| London, Sunday, March 28, 2004 France tells its
schools to screen Schindlers List and The Piano to
combat a rising tide of anti-Semitism By Kim Willsher in
Paris THE French government has told
schools and colleges to screen films such as
Schindler's List, Sophie's Choice and
The Pianist to combat growing
anti-Semitism.  David
Irving comments: THUS the real purpose
of the making of Schindler's List,
the film version of a rather tawdry and
pornographic novel, becomes plain.
Not long after it
was released, I published in Action Report
a quotation from the German
cinematographer's trade magazine, Der
Kinema (I think it was called), in
which the chief cameraman on the film
declared that the reason why the film had
been made in black & white was so that
in future people could not tell whether or
not it was a documentary. Instant History,
Nescafé style: pour on hot water
and stir.
Before the belated
United States entry into World War Two, a
series of movie shorts called Time
Marches On was produced by Hollywood.
They served their purpose too. A BBC
television investigation ten years or so
ago revealed that all of the scenes of
Nazi brown shirts brutalizing Jews,
forcing them to scrub pavements, etc., and
of Japanese troops tossing Chinese
children into the air on their bayonets,
had been filmed with actors on the
backlots of Hollywood.
 The
problem for France's Jewish community is
that the public are not, in their
entirety, idiots: most Frenchmen can read
the press and see the real newsreels for
themselves now -- and there is the
Internet.
Not a thousand re-runs
of Schindler's List can expunge the
world's worst memories -- like the image
of an Israeli bulldozer crushing to death
the beautiful young American girl
Rachel
Corrie trying to protect an Arab home
from illegal demolition in March 2003; nor
the memory of the Israeli
Army's tower crane in Manger Square in
Bethlehem two years ago, rigged with a
remote-controlled machine gun at its top
with which they could fire bursts of
machine-gun fire through a window into the
Interior of the Church of the Nativity,
birthplace of Our Lord, the holiest church
in Christendom.  
One
Year Later, Justice Still Not Served:
Remembering the Death of Rachel Corrie
We wonder if her
family has become "anti-Semitic"
yet?
|
After a 10-fold rise in attacks and threats against
Jews in France in the past decade, Luc
Ferry, the education minister, said it was
vital to fight racism among young people."For the first time since the Second World War,
anti-Semitism is now more widespread than racism
that is not directed against Jews," he said last
week. "We cannot act as if this didn't exist. We
cannot not respond to it." The advice is included in a government guide,
The Republican Idea Today, that will be sent
to 300,000 schools and colleges teaching "civil
education" classes as part of the national
curriculum. The guide also
recommends visits to former Nazi concentration
camps, books such as The
Diary of Anne
Frank and
documentaries depicting the Holocaust. Mr Ferry said: "When you see a film like
Schindler's List you are clearly very moved.
You understand much better the reality of racism
and anti-Semitism than if you're asked to read, for
example, the Declaration of the Rights of Man." The government has linked the surge in attacks
on Jews over the past three years with the
deteriorating situation in the Middle East. Last week, arsonists set fire to a Jewish centre
in Toulon, shortly after Israel assassinated the
Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. It was the
latest in a series of attacks on Jewish sites,
including synagogues, graveyards and
lycées. France has the largest Muslim population --
estimated at between 4 million and 5 million -- in
Western Europe. Mr Ferry said teachers had reported being abused
by young Muslims while trying to teach about the
Holocaust. He described how one teacher asked a
class of 13-year-old pupils about their likes and
dislikes. One child wrote: "I like football, I
don't like Jews." One prominent rabbi has advised Jewish
schoolchildren in Paris who received abuse and
threats from Muslim youths to wear baseball hats to
cover their skullcaps. Mr Ferry said that young people used racist
insults such as "dirty Jew" or "dirty wog" as
frequently as other people said "idiot" or
"fool". He added: "It's extremely serious. These words
have become banal, light as feathers, when in fact
they have a very serious history. The sole purpose
of this guide is to give weight back to these
words; to make pupils understand that these insults
have killed." He said the guide was
intended to make pupils reflect on racism, the
Second World War, crimes against humanity,
battles for the dignity of man, and social
conflicts. The minister said that extreme racism and
anti-Semitism had infected only five per cent of
schools in France, but that in society as a whole,
there had been a dramatic rise in recent years. During the 1990s, about 10 violent anti-Semitic
attacks and 60 verbal threats were reported against
Jews every year. By 2002, these figures had risen
to 193 attacks and 731 threats, the worst in France
since the 1940s. Mr Ferry blamed tensions between Muslim and
Jewish pupils. "If we have such a rise in
anti-Semitism in France it is because some children
identify with the Palestinian cause and others with
Israel," he said. The guide also includes details of the laws that
teachers can refer to when confronted with racist
acts. "It is necessary to intervene in the
slightest incident -- even a verbal attack -- and
not let any of these things pass without punishment
or explanation," said Mr Ferry. © Copyright of
Telegraph Group Limited 2004. 
Our
dossier on Oskar Schindler-
-
In 1994 Bradley
Smith noticed that Thomas Keneally's novel
schindler's List was surreptitiously retitled as
non-fiction
-
Schindler,
the Leiblers, and the Keeping of Lists
-
Schindler
widow threatens to sue Spielberg, wants 6
percent of Holocaust movie profits
-
Schindler's daughter says discovered
documents should go to Yad Vashem |
Mrs
Schindler flies in | Schindler
acted for Nazi spy chief Canaris, says
Czech
-
It's
not that List after all: but revelations are
reported in Schindler's Letters
-
Oskar
Schindler's 1938 arrest as a Nazi Spy: the
proof
-
Oskar
Schindler's 1938 arrest as Nazi spy (better
document facsimile and translation)
-
Schindler's
List saved for Grateful German Nation: Thousands
cheer
-
Skinflint
Spielberg lets Schindler's widow rot
-
Toronto
Star A tale of intrigue, feuds, Hollywood
tycoons
-
Stephen
Spielberg donates $1m from Schindler Fund to
help Israeli occupation
-
Obituaries of Schindler's widow:
Sydney
Morning Herald | London
Sunday Times
|
write to David
Irving