Posted by:
Nightingale
(
)
Date: August 21, 2018 09:07PM
cl2 said she'd like to hear more about the documentary I mentioned re US vets relating their WW II experiences. It has certainly impacted me - I can't get it out of my head. (I note I wrote "WW2" above - I know it's usually rendered "WWII" but I mistakenly thought the title of the film used a numeral as in "WW2". I think that must have been the TV station - I've corrected it here to reflect the correct title of the documentary).
Below is an online article written by Rachel Weingarten (April/18). (I'm not including name of the site as I'm not sure about its ads and other articles - it seems quite political, not allowed here).
Weingarten writes:
“Last week, in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, PBS aired a documentary called GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II. … It was fascinating. It was moving. It was funny and full of history and pathos and told a story that a majority of us have never heard. GI Jews featured Jewish men and women who were simultaneously fighting to liberate Europe from Hitler, while contending with anti-semitism on the home front and from fellow servicemen and women. Among the unknown faces were more famous ones including Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Henry Kissinger. The documentary also touched on the lasting damage to authors Norman Mailer and J.D. Salinger, whose service and experiences deeply colored their lives and writing.”
…
“Director/Producer Lisa Ades shared a bit more about what inspired her to make the film:
“I was working on another documentary and I started speaking to Jewish Americans about their experiences in World War II,” Ades said. “Their stories were fascinating and surprising—how after Pearl Harbor they had lied about their age in order to enlist; what it meant to serve as children of immigrants; the anti-Semitism they confronted in basic training on their way to fight the Nazis; the horror of the concentration camps they liberated; and how, on their return home, they found themselves changed forever.”
…
“The story is based on Deborah Dash Moore‘s book, GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation, inspired by her own father’s service in the war. “We contacted her about making a documentary on the subject. She was delighted to come on board as a senior advisor and on-camera interview,” Ades said. “I was surprised that even though several films had been made on aspects of Jewish Americans in WWII, no one had yet made a comprehensive documentary on the subject. Here, we would be able to tell the stories of Jews not only as victims of the war, but as Americans fighting for both their nation and their people.”
…
“The film took almost five years to make,” Ades said. “The challenge was how to capture these stories while the men and women who served were still alive to tell them. In 2013, fewer than 6% of WWII veterans, mostly in their 90s, were still alive.”
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I can't usually watch or listen to accounts of war. If I do I have to gloss over them. Too depressing for me. I ruminate over the bad, sad sights, sounds and realities and it's hard to get it all out of my head. I know a lot of details about history and the war, of course, but there are some things I don't want to hear or especially to see. Images you cannot erase. I try to keep the faith though by viewing what I can handle.
With this documentary, first the title caught my eye. Next, the photography. I love photos, especially in black & white. So I was hooked. Then, the narration and content were riveting. As the writer of the above article said, the documentary contains stories many of us have never heard. That's exactly what I said while watching it. Accounts I have never heard from vets who were in the thick of the action and the liberation; for example, the Battle of the Bulge on the Western Front (the largest battle of the war for US troops, who sustained over 90K KIA in just that one conflict); and the featured vets also took part in freeing prisoners from concentration camps and they related their experiences and film from the time was included.
Ades, the director, was quoted in this article as saying that she was interested in telling the story of "Jews not only as victims of war, but as Americans fighting for both their nation and their people". That aspect of the documentary also struck me. Again, a story perhaps largely untold until now. And certainly one I have not heard before. Some of the US soldiers were Jews who had escaped from Europe but they went back to fight against the Nazis.
I didn't employ my usual practice of changing channels, or at least closing my eyes when things got rough. I've seen pictures and movies of camp survivors before, of course, but now new images are frozen inside my head. Untold numbers of Jewish and other prisoners were squished together in the compound at one point in the film, after liberation, listening to various people address them from a stage. Some were so young. Many were sobbing. Others stood quietly. Not many looked at the camera filming them. (The documentary is full of original photography and 'video'). I recall being surprised that some had hankies to wipe their tears. A weird, errant, inconsequential thought.
The narrator stated that the Nazis continued to kill prisoners and others way past the point when they knew they were going to lose the war. So cruel. Such particularly unnecessary waste.
I was not prepared for them to show (again, never seen before in my knowledge or experience) the US soldiers going into the crematorium at one camp and opening the ovens. I didn't look away fast enough and now there's stuff in my head I will not be able to expunge. They said, and showed, that very recently, right before the US army arrived, the Nazis had continued to murder Jews. The evidence was incontrovertible. (I will withhold precise details).
The voice of one of the vets being interviewed was playing while the soldiers were shown in the film walking into the crematorium. He said that of course they had heard what was happening to the Jews under the Nazis. But now the American Jews were witnessing firsthand what the European Jews (and others) had suffered. Of course, it was devastating for anybody, with an extra layer of pain for those of Jewish descent.
Many of the US soldiers spent time over there searching for family members. Some found relatives still alive; many discovered that theirs were wiped out.
They said that 550,000 Jews served in WWII (obviously, of all nationalities).
An incident was related about a group of US prisoners. Again they said that the Nazis were continuing to execute prisoners even when they knew their war was lost. When a few hundred US army prisoners were marched into one camp, 200 Jews amongst them, the camp commander instructed the US commander to order all his men who were Jewish to line up outside in the a.m. Of course this did not auger well for the Jewish soldiers. The US commander (I don't know his rank) told his men that night "We will ALL line up outside in the morning". (Gave me shivers). Which they did, to a man. The Nazi officer ordered the US commander to get his Jewish men to stand separately from the others. The US officer stated "Today, we are all Jews". (More shivers). So beautiful. So poignant. The Nazi took out his sidearm and pointed it at the US officer's forehead, saying "If you don't give the order I will shoot you". The US man said something to the effect to go ahead and do what you're going to do but I'm not giving that order. The Nazi turned and marched away to his office. The men were safe and later freed. The film's narrator said that American commanding officer had saved 200 lives that day.
A rabbi conducted a service at the camp that was broadcast back to the US (and other locales?). They said it was the first such broadcast since the start of the war. Very moving. The rabbi said words to the effect that here lie officers and soldiers, Jew and Gentile, black and white, no discrimination, no hatred; we have to remember the reason why they died, carry it on, and we swear it shall not be in vain. Brave words. Not guaranteed to come to pass, as we have seen.
One of the narrator vets said with regret "we cried that day, not only tears of sorrow. We cried tears of hate". One stated "We fought for democracy, equality, religious tolerance for all". Yet another "Then we came back home (US) to signs like "No Jews. No Dogs".
Another said their tragedy was that others had caused them to feel hatred [because of what had been done by the oppressors against the oppressed]. They wished they didn't feel like that.
It was riveting, and terrible, and beautiful, and memorable.
Those words resonate with me. We should strive not to give in to hatred. It only ends up wounding ourselves.
This is topical for RfM although some may not think so at first, or at all. I can't find the words right now to address that aspect of it. Something about how we are only hurting ourselves if we allow hate to fester. And that nobility is ever-present even amongst we imperfect humans. There are courageous, self-sacrificing, noble people all around us through the ages, some more obvious than others. I am in awe of RfM posters who have been through unbelievable pain, hardship, obstacles, tragedy and have struggled to survive and prosper. It takes courage to tell one's personal story, even anonymously. I learn from so many who have a lot to share. I wish more could be impacted by the better aspects of the human spirit (so to speak) being dominant in their lives. That can be difficult to achieve if you're in a closed shop (such as the more fundy churches, the more cloistered faiths, theocracies). Hopefully, this gathering place can help to counteract that in at least a small measure.
Meanwhile, I highly recommend the documentary described. I hope you can find it and listen to the vets themselves telling their stories.