Remembering the millions: the dangers that lurk in hate-speech and in undermining democracy

PARIS – Speakers at United Nations headquarters in New York and at a Holocaust commemoration facebooked worldwide from the headquarters of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) denounced signs of increased hate-speech against ethnic groups worldwide and the undermining of democratic tolerant values.

They said similar trends in pre-World War II Nazi Germany had eventually led to millions murdered in Europe during the Nazi extermination of Jews.

Hosted and introduced by UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay, the event in Paris projected a deeply moving film Who Will Write Our History. It is a mix of black-and-white archive and colour dramatisations about a group of sixty volunteer archivists, led by a historian Emanuel Ringelblum, who risked their lives daily.

The codename for this underground group was ‘Oyneg Shabbos’, which means ‘The Delights of the Sabbath’ – even though most members of the group were not themselves religious.

As a segment of Nazi-occupied Poland’s capital city Warsaw became a place of imprisonment and then a killing zone, they meticulously wrote detailed descriptions of the horrific conditions and the struggles of daily life and death.

As the producers describe their film, “this clandestine group vowed to defeat Nazi lies and propaganda not with guns or fists but with pen and paper…They defied their murderous enemy with the ultimate weapon – the truth – and risked everything so that their archive would survive the war, even if they did not.”

Most of the 450,000 people cooped up in the Ghetto were eventually sent by cattle-trains to extermination camps in 1942 and 1943.

Many thousands who remained inside the Ghetto walls died from starvation and disease. The Warsaw Ghetto itself came to a bloody end in April and May 1943 with a fullscale but doomed armed revolt by the sixty-thousand survivors. Then the Nazis bulldozed it flat.

Only three of the sixty archivists survived the war.

All that seemed to remain for posterity were captured films and records made by the Nazis themselves – their own proud record of their efforts to eliminate an entire race or religion.

However, the Jewish archivists had been determined to leave behind some record of how the victims themselves saw their pitiful plight. As they prepared to die they buried their archives in boxes beneath buildings.

After the war ended, one of the surviving three managed to pinpoint where a dozen boxes from the archive had been hidden, and they were unearthed in 1946. This was an astonishing discovery as the team searching the rubble was only able to guess the location streets and buildings from aerial photographs taken by the Germans before the uprising.

Later another set of boxes was found when workers were doing rebuilding, but a third cache is still missing.

Millions were able to watch the introductory remarks and the lively discussion that took place on the UNESCO stage after the film showing. The actual screening, for copyright reasons, could not be sent out on Facebook Live worldwide.

But in a remarkable innovation executive producer Nancy Spielberg, director Roberta Grossman and the author around his work the film was based, Samuel Kassow, sat in a booth inside the UNESCO theatre and discussed the story through Facebook Live, using short clips from the film to illustrate their points.

Nancy Spielberg’s brother Steven did a recorded link, as did a concentration camp survivor. Questions were asked live by schoolchildren in Poland.

Also, before the screening, France’s chief rabbi intoned a memorial lament and prayer for the six million Jewish dead, which Nancy Spielberg later said had “moved me to tears”.

She and Steven had grown up as the only Jewish family in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, and had very little idea of their people’s history, she explained. It was only when Steven made Schindler’s List, his film about a German industrialist who secretly saved Nazi-endangered Jews, that she focused properly on her Jewish identity, she said.

The entire presentation at UNESCO, and the complex worldwide co-ordination – there were 355 venues in 53 countries – was the brainchild of Karel Fracapane, who is in charge of UNESCO’s Global Citizenship projects, including the battle against Antisemitism.

By chance, he had overheard a conversation in which the author mentioned that a film had nearly been completed based on his book. Fracapane realised that the original archive documents were housed in a UNESCO-sponsored museum in Warsaw, in the same building where the archivists had done most of their dangerous work.

He was determined that the world’s premier education and cultural intergovernmental body should create a powerful event worldwide around the new film and its creators.

It did.

“A film like this comes about maybe twice a decade at most,” Fracapane told me as we sipped coffee inside the UNESCO’s cafe.

He said: “Remembering the horrors of the Holocaust is important. But our priority now is rather to frame it in the context of the overall world struggle against racism and ethnic discrimination.”

Director Roberta Grossman said she had been encouraged while making the film by “how deeply some Poles care about their Jewish neighbours”.

The directors was nervous that the film would be received with a yawn worldwide. Or that she would let down those who had been murdered.

“There was a constant feeling of dread,” Grossman told MediaZones in an interview after the United Nations showing in New York.

“”Dread that I would not make a film strong enough to overcome people’s natural and quite understandable reluctance to engage in such a difficult subject.  

“And, if I did not hit the mark, then I would not succeed in helping to fulfill the dying wishes of Emanuel Ringelblum and the other members of Oyneg Shabes.

“I also fretted over what was left out. There are so many incredible pieces of writing in the archive, written by such remarkable people.”

The most important lesson Grossman says she learned from making this film was: “Trust your guts. Many people rolled their eyes and said ‘Oh no, not another film about the Holocaust’, or ‘Don’t use recreations, you’ll get killed by the critics’. I didn’t listen to either set of naysayers, and I’m glad I didn’t.”

So are we.

AND HERE’S A DIFFERENT VERSION, ADDING IN SOME NANCY SPIELBERG QUOTES…

By Paul Martin. Another Spielberg film has hit the screens about bravery and resistance during the Nazi conquest of much of Europe during World War II.  Except this time it was produced by Steven’s younger sister Nancy. And it’s due to show across Britain soon. The 62-year-old has presented the film at the United Nations in New York, and she’s also facebooked live about it worldwide from Paris, at the headquarters of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Spielberg and other speakers say the timing of the film makes it even more important than ever. It boosts the battle to denounce signs of increased hate-speech against ethnic groups worldwide and the undermining of democratic tolerant values.  She and her fellow-filmmakers say similar trends in pre-World War II Nazi Germany eventually led to millions of people being murdered in Europe during the Nazi extermination of Jews. The film – called ‘Who Will Write Our History’ – is a virtually unknown yet deeply moving dramatisation about a group of 60 secret volunteers, led by a historian Emanuel Ringelblum, who risked their lives daily. They were among 450 thousand Jews were locked inside walls built by the Nazis around an area of Warsaw. As the Warsaw Ghetto became a killing zone, the volunteers – their codename was Oyneg Shabes (“Honouring the Sabbath”) –  penned detailed descriptions of the people’s daily struggles for life and dignity. Spielberg describes the film: “This clandestine group vowed to defeat Nazi lies and propaganda not with guns or fists but with pen & paper… “They defied their murderous enemy with the ultimate weapon – the truth – and risked everything so that their archive would survive the war, even if they did not.” Most of the 450,000 people cooped up in the Ghetto eventually got sent by cattle-trains to extermination camps in 1942 and 1943. Many thousands who remained inside the Ghetto walls died – from starvation and disease. The Warsaw Ghetto itself came to a bloody end in April and May 1943 when the last sixty-thousand men, women and children trapped inside the Ghetto launched a fullscale but doomed armed revolt.   Then the Nazis bulldozed it flat.  Only three of the sixty archivists survived the war.  However, the Jewish secret underground team had been determined to leave behind a record of how the victims themselves saw their plight. As they prepared to die they buried their archives in boxes beneath buildings. After the war ended, one of the surviving three managed to pinpoint where a dozen boxes from the archive had been hidden, and, against all the odds, they were unearthed in 1946. This was an astonishing discovery as the team searching the rubble was only able to guess the location of streets and buildings – from aerial photographs taken by the Germans before the uprising. Later another set of boxes was found, unearthed by workers who were doing rebuilding, but a third cache is still missing. Nancy Spielberg’s brother Steven made a famous film Schindler‘s List, a moving story of another German industrialist to became the saviour of many persecuted Jews.  He did a recorded link praising his sister’s film. Before the screening in Paris, France’s chief rabbi intoned a memorial lament and prayer for the six million Jewish dead, which Nancy Spielberg said had “moved me to tears”. “Yes this – in one sense – is my Schindler’s list,” Nancy Spielberg says.  “After making his film, my brother created a Visual History Archive of the Holocaust.  Yet the very first people to do that were the 60 brave men and women inside the Warsaw Ghetto who compiled 60 thousand pages of documents about life under Nazi rule. “They amassed history to teach into the future. This film production is my attempt to do that as well.” She added that there was one major difference.   “Steven had a screenwriter. Our script, however, was written by the members of Oyneg Shabes [themselves]. They wrote every word.” She and Steven had grown up as the only Jewish family in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, and had very little idea of their people’s history, she explained. It was only when Steven made Schindler’s List, his film about a German industrialist who secretly saved Nazi-endangered Jews, she says, that she focus properly on her Jewish identity. The film or discussions have already gone to at least  356 venues in 53 countries.