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#Post#: 3045--------------------------------------------------
THE LAST OF THE UNJUST (2013 documentary)
DIR By: agate
Date: October 6, 2020, 1:23 am
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THE LAST OF THE UNJUST (2013 documentary)
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This remarkable documentary may turn out to have more value as a
contribution to the archival material documenting the Holocaust
than for its cinematic merits. It consists almost entirely of
Claude Lanzmann’s interview of Benjamin Murmelstein, the last of
the “Jewish elders” in the Nazis’ “showcase” camp,
Theresienstadt–interspersed with Lanzmann’s reflections, as a
much older person, while at the Theresienstadt site. There is
some footage from the Nazi propaganda film featuring the
allegedly well-cared-for “residents” of Theresienstadt.
It helps to come to this film with some awareness of the facts
of Murmelstein’s life. The title of the movie can be taken
somewhat ironically, for instance, given the material presented
in it. The movie has been accused of being merely an attempt at
whitewashing a person whom many regarded as having betrayed his
own people, and in his remarks Murmelstein shows very little
feeling about any of his past actions.
But a premise underlying this movie may have been that those who
weren’t part of the Holocaust experience can’t ever say how they
would have behaved in those circumstances–precisely because the
situation was unique–and so uniquely tragic that any judgment
has to be withheld. So we have Murmelstein stating the facts as
he knows them, with Lanzmann doing everyone an immense favor (in
my opinion) by asking apt questions in a gently probing way.
Murmelstein knew Adolf Eichmann very well–and did his bidding,
as later he was to follow the commands issued by his Nazi
superiors in Theresienstadt. On the other hand, he was quietly
maneuvering to arrange for Jews to find ways of getting out of
the camps–and on to England or other countries where they could
be safe. Perhaps he accepted bribes along the way, perhaps he
did many shady deals, possibly for a complex variety of reasons.
The movie is by no means an exploration of his misdeeds. But the
fact is that he, as a respected rabbi and one of the “Jewish
elders,” had considerable power, which he often wielded to help
people escape.
He says at one point, “Who doesn’t like power?” and goes on to
make it clear that he sees power as a way to help people. He had
many opportunities for leaving the Reich, but when pressed about
his reasons for staying, he first mentions his wife and child
(who would have been left behind), then demurs, and finally
comes up with: “Perhaps I had a thirst for adventure.”
So perhaps Murmelstein thrived on being at the center of the
action. Perhaps, as the reviewer J. Hoberman asserts (review
inTablet), he had a “grandiose sense of himself.” To me he
didn’t come across as someone determined to inflate his own
importance in this film, however.
He seems like a very intelligent and highly educated man who was
trying to do the best he could in an impossible situation.
The original interview took place in 1975. Murmelstein died in
1989. Lanzmann waited until 2013 to release this movie. Nearly
30 years elapsed between the time when Murmelstein talked to
Lanzmann and the public’s exposure to those talks. The passage
of so much time, and the fact that most survivors of the camps
have now been silenced by death, should make this documentary,
for all of its flaws, a very valuable record.
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