(1910) among many others take a bow. No art movement was spared—Expressionism, Surrealism, Cubism, and Dadaism—they were all part of Hitler’s attempt to implicate the works and their creators as inferior and beneath contempt.  Whether the public attended out of cultural curiosity or simply a puerile interest in what “degenerate” implied, the traveling exhibition was a hit.</p> <p>As chancellor, Hitler had inaugurated his own museum for German art in Munich only the day before.  As Holland Cotter in his <em>New York Times</em> review of March 14<sup>th</sup> noted, “most of the art was locked into uplift-intensive academic styles of an earlier time” and “even Hitler seemed disappointed with the result.”  Obviously, the government-sponsored “Entarte Kunst” show was mounted to convince the ordinary citizen the difference between “good” and “evil” art in no uncertain terms.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3degenerate--Ernst%20Barlach%2C%20The%20Berserker%2C%201910.jpg" style="height:563px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>As the visitor ascends the magnificent spiral staircase of the landmark mansion to the third floor, a giant black and white photo mural of the exterior of the Haus der Kunst in Berlin greets the eye, its hordes waiting to get a glimpse of the infamous exhibit. Navigating the narrow hallway to the main show room, one is struck by contrasts—on one side is a photomural detailing a lineup of arriving Jews at the Auschwitz-Burkenau train stop.  On the facing wall, yet another mural pops up of visitors lined up to view the 1937 exhibit.  It’s not such a stretch to see that the vilification of modern art was only a few heartbeats away from the vilification of human beings, in other words, the Final Solution.   </p> <p>The same hallway boasts a timeline of the Nazis’ confiscation and plunder of art, along with posters meant to unify the German war effort.  Utilizing a black, red and white color scheme, their geometric shapes are reminiscent of early Russian poster art and warrant more than a cursory inspection. (The amount of information to digest throughout, along with the artworks, is reason enough to make an early visit, as the lines to get in seem often on a par with the original opening exhibit of 77 years ago.)</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4degenerate--Oskar%20Kokoschka%2C%20Self-Portrait%20for%20Der%20Sturm%2C%201910.jpg" style="height:625px; width:423px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The choice to highlight the contrasts between the Third Reich’s classicism and the rejected examples of everything outside its ideal is an excellent one.  The shock of seeing the two sensibilities, split in half in the first central room, is almost palpable.  The chief example is Max Beckmann’s triptych, <em>Departure</em> (1933-35) which details subjugation and torture on the side panels and a mysterious band of allegorical figures departing in an open boat in the center.  It’s a powerful piece, leaving it up to the onlooker to decipher the deeper meaning.  On the left, Adolf Ziegler’s <em>The Four Elements</em> gives us a triptych of four Aryan-appearing female nudes, representing fire, earth and water in the center panel, and air in the third.  They fit the academic model but are a bit lackluster, for example, if compared to the radiance of a Botticelli Venus. </p> <p>It’s worth noting that Hitler initially put Ziegler in charge of the purging of major museums throughout Germany, under the auspices of his minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.  <em>The Four Elements </em>must have worked its spell on the Fuhrer, because it hung over his own fireplace. Nevertheless, even Ziegler fell out of favor, eventually retiring after being sent to Dachau.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/5degenerate--Max%20Beckmann%2C%20Departure%2C%201932-35.jpg" style="height:431px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Near the Ziegler triptych, “DeCathlete” (1936), a neo-classical male nude by Richard Scheibe predominates, majestic in form but the pose as impersonal as an Egyptian tomb guard.  Conversely, Karel Niestrath’s “Hungry Girl “(1925) in bronze on the opposing side, presents a young woman with ribs showing, a touching vulnerability suggested in her stance with the toe from one foot overlapping the other.  Another bronze, “The Berserker” (1910), by Ernst Barlach portrays an angry man, twisting in his robes in a Samurai-like fashion.  The Barlach sculpture and Ewald Matare’s “Lurking Cat” (1928)—as abstractly sleek as a Brancusi bronze—make it clear that there is room for greatness in all styles of artistic expression. </p> <p>The Bauhaus school, whose artists and architects were forced out of Dessau as early as 1931, reopened in Berlin but was closed two years later.  The clean futuristic line of their buildings if not “degenerate” was obviously anathema to the National Socialist party vision.  Thankfully, many of them were prescient enough to leave the country for acceptance elsewhere.  Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and his Die Brucke (The Bridge) colleagues—Otto Mueller, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff—are represented in a large group painting from 1925-26.  They’re an impressive lot--looking as successful as a quartet of Dresden bankers, as yet unaware of the nightmares to come.  Kirchner would die of a self-inflicted bullet wound in 1938.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/6degenerate--Adolf%20Ziegler%2C%20The%20Four%20Elements%2C%201937.jpg" style="height:383px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>It is in this Dresden room of the exhibit where Kirchner’s group portrait, along with all but one of the Brucke paintings that were included in the Entartete Kunst exhibit, can be found.  Each commands attention and close inspection.  A few standouts include Schmidt-Rottluff’s <em>Pharisees </em>(1912), a frightful band of figures jutting out at the viewer like a dark creation from the Brothers Grimm, and not to be missed, <em>The Life of Christ</em> (1918), a profanely satirical portfolio of woodcuts.  Another gripping work is Lasar Segall’s <em>Eternal Wanderers</em> (1919), appearing like giant totems of despair.  Paul Klee’s childlike apparitions are well represented, as is a surprisingly simple and lovely landscape by Kirchner entitled <em>Winter Landscape in Moonlight</em> (1919). Photomurals are once again evident—on one end wall an aerial view of bombed-out Dresden from 1945 and on the other the same medieval city, intact from a few years earlier. </p> <p>Lest we forget the master works that are lost to us, several empty frames are hung in a first floor gallery to remind us of their absence.  Also on view is a meticulously typed inventory of art works that passed through Nazi hands, on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum and several self-portraits that suggest in their renderings the devastation many of them faced, along with the destruction of their works. </p> <p>The theft and obliteration of so much art from the period has captured the public imagination for a number of years.  Films such as John Frankenheimer’s <em>The Train</em> from 1964 and George Clooney’s recent directorial offering, <em>The Monumens Men</em>, have put the whole business front and center for public enlightenment.  More importantly, the German government’s confiscation in 2012 of 1,280 paintings and drawings from the Munich home of Cornelius Gurlitt has had a huge impact on the art world at large.  Three hundred works collected from that raid were originally part of the 1937 Munich exhibit.</p> <p>For any reader curious to know more, it’s a fascinating story of one family’s obsession with art.  Hildebrand Gurlitt, Cornelius’ father, was one of four art dealers allowed by the Nazis to buy and sell those works considered degenerate, some considerable part of them still in the custody of the German government.  Cornelius Gurlitt passed away at 81 in early May of this year, with no known heirs.  The trove of art treasures unearthed make the mind almost reel in disbelief—Matisse, Picasso, Chagall, Kandinsky—the list goes on.  Many are still in Gurlitt’s possession and many more subject to claims of restitution. </p> <p>To explore the passions and imperfections of humankind in all its manifestations as these artists under attack did is a worthy goal, but one that was unacceptable to the Nazi ideology.  There can be a hollowness and danger at the core of ideals for the sake of ideals alone, and it is this theme that is so conscientiously executed in the exhibit.  Thanks are due to board member and art historian Dr. Olaf Peters, who not only impeccably organized the show but edited the accompanying  publication.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937</strong> <em>will be on exhibit until June 30, 2014.  The Neue Galerie, a Museum for German and Austrian Art, is located at 1048 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028 (212) 628-2800.</em></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Photos</strong>:  1. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, A Group of Artists, 1925-26; 2. Lasar Segall, Eternal Wanderers, 1919; 3. Ernst Barlach, The Berserker, 1910; 4. Oskar Kokoschka, Self-Portrait for Der Sturm, 1910;  5. Max Beckmann, Departure, 1932-35; 6. Adolf Ziegler, The Four Elements, 1937.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Sandra Bertrand is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>Chief Art Critic.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/adolf-hitler" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">adolf hitler</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/degenerate-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">degenerate art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nazis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nazis</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/world-war-11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">world war 11</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">artists</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/kandinsky" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">kandinsky</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/kirchner" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">kirchner</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/klee" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">klee</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/german-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">german artists</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jewish-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jewish artists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/modern-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">modern art</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/neue-gallerie" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">neue gallerie</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new york</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 05 Jun 2014 14:28:00 +0000 tara 4795 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4039-neue-gallerie-look-back-hitler-s-degenerate-art#comments Mind Your Language: The Danger of Inaccurate Comparisons https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3872-mind-your-language-danger-inaccurate-comparisons <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 10:29</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1obamaposter.jpg?itok=Avr3odwi"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1obamaposter.jpg?itok=Avr3odwi" width="480" height="447" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>Imagine this:  It is October of 2010 and you and a few friends decide to take a weekend trip up to Montreal.   You board the Amtrak train at Pennsylvania Station in New York City and take a trip north, admiring the reds, oranges and yellows of the changing foliage.  You arrive in Montreal in the evening, check into your quaint bed and breakfast, and grab a quick bite, hoping that the earlier you get to sleep the sooner morning will come</p> <p> </p> <p>In the midst of Montreal’s cobblestone streets and colonial mansions is a small, wooden, fold-up table upon which sits the now iconic Shepard Fairey image of Barack Obama.  It does not take long for you and your friends to realize there is something odd about this particular incarnation of the poster because there, just above President Barack Obama’s upper lip is a toothbrush mustache worn, most infamously, by Adolph Hitler.  There you stand, all three of you American, two Jewish, staring blankly at an image of your president adorned with the facial hair of the orchestrator of arguably the largest genocide in recorded history.  Of course, this could have happened anywhere that the Worldwide LaRouche Youth Movement is active considering its obsession with the Hitler/Obama mash-up.  The image has turned up in New York City, Indiana, Virginia and beyond.  Even still, the imagery is problematic and leaves a person wondering:  Do these people even know what Hitler was responsible for?  And to go one step further, does this misuse of images and, by extension, words take away from the real significance of them?  Should the state have a role in controlling the trivialization of certain references?</p> <p> </p> <p>One can only assume that those responsible for the distribution of this questionable image know exactly what Hitler is infamous for.  They use this image as a way to stir up controversy, to prove a point. But what is the point, exactly?  <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/15/obama-hitler-billboard-indiana_n_4101322.html">According to one LaRouchePac member named Ian Overton</a>, “He has earned his mustache.  It’s not a gas chamber but it’s an economic policy.  It’s the same effect.  If you’re dead, you’re dead.”  The thing is that an economic policy does not have the same effect as the Holocaust.  The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum defines the Holocaust as “the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.”  <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/remember/the-holocaust-survivors-and-victims-resource-center/survivors-and-victims">The Museum also remembers the millions of non-Jewish individuals</a> who suffered and died under Nazi rule including, but not limited to, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Poles, Roma and Sinti, persons with disabilities, Blacks, and Soviet prisoners of war.  The Holocaust was a highly organized, highly centralized effort to rid the world of huge swaths of the population in order to create a “superior” Aryan race.  It was, in fact, a genocide, a word coined by Raphael Lemkin in his study on the occupation of Europe by the Axis states. </p> <p> </p> <p>This might seem an unnecessary history lesson but that is not the case.  Images, and the words that oftentimes accompany them, have a tendency to take on lives of their own.  The mustache sported so famously by Hitler represents many things.  It represents fear, violence, extermination, destruction, hate.  The very fact that someone would use an image as loaded as that of Hitler to make a statement about an economic policy is irresponsible.  That being said, the policies born from economic theories have had huge impacts on the lives of millions upon millions of people.  One need look no further than the former <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/11/economist-explains-16">“banana republics” in Central America</a> or the streets of American cities such as <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2014/01/why-detroit-struggling-so-much-more-other-cities/8232/">Detroit</a> and New Orleans to see the results of economic policies gone wrong.  Sadly, people have suffered and died as a result of such policies.  But the purpose of the policies themselves was not to kill.  That distinction, in this case, is important. </p> <p> </p> <p>Although one can potentially make the argument that economic policies under recent American presidential administrations have inflicted adverse living conditions upon groups of people resulting in a perceived threat of physical destruction of that group, the purpose of the policy in and of itself was not to cause such harm.  Are these policies immoral?  Perhaps.  But the real question is: Are they genocidal?  The obvious answer is that they are not because they do not meet the criteria of genocide under accepted international legal norms. </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1thirdreich%20%28wiki%29.jpg" style="height:418px; width:625px" /></p> <p>Overton went even further than simply holding up the sign.  He drew the comparison out further by making reference to gas chambers, one of the main methods of mass killing used during the Holocaust.  As attention-grabbing as the comparison might be, a gas chamber and an economic policy are not the same thing.  The creation of a transportation system designed solely to shuttle people to camps within which they were to be tortured, starved, gassed and worked to death is different from a set of economic policies that oftentimes have incredibly adverse effects on the people who are forced to live under them. </p> <p> </p> <p>Ian Overton and the Worldwide LaRouche Youth Movement are not the only ones to make comparisons between President Barack Obama and Adolph Hitler.  A Republican State Representative of Arizona, Brenda Barton, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/brenda-barton-arizona-fuhrer_n_4059965.html?utm_hp_ref=politics">took to her Facebook page in October, 2013</a> and said “Someone is paying the National Park Service thugs overtime for their efforts to carry out the order of De Führer…” Try to ignore the obvious racial tones of this particular post.  Although the literal translation of the word “führer” in German is leader, it is commonly associated with Adolph Hitler, a fact Rep. Barton was undoubtedly aware of when she made the comment.  To invoke the reputation of Hitler when talking about the closing of national parks was callous and irresponsible.  The irresponsible overuse of comparisons to Adolph Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust do not make a point more valid or effective, they simply have the effect of undermining the significance of the events themselves.</p> <p> </p> <p>This was a point Israel tried to make when, this past January, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/world/middleeast/israels-efforts-to-limit-use-of-holocaust-terms-raise-free-speech-questions.html?_r=0">members of the Parliament proposed a law banning non-educational use of the word Nazi</a>, or any other slur or symbol associate with the Third Reich.  The penalty for breaking this law was suggested as a fine of up to $29,000 and as many as six months in jail.  The proposal was met with mixed reviews.  The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/world/middleeast/israels-efforts-to-limit-use-of-holocaust-terms-raise-free-speech-questions.html?_r=0">January 15, 2014 <em>New York Times</em></a> article on the subject quoted one of the backers of the law, Shimon Ohayon, as saying “We have to be the leader of this battle, of this struggle, in order to encourage other countries…We, in our land, can find enough words and expressions and idioms to express our opinions.  What I’m asking is, please put away this special situation that has to do with our history.”  On the other side of the debate are many people, including those with connections to the Holocaust, who say this is a clear infringement on the right to free speech and that enforcement of such a law would be simply impossible.  A better approach, according to Avner Shalev, the director of the Holocaust museum and memorial Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, would be through an educational process and lively public debate which could help people realize the impacts of their use of such hurtful and loaded terms and images.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1knesset%20%28Google%20Images%29.jpg" style="height:377px; width:620px" /></p> <p>The idea of criminalizing certain allusions to Nazism, Holocaust denial, and the supposed promotion of genocide is not unheard of.  Many countries, including Brazil and a handful in Europe, do not allow the use of Nazi symbols and flags.  Taking it even further, Rwanda <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11139002">criminalizes anything the government believes to be akin to hate speech</a>, which was one of the factors blamed for the Rwandan genocide of 1994 that resulted in the deaths of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus within 100 days.  Much like the proposed ban in Israel, this law makes sense in some ways.  In the lead up to the Rwandan genocide, both public and private media outlets used violent language which, it has been argued by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), incited the 1994 genocide.  As a result, the Rwandan government is leery of any language it thinks might cause the repetition of recent history but, according to the Amnesty International report “Safer to Stay Silent,” the ambiguity of the legislation has resulted in a fear of speaking out or criticizing authorities, which has led to what many consider to be a one-party state. </p> <p> </p> <p>The difference here is that Israel, unlike Rwanda, is a democracy, meaning that the right to free speech is staunchly protected.  And, unlike the European laws that work to outlaw anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism and the Rwandan laws that try to protect against more violence, the proposed Israeli legislation is to try and counteract the trivialization of terms associated with the Holocaust.  People are understandably upset about the use by young people of the Hebrew word “shoah,” which means catastrophe but is normally used only to refer to the Holocaust, to describe common mishaps such as tripping on the sidewalk.  The question still remains:  Does the overuse of Holocaust imagery and comparisons take away from the meaning of the words?  The answer, in short, is that much like our overuse of the word “war” it probably does.  There is this idea that people should respect the sanctity of certain words because of their tie to specific events and that by cheapening the words you only succeed in cheapening the events themselves. </p> <p> </p> <p>What members of the Israeli parliament are worried about is a similar erosion of the power of specific words and images that historically highlight persecution and death on a grand scale.  The loss of this power could somehow make the experiences of those during the Holocaust, as well as the long history of persecution of Jewish people even in modern times, less meaningful to future generations.  In terms of free speech and democracy it is likely not the smartest move, but a protection by the state of words that remind us all of the terrible results of the Nazi rise to power is understandable.  It would be a shame if we let those terms and visuals lose their bite and significance.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/hatesign.jpg" style="height:625px; width:625px" /></p> <p>Images and words are meaningful.  No matter how much an individual dislikes Barack Obama, his policies, and his administration, there is really no grounds for a comparison between him and Hitler, or between his policies and gas chambers.  Those comparisons do not strengthen a point, they undermine the pain and suffering of millions of people and the families they left behind.  But perhaps those things need to be discussed and decided within the public sphere, rather than dictated by a state.  As irresponsible as it is to soften the meaning of words and images associated with institutionalized violence, and as ill-advised it is to plaster a Hitler mustache on the face of the president of a democratic state, making it illegal seems like an invitation to stifle public participation and healthy debate. </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Rebekah Frank is a contributing writer at</em> Highbrow Magazine.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hitler" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hitler</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/shepard-fairey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">shepard fairey</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/world-war-11" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">world war 11</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/language" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">language</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hate-speech" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hate speech</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hate-crime" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">hate crime</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/holocaust" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">holocaust</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/nazis" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">nazis</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/israel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Israel</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/freedom-speech" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">freedom of speech</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/power-words" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">power of words</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/censorship" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">censorship</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Rebekah Frank</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons; Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 02 Apr 2014 14:29:16 +0000 tara 4527 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3872-mind-your-language-danger-inaccurate-comparisons#comments