I have a habit, when my wife goes out of town, of selecting Netflix discs that I like to call "boy movies." My wife calls them my Hitler Channel movies, because as much as time goes by, the quantity and quality of films about that peculiar moment in history doesn't diminish; it seems to increase. A case in point at the Tropic Cinema they are showing a documentary (my wife hates documentaries so I scored two points with one movie) called "Killing Kasztner." It is a fascinating, impossible story of no human logic and dreadful inhumanity. I was riveted to my seat.
There is, it seems a well known documentary film maker called Gaylen Ross who decided to discover what she could about the life and death of a Hungarian Jew known as Israel Reszo Kasztner. He emigrated to Israel after the war and got a job with Prime Minister David Ben Gurion's government and was murdered in front of his house by a right wing Israeli terrorist called Ze'ev Eckstein, who was caught and sentenced to life in prison for the deed.
Ross interviews Eckstein, free these forty years, about the murder and he spills the beans. She interviews Kasztner's daughter and her daughters and they spill the beans. It is amazing stuff. But get this Krasztner saved more than 20,000 Jews from the Holocaust and he was branded a collaborator and hated by everyone. He got Adolf Eichmann to agree to save 1845 Jews and put them on a special train, Schindler style and they eventually got to Switzerland via a detour to the Bergen Belsen camp outside Berlin. Additionally Kasztner got SS Colonel Kurt Becher to agree to send 20,000 Hungarian Jews to Austria instead of Auschwitz and there they survived the war. Every single one of them. Yet Kasztner came out of the war loathed and labeled a collaborator. He was the only person to save any of the almost one million Jews in pre-war Hungary.
One of the children seated in front in this picture, of the train en route to Switzerland is interviewed in the movie.
However the film reinforced my own prejudices against people in general, and the saying that no good deed goes unpunished is liberally illustrated here. Kasztner comes out of this amazing detective story as a true hero, unsung, unappreciated except by those he saved and not all of them even! There is an astonishing moment when a survivor dismisses Kasztner's efforts to save her own life, by blaming him for getting her sent, briefly to Bergen Belsen! This is an astounding movie.
Put it on your Netflix list. I think even my wife may be ready to see it. When we toured Auschwitz together she got enough Nazi anti semitism to put her off even discussing these things. But I think Kasztner's astonishing story piqued even her interest when I told her about it.
There is, it seems a well known documentary film maker called Gaylen Ross who decided to discover what she could about the life and death of a Hungarian Jew known as Israel Reszo Kasztner. He emigrated to Israel after the war and got a job with Prime Minister David Ben Gurion's government and was murdered in front of his house by a right wing Israeli terrorist called Ze'ev Eckstein, who was caught and sentenced to life in prison for the deed.Ross interviews Eckstein, free these forty years, about the murder and he spills the beans. She interviews Kasztner's daughter and her daughters and they spill the beans. It is amazing stuff. But get this Krasztner saved more than 20,000 Jews from the Holocaust and he was branded a collaborator and hated by everyone. He got Adolf Eichmann to agree to save 1845 Jews and put them on a special train, Schindler style and they eventually got to Switzerland via a detour to the Bergen Belsen camp outside Berlin. Additionally Kasztner got SS Colonel Kurt Becher to agree to send 20,000 Hungarian Jews to Austria instead of Auschwitz and there they survived the war. Every single one of them. Yet Kasztner came out of the war loathed and labeled a collaborator. He was the only person to save any of the almost one million Jews in pre-war Hungary.
One of the children seated in front in this picture, of the train en route to Switzerland is interviewed in the movie.However the film reinforced my own prejudices against people in general, and the saying that no good deed goes unpunished is liberally illustrated here. Kasztner comes out of this amazing detective story as a true hero, unsung, unappreciated except by those he saved and not all of them even! There is an astonishing moment when a survivor dismisses Kasztner's efforts to save her own life, by blaming him for getting her sent, briefly to Bergen Belsen! This is an astounding movie.
Put it on your Netflix list. I think even my wife may be ready to see it. When we toured Auschwitz together she got enough Nazi anti semitism to put her off even discussing these things. But I think Kasztner's astonishing story piqued even her interest when I told her about it.
8 comments:
When I get home; I will go to this movie b/c of your fascinating description. You will have to deal with my angst after I see it.
Have you seen Downfall yet? It's about the last 15 or so days of Hitler's life and takes place almost exclusively in the bunker in Berlin. I've been wanting to see it for a long time and finally got it from Netflix. Excellent movie.
I will add this to my list of "must-see" movies. Sounds like the kind of movie I'd prefer to see alone. Thanks for the tip.
Yes I saw Downfall, Bruno Ganz is an accomplished actor. (Wings of Desire was where I first noticed him).
The Hitler Channel™. All day, all night, all Hitler™.
It still surprises me that Discovery never did anything like that... their latest flavor is something called Investigation Discovery, which apparently is all missing people, all the time. A TV channel version of a milk carton.
We have DirecTV at the house, and to paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, it's 700 channels and nothin' on. Luckily I'm not asked to help pay for it, because I wouldn't. All these channels show the same off-network reruns (CSI, Law & Order and Family Guy, mostly) and old movies. Heck, even The Weather Channel started showing movies after NBC Universal bought it.
This movie sounds interesting. I'll keep it in mind for when I once again have money to spend...
__Orin
Scootin' Old Skool
Thank you so much and appreciate all your good words about the film!
Best
Gaylen Ross
Director
Dear Sir:
These documentaries are critical for the prservatuon of human understanding.
There is a real necessity to make sure the next generation, and the one after them, and the one after them, understands the depth of cruelty to which a nation can descend. Awareness is one step toward prevention.
You should also watch "The Boy In The Striped Pajamas."
One of the most disturbing afternoons in my life came afer I visited the Anne Frank Museum in the Netherlands. I was sick for the rest of the day, and most of the next. To have read her diary... To have been in the house... To have seen inside the hiding place... Was to sense a dimension in desperation that I have never before experienced.
Shock jock and supreme asshole Howard Stern used to have a television program, in which a character appeared dressed as a Nazi. I was watching one night when this character pulled an envelope out of his pocket. He introduced the contents as "Anne Frank." I never watched, listened, nor tolerated Howard Stern again.
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
So how the bloody hell does the director of this movie show up here? the internet is weird.
Orin: netflix is cheap, ad free and you get to see what you want. plus you can download movies directly to your computer for the cost of your basic disc susbscription. I prefer the cinema but there is lots of good stuff not in the mainstream.
I did see the boy in striped pyjamas at the tropic. It was a very strange movie. I also saw The woman in Berlin which was disturbing in a different way. I felt empathy for the Russians which was not what I was supposed to feel i think.
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