HOW WILL ‘SHOAH’ PLAY IN GERMANY?
Only about 2,000 West Germans got a chance to see “Shoah,†the 9 1/2-hour documentary on the wartime extermination of European Jews, at the Berlin Film Festival. But millions more will get a chance to see it on West German TV this week in prime time--except for the residents of Bavaria, where Hitler got his start.
Although “Shoah†has won unanimous praise in the German press, Bavarian television officials at first refused to program the film. After mild protests, they relented--but scheduled it at 8:30 in the morning.
“Shoah†film-maker Claude Lanzmann was so incensed by the early-bird scheduling that he cabled the station saying that he didn’t want his film shown at all.
“Bavaria was the birthplace of the Nazis,†Lanzmann said. “This means that nothing has changed. They’re still bloody anti-Semites in Munich.â€
Outtakes sought other responses to Lanzmann’s on-camera interviews with Holocaust witnesses, victims and perpetrators:
Ingrid Schmedt-Harzch, a 44-year-old German political scientist, said: “I was moved and shocked by the German man responsible for the Warsaw ghetto. I was shocked by his face and his reactions,†referring to Dr. Franz Grassler’s cold replies to Lanzmann’s questions. “He’s representative of so many Germans. The normal Nazi--this shocks me!â€
Dr. Dietrich Koolbrotten, a Hamburg state attorney who has been prosecuting Nazi war criminals for 20 years, said: “It is important to speak about (the Holocaust) out of the legal context. It’s important for the new generation. They have to be informed so that in the future they won’t do the things their parents or grandparents have done.â€
A West German distributor has bought theatrical rights to the film. Lanzmann also expects it to be shown in East Germany.
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