Language:
English
Year of publication:
2016
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
30,1 (2016) 53-80
Keywords:
Radok, Alfréd.
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in motion pictures
Abstract:
"Daleká cesta" is one of the earliest feature films on the Holocaust. The first version of its script was compiled and offered to the state Barrandov Studios in Prague in 1945-46 by Erik Kolár, himself a survivor of the Holocaust. Its plot tells the story of a fictional mixed, Czech-Jewish family. The Jew, Hana Kaufmann, is deported to Theresienstadt and survives; her Christian husband, Antonín Bureš, is deported to a labor camp and also survives. However, Hana's parents and brother perish in Auschwitz, and Antonín's father and brother are killed in Mauthausen as resistance fighters. Kolár's aim was to show solidarity in suffering between Czech Jews and non-Jews. Alfréd Radok, a "Mischling" and himself a survivor, rewrote the script, stressing the suffering of Jews in Theresienstadt and the collaboration of Czechs in the persecution of Jews. Surprisingly, the Czechoslovak communist censorship approved the script, and in 1948-49 the film "Daleká cesta" was produced. However, in 1949, against the background of the ongoing Stalinization of the country, the authorities decided to limit the distribution of the film, and the press silenced it. In 1954-56, after the death of Stalin and Klement Gottwald, "Daleká cesta" returned to Czechoslovak screens. Meanwhile, from 1949 on, the film had been widely distributed and positively received abroad. Radok was criticized for the film's failure to portray acts of Jewish resistance; however, now "Daleká cesta" is recognized as a classic.
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