Several years ago that Holocaust museum moved to a new location a few miles away in Farmington Hills. The space that was originally occupied by the Holocaust Center is now a teen center where Jewish youth come to watch movies, play video games, eat pizza, and compete in pool and ping-pong tournaments. It is also where hundreds of Jewish teenagers come to dance to loud music.
The symbolism is not lost on me. This space was originally dedicated as a museum to pay tribute to the victims of the Shoah and to memorialize the six million souls who perished. It was a solemn space to educate about the Holocaust so that history wouldn't be repeated. But today, it is a space where Jewish young people (many the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Holocaust survivors) can celebrate that "Am Yisrael Chai" -- the Jewish people have endured. Hitler and the Nazis were not successful because the Jewish people are alive today and our children sing and dance at the Jewish Community Center and in the location originally consecrated as a museum of memory.
Australian Jewish artist Jane Korman filmed her three children and her father, 89-year-old Holocaust survivor Adolk, in the video clip "I Will Survive: Dancing Auschwitz." The clip depicted the Korman family dancing in front of Holocaust landmarks in Poland, including the infamous entrance sign to Auschwitz death camp reading "Arbeit Macht Frei," a Polish synagogue, Dachau, Theresienstadt, and a memorial in Lodz.
Her father at one point in the clip even wore a shirt on which the word "Survivor" was written. During a recent family visit to Israel Korman said that she thought of the idea after she encountered hatred toward Israel and Jews in Australia and added that she wanted to give her concerns presence during the heritage tour of Poland she recently took with her family, and take a different approach to the matter.
Haaretz newspaper reported that "Many Jewish survivors have reacted gravely to the video, accusing her of disrespect. Yet Korman told Australian daily The Jewish News that 'it might be disrespectful, but he [her father] is saying 'we're dancing, we should be dancing, we're celebrating our survival and the generations after me,' - the generation he's created. We are affirming our existence.'"
This is clearly a work of art, but it is also a powerful message that no matter how horrific and catastrophic were the acts committed by the Nazis in the last century, the Jewish people are still having children and grandchildren, and we are dancing together in joy all over the earth. Even on the land that buried millions of members of the Jewish faith, the Jewish people are still rejoicing with our future generations.
What do you think about Holocaust survivors dancing with their grandchildren at Auschwitz?
23 comments:
This is what I left as my comment about the video on YouTube:
"This is awesome! Mazel Tov on creating such a wondrous work of art. This shows that AM YISRAEL CHAI -- the Jewish people have endured and live and we celebrate life!!! One narrative that has emerged out of the Shoah is that of sadness and grief. This is another narrative that is also important -- survivors of the Holocaust have had children and grandchildren and can return to the camps and proclaim their survival and celebrate their life. Amen."
A man who survived the Holocaust and is now back at Auschwitz dancing with his grandchildren as his daughter films them is a beautiful thing. What a message this is to send to anti-Semites and Neo-Nazis. Hitler didn't live into old age to dance with his grandchildren, but this man and millions of other survivors did!
I was very moved by this piece. It is a testament to the survival of the Jewish people and a reminder that it is through our awareness of what happened and our vigilance not to let the worst happen again that we thrive.
As a total outsider, I do understand the meaning of this video. DANCE - I HOPE YOU DANCE. I think it is beautiful. Mary Addi-Layton
I think it's a very sad day, when people think it's okay to DANCE on a place where millions of people were killed.
While I am glad that people survived the Holocaust, they have a right to sing, dance what ever they wish. But, when you do it on the area where millions of your own people were killed, then there is something wrong with you.
And when people think it's okay. What would you think if someone danced on your family members graves? would you be okay with it then?
Just another publicity stunt by the Jews to market the second holocaust of the 20th century. It is offensive and every survivor should be offended that such hallowed grounds have been littered with Gloria Gaynor songs. The fact that he went their with his granchildren is tribute enough. 4/24/1915
I agree. Show those despicable creatures that life goes on no matter what they did.
It only reenforces how wrong they were.
Live long and enjoy.
Looking in from the "outside" (I am no Jewish nor was I alive when this went on) it seems more along the line of look at me now. What you tried to destroy. Because of him living through it their are four more people in this world to give and receive love and compassion. I think he should be able to due this if he wishes. No one in the world will never really know how it felt to be their no matter how many books or movies are ever made. reading it and watching it are completely different from living it. You can not experience it the same way he did. I don't think most people today would be able to go through something like that, even if they were guaranteed life after words. Life was something that was not guaranteed to this man. In fact it was made very clear that it would be taken from him.
Great article on the YouTube video of dancing at Auschwitz by Hugh Collins at AOL News.
I think this video clip is wonderful.
Just to be able to celebrate life.
To the surviours and their familes, the world must never be allowed to forget, that so few did survive.
This is not disrespectful.
It say's we are still here, we are alive, we will go forth & multiply.
good on ya....
I have mixed feelings. I think that it was good that they were dancing outside the box cars rather than in them and I think that a survivor has the right to celebrate his survival however he so chooses.
I think it's important to note that the man and his family are dancing at the sites where the Nazis tried to murder him rather than somewhere like Yad Vashem. I definitely would have liked to hear more about what Adolk himself thought of this as well as the controversy it has caused.
Personally, I would rather dance in Hitler's own house in Berchtesgaden, on top of the Wolf's Den (where Hitler died), or where the Wannsee Conference took place.
Liked your take. I LOVED this video! A real celebration of life and survival.
it's great because they are letting go of the pain from the past and forging happy memories in it's place. to hang onto the pain of the past does nothing for you but to move forward in victory is a true blessing!
However we feel is irrelevant. Survivors have earned the right to do whatever they want on those horrific sites.
I agree with Michael; any personal thoughts we have are overridden by the survivors.
Wow. I think anything that brings attention to the Holocaust is good. We can never forget. The video gave me chills; the pour souls that had to suffer there is very very sad. I'm happy that this family is celebrating life. L'chaim.
I had a lot of issue with this until a friend told me that it really was worth watching. My issue dealt more with the somberness of the location. Would we dance in a cemetery? Aren't all of the camps, perhaps even all of Poland a cemetery. Having been to Poland twice and visiting the camps, ghettos and museums, with survivors, I think that there are other, better ways that the sentiments could have been displayed.
Years ago, Subliminal and Miri ben Ari did a video together that featured the Bat Sheva Dance Company.
People asked the same question then about appropriateness.
I remember learning about @Martin Baranek, the survivor who accompanied one of my groups to Poland, who during his first visit back to Birkenau, walked in and out of the gate (time after time) while the rest of the group was waiting on the bus. When he was approached and asked why he was going in and out of the gate, he responded, I want to know what it feels to walk out of here as a free person and I am doing it now for all of my family and friends that could not.
I think that the comments by the survivor at the end makes it very meaningful.
There are many ways to find meaning. I applaud this survivor for how he related to his grandchildren and the message that he wanted to give them -
wow, thanks for sharing, tears, why not celebrate, such a powerful piece
I was very moved by this piece. It is a testament to the survival of the Jewish people and a reminder that it is through our awareness of what happened and our vigilance not to let the worst happen again that we thrive.
f#$king LOVE IT
An affirmation of life in a place of death
I hope the grandkids in the video will return to Auschwitz to dance with their own grandkids in the future.
When I have seen the Youtube video for the first time, my feelings were very ambivalent. I had learnt, the Jewish people are victims and that joy of life and Holocaust together in a sentence may never fit. This video has taught me of a better one. In the historical facts there is nothing to discuss or to varnish. It was a ghastly murder. I am grateful for the fact that this family has shown that the fascism has not won.
It seems very interesting! I really want to have a try.
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