A new movie (set for release in August 2008) that chronicles the failed assassination attempt of Adolf Hitler by a German military officer has faced harsh criticism in the court of German public opinion. Valkyrie, starring Hollywood leading man and scientology couch dancer, Tom Cruise, follows the last days of Colonial Claus von Stauffenberg and his plan to destroy the Third Reich from within; an act that demonstrated rather boldly the fact that not all Germans living under Hitler were arm-band wearing, swastika-waving, Nazis. Yet apparently in contemporary Germany, the past, even when it is portrayed heroically, is still very much a part of the guilty present.
In this age of globalization, humanity tends to think about tomorrow much more than today, let alone sixty years ago. But in Germany, and in particular Berlin, it seems that the past is omnipresent. Take for example the Holocaust Museum. Not only is its content designed to serve as a constant reminder of the final solution, but so too is its location. Sitting across the street from the Bundestag, the Holocaust Museum was intentionally placed there to serve as a physical reminder to each and every member of the German political establishment.
Yet memories and memorials and are one thing, what about the Cruise film? Well, it turns out that Mr. Cruise has apparently broken two of the most sacred social and political taboos in Germany: a deadly cocktail of Nazi symbolism and scientology. In Germany, the law stipulates that both the Church of Scientology and any representation of Nazi symbolism are against the fundamental features of democracy and are therefore, against the law. In fact, the German criminal code is clear to indicate that any representation of Nazi symbolism whether it’s in the form of a political party, a swastika, or a verbal or written denial of the Holocaust can carry a prison sentence of up to three years.
So what has Cruise done? Well, actually nothing; that is by American standards, a standard that will judge Tom Cruise by his shortcomings as an actor. To Germans however, their troubled past, complete with swastikas and armbands will be brought to life for the world to see by a member of the Church of L. Ron Hubbard. For Mr. Cruise’s sake, I hope he has left enough room on the mother-ship.
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Baron Cohen said the concept of "indifference towards anti-Semitism" had been informed by his study of the Holocaust while at Cambridge University, where he read history. "I remember, when I was in university, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, 'The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.'
-- from an article in the Independent I just found as I bought the two volume Hitler bio by Kershaw earlier this week:
all is indeed connected
A quote for a quote: New York Times columnist David Brooks commented on Baron Cohen's "Borat" film as such: "We Jews know all about Borat’s Jewish snobbery—based on the assumption that Middle America’s acceptance of Jews must be a mirage, and that underneath every Rotarian there must be a Cossack about to unleash a continental pogrom."
As I bid my retreat to the Urals of my dissipation, I offer no further quotes only a sidelong mention that when Oliver Hirschbiegel's film Downfall was released Wim Wenders amongst others were outraged of the prevailing depiction of Sociopathic Nazis overshadowing the decent, suffering civillian Berliners.
Writing such, I betray no pervasive judgement on such.
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