Language:
English
Year of publication:
2000
Titel der Quelle:
Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
Angaben zur Quelle:
20,2 (2000) 213-226
Keywords:
Wajda, Andrzej,
;
Motion pictures
;
Jews in motion pictures
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in motion pictures
Abstract:
Examines four films by Wajda depicting the Holocaust: "Samson, " "Landscape after Battle, " "Korczak, " and "Holy Week." Wajda's portrayal of Jews and Polish-Jewish relations in these films is inconsistent with historical truth. His Jewish heroes are "non-Jewish Jews, " Polonized and remote from Jewish tradition; traditional Jews play negative roles in his films. Wajda admits that antisemitism was widespread in prewar and wartime Poland, but shows that it was counterbalanced by a similar attitude of the Jews toward the Poles. He emphasizes that the intelligentsia tried to help Jews, while the uneducated classes either participated in the genocide or attempted to profit from it. Wajda also tries to show that Poles were more tragic victims of the war than Jews; in "Holy Week, " the compassion of the viewer is focused on the Poles who rescue a Jew rather than on the Jew. Wajda's films convey a belief in the superiority of Polish culture over the Jewish way of life. Wajda is not an antisemite, but his attitude toward Jews is patronizing.
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