Shoah
Shoah is a Biblical term meaning “catastrophe”. It is also, quite appropriately, the name of an impressive documentary by Claude Lanzmann, about the Jewish Holocaust of the Second World War.
There have been other documentaries about the war, and about the Holocaust; in the early 70’s, the BBC made a monumental documentary: The World At War. At nearly thirty hours’ duration, it provided a reasonably comprehensive, though occasionally patchy account. Images of the war, presented with sound effects and a narration by Laurence Olivier, were interspersed with interviews with survivors from the war.
So why would Claude Lanzmann have felt compelled to make Shoah? Is there anything substantially different about this documentary, or does it contribute anything new to our knowledge and understanding of the events surrounding the events of that time?
What distinguishes Shoah, primarily, is that it is specifically about the Holocaust. Secondly, instead of using stock footage and sound effects, it focuses on first-hand accounts of those who experienced the Holocaust. Moreover, it does so from numerous perspectives, including Jews from different countries and those, such as ex-Nazis, who were responsible for violating them. In that respect, despite being shorter in length, it ends up, in many respects, being more detailed – certainly from a human perspective.
While Lanzmann initially introduces us to an array of subjects, as the programme continues, the time spent with each person lengthens, and our understanding of their respective situations deepens. One particular man’s story is especially poignant, because the making of this documentary provided his daughter (a grown woman) with the first opportunity to hear what happened to her father during the war.
Lanzmann conducts the interviews, and aside from one occasion where he is obviously pressing a dignified and restrained man for emotional effect, he does rather well.
The importance of recording and archiving subjective experiences is no less important than having facts and figures – or even photos, at one’s disposal. The image of these people, several years after the event, talking about what happened to them, near them, or even because of them, and how these things affected them, is confronting. More importantly, it’s sobering, and the fact that their accounts were captured several years after the end of the war, means that we see the long-term effects of prejudice and war, years after the treaties have been signed.
The locations of some of the events serve as a backdrop. Some of these scenes are eerily beautiful, as the landscape reveals nothing of the atrocities that occurred there years before.
“Lest We Forget”. It is said so often in Australia that it has become somewhat hackneyed. Yet it is true, and documentaries such as Shoah ensure that we have a lasting reminder of the horrors of intolerance and war. It doesn’t hurt to hope that they may help prevent genocide in the future.