Copyright (c) 1997 - Ingrid A. Rimland
". . . Film shows were another form of cultural life. But they were not started until 1941 and then only in some of the camps: in Buchenwald (from May 1941), in Dachau (from November 1942), in Dachau-Allach (from 1944), in Auschwitz (from 1944), in Gross-Rosen (from the summer to the end of 1944, inDora-Mittelbau (1944) . . ."
Please note how deep into the war some of these entertainment programs were
started. By 1944, the German Army was being practically annihilated, as
were many of the German cities. Most Germans weren't entertained with films
in those last years of war.
Read on:
". . . The prisoners had to pay an entrance fee costing 30 Phennig (sic), tickets were distributed by the Kapo or the block seniors. Profits of course went to the SS. In Buchenwald the camp command made 23,000 Marks profits from this source during six months alone.
Since the cinema had to be paid for, it was actually accessible only to prisoners who had money or camp coupons awarded to "prominents", or representatives of the camp middle-class. Film shows took place on an average once a month and sometimes more rarely. . . "
By way of explanation, a German Mark consisted of 100 Pfennig. Assuming
that a film was shown only once every month, you had an estimated 153,333
people going to the movies in a year in one camp alone.
"The repertoire consisted above all of Nazi propaganda films and news reels, but sometimes also included historical or educational films (Bismarck, Robert Koch, with Jannings playing the principal role), social dramas and adaptations of the classics (for instance Ibsen's 'An Enemy of the People') or Hauptmanns' 'Vor Sonnenuntergang.'
The cinema was always crowded; after all, it gave glimpses of another world, a world of family life, freedom. E. Kogan wrote: '. . . These few hours of illusion gave new strength to some of the prisoners.'
E. Langbein suggests that the SS permitted the organization of film shows in order to lower the number of suicides during a period when manpower was needed especially urgently.
Film shows did represent some sort of cultural life, and though officially permitted and even supported, they nevertheless offered the prisoners something of value . . ."
The Holocaust Promotion crowd cannot have it both ways - if the preservation
of manpower was the goal, as Revisionists have always claimed, it would
make sense to heighten the morale of detainees, not lower it, as shown so
viciously in 'Schindler's List.' This was, indeed, the case. The book by
Professor Krzystiof Dunin-Wasowicz gives us many clues that life was, if
not pleasant, at least tolerable under the circumstances in a disintegrating
country during the cruelest war in history.
"In addition to professional artists, many talented amateurs produced works of art, people who had only learned to sculpt, paint or draw in the camp. Not all of them continued their artistic activity after the war; many went back to their main specialty, though some later graduated from art schools . . .
In the autumn of 1941, the Germans resolved to establish a museum in Auschwitz, and F. Targosz was appointed director. Collected above all were Jewish cult objects, folk art, coins, military exhibits, medals and old documents. They mainly came from the effects brought along in the Jewish transports, which were sent to the central camp stores called "Canada" in prisoners' slang. Targosz managed to convince the SS authorities to collect works of art as well. Thanks to this he managed to gather together many artists . . .
The museum functioned until the evacuation of Auschwitz, i.e., until January 1945; unfortunately, only very few exhibits were saved.
Compared with other camps, Auschwitz probably had the largest number of artists. Thanks to contacts with the resistance movement, the prisoners managed to smuggle out many of the works . . ."
Please note, parenthetically, that there was even contact with the resistance
movement, of which more will be said in a later ZGram.
Moving right on:
". . . In the camp of Majdanek most of the artists were men. A sculpture studio was set up there, directed by Albin Maria Bonieki, Sculptured ordered by the SS were given symbolical meaning. A tortoise made of cement was to symbolize the slogan "Work slowly for the Third Reich."
Other art objects were produced, too: a sundial, a miniature model of the fortress of Zamose and other works produced . . . In the women's camp the architect Helena Kurcyusz painted landscapes and small portraits; she also designed a monument for the women's field, which, however, was not erected . . .
In Gross-Rosen the most active artist was Andrzej Kordaszewski, and the graphic artist Ryszard Kiss-Orski did the decorations for the famous presentation of a nativity scene with puppets in Gross-Rosen at Christmas 1944."
Many of us still remember Christmas 1944. I do. It was brutal. There was
no heat. There was no food. The atheist Red Army was advancing and massacred
whatever was caught in its path. I don't remember ever seeing a nativity
scene - or puppets, for that matter - until I was well into adulthood.
And yet the evil Germans permitted a nativity scene to keep morale up in
a concentration camp? Think about what that means.
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"When we lodged urgent protests to the US-based television station transmitting Ernst Zundel's vicious revisionist lies and distortions, they agreed to cancel their year-long contract for his hate 'infomercials'."
(The Simon Wiesenthal Center in a fund-raising letter)