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History As Enterntaiment
History As Enterntaiment
History As Enterntaiment
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series itself penetrated and explicated the history of the Nazi genocide against
the European Jews, and there is just as little clarity about what function this
event - termed arrogantly "the catharsis of the nation" by Der Spiegel actually had and has for the history of post-fascist Germany.
The resultant uncertainty is productive. It would be foolish to frame it with
phenomenon for about two years now, I hope this will help my own
clarification process - and I do not mean a "cleansing" process in the sense
of the whitewashing implicit in the above quotation from Der Spiegel.
It is easier to formulate these aspects of the contradiction now than it was a
year ago. During and immediately after the telecast of "Holocaust," it was
inadmissible to think aloud or in print about this event in an ambiguous - let
alone critical - manner. It was the time of sincere but also prescribed
concern which brooked no relativization, no dissonance, no rationalization.
To be deeply moved by the media's "Holocaust" and to defend it to the hilt
meant that one enjoyed recognition as a philo-Semite, one advanced socially
to "friend of the Jews." But if one took a distanced view of tv's "Holocaust,"
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82 Zielinski
and ignoramus.
Now that the nation has belched loudly and reverted to its familiar
lethargy, the conditions for reflection have changed. And reflection is now
Semitism.
the basis "in the struggle against anti-Semitism today" - "only emphatic
enlightenment with the whole truth is of any use; strictly foregoing anything
(1964), 29.
2. Max Horkheimer and T.W. Adorno, Dialektik der Aufkldrung (Amsterdam, 1968),
pp. 199 ff.
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to the audience, to touch the emotions of the guilty, the uninvolved, the
successive generations and to arouse identification with the victims. In
consequence, it assails advertising with its own strategies. "Holocaust" is not
enlightenment, but anti-advertising.
myself? It is clear at least that I would certainly not reach those whose
everyday experience is dominated by commodity aesthetics - those, for
whom commodity circulation is the actual form of communication in work
and leisure. If we take the Adorno/Horkheimer thesis as a starting point, does
tautological assertion if it were not for the fact that there is, nevertheless,
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84 Zielinski
rooms. The tradition of audio-visual expositions on the "Third Reich" and its
crimes can be traced back to the period immediately after the liberation of
Germany from fascism. The East German DEFA's first film, shot amidst the
ruins of Berlin, is concerned not only with the victims but also very much with
the guilty perpetrators - "Die M6rder sind unter uns" (The Murderers Are
Among Us) by Wolfgang Staudte was premiered in October 1946. A title as
clear and unambiguous as that would probably be inadmissible here today. It
took a little longer in the western allied occupied zones. The first feature film
to thematicize Nazi crimes against the Jews - amongst other subjects had its premiere in June 1947 - "In jenen Tagen" (In Those Days) directed
by Helmut Kiuter.6
In the former Soviet Occupied Zone - later the German Democratic
"Mama, ich lebe" (1977). This represents only a selection of the feature films
series (like the five part "Krupp und Krause") and tv plays have been
produced. In accordance with the GDR's attitude toward fascism, this
tradition of anti-fascism signifies neither a foremost nor an exclusive concern
with anti-Semitism. Obviously some of the productions concentrate on this subject, like "Ehe im Schatten," "Affaire Blum," "Sterne," and "Jakob der Liig-
ner," all of which, in the meantime, have practically become classics of this
"genre."
In the post-war West Zones, now the Federal Republic, many
documentaries and compilations were produced. The most well-known of
these, Erwin Leiser's "Mein Kampf" (1960) and "Deutschland, erwache!"
(1968), attempt anti-fascist instruction through the critical interpretation of
6. For a detailed analysis of these two films, see Siegfried Zielinski, "Faschismusbewdiltigungen im friihen deutschen Nachkriegsfilm," Sammlung 2. Jahrbuch fiir antifaschistische
Literatur und Kunst, ed. Uwe Naumann (Frankfurt am Main, 1979).
7. I have not included treatments of this subject in other media, i.e., the stage plays by Max
Frisch (Andorra), Rolf Hochhuth (Der Stellvertreter and his latest Die Juristen) and Peter Weiss
(Die Ermittlung). All are of importance for the cultural history of the Federal Republic, and a
study of their interrelationships would be of great value.
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"In jenen Tagen," "Morituri," "Zwischen Gestern und Morgen," and "Lang
ist der Weg" was not continued. For a long time, "Rosen fiir den Staatswalt"
(1959), which deals with the uninterrupted careers of Nazi judges in the
Federal Republic, made by Wolfgang Staudte after he switched from the East
fascist slant, i.e., Rolf Hddrich's tv play "Der Schlaf der Gerechten"
Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union and the USA. "The
Diary of Anne Frank" (1959) directed by George Stevens must be mentioned
here.
careers in the Nazi propaganda and dream factories. They were the ones to
profit from the "elimination" of their Jewish colleagues from the film business
or, at the very least, shut their eyes to it. Apparently though, the younger
German cineasts have also had great difficulty in approaching the subject.
Where attempts have been made, these have taken the form of trauma, as in
the recent Fassbinder film "Ein Jahr mit dreizehn Monden." The figure of the
former inmate of Bergen-Belsen, Anton Seitz, a social climber who rises from
Joachim C. Fest's and Christian Herrendoefer's film about the career of the
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86 Zielinski
Germany and Berlin. Prices for original editions of Hitler's Mein Kampf
rocketed. (They fetch anything from 150 to 500 DM now). Even the Stars of
David that the Jews were forced to wear by the fascists were being hawked for
hundreds of West German Marks - provided they were the "real thing," of
course!
This vogue was in full swing in April 1978 when news about the telecast of
"Holocaust" in the USA began to spread. Here of all places, where the
market for Nazi nostalgia was flourishing, there was an outcry. Indignation
about the commercialization of the Nazi genocide was the main tenor of the
critics. Elie Wiesel's evaluation of the tv "Holocaust" as a trivialization of"an
ontological event" which resulted in "a soap opera" was adopted by most of
the large daily newspapers and broadcasting authorities. This quotation must
was worried about "the German diplomats in the USA, for 'Holocaust' will
provoke a new wave of anti-German feeling."' The Frankfurter Allgemeine
which went out on the air after the last installment was shown in the USA:
"Not a fraction of the horror of a gas chamber can be conveyed in literal form,
with the help of actors: quite the contrary. This artificial, supposedly artistic
moralized: "The most lenient objection to 'Holocaust' is that respect has been
sacrificed here to play-acting: respect for reality and respect for the
victims."" After an initially favorable review, Axel Springer's Die Welt,
which after all can hardly polemicize much against its own market strategies,
Herrendoerfer Hitler film, see J6rg Berlin, Was versclnei?gt Fest? Analisen and Dokunente
zum Hitler-Film (Cologne, 1978).
9. Der Spiegel (July 17, 1978).
10. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (April 20, 1978).
11. Rheinischer Merkur (April 28, 1978).
12. Die Welt (July 10, 1978).
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insight: the confrontation was inevitable. And this was due to no small
measure to the fact that the Federal Republic was about to celebrate its 30th
birthday and that international opinion had been following the "Hitler-wave"
very attentively. The change of heart was further encouraged by the positive
reception of the series in other countries. The United Kingdom's BBC was the
first to show "Holocaust" in Europe. Audience response was not high, but
the resonance in the press was considerable. Belgium followed suit and
then - significantly - Israel, in September 1978. This was the external
signal which prompted the final decision in favor of telecasting "Holocaust."
shown here, too - to those involved in those events and those who came
after." 13
At the end of October 1978, the telecast dates set for "Holocaust"
(January 1979) were publicized, and then the public institutions began to
prepare almost feverishly for the coming event. Institutions involved in
political education commissioned tv guides. The Federal Center for Political
These activities reached a first peak on the 40th anniversary of the socalled "Night of the Broken Glass" ("Reichskristallnacht"). For the very first
reference.
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88 Zielinski
the largest publishing houses, Springer, Bauer, and Gruner & Jahr, did the
rest. A week before the telecast they had nearly all the appropriate headlines
Coming!" (TV Horen und Sehen), etc. Just because of the different tv
magazines vying with each other and using superlatives, news of the
"Holocaust" must have reached over 80% of the West German adult
What followed during the week "Holocaust" was telecast is unique in the
history of Federal Republic television. Although considerably less than half
of all tv households on the average tuned into the Third Channel,14 virtually
nothing else was talked about at places of socialization in our society: in
schools, universities, factories, offices and living rooms. There was always
someone present who had seen "Holocaust" and who provoked discussions
and arguments - about fascism, its origins, the persecution of the Jews, guilt
and responsibility. In short, not only what had been seen on tv was discussed
but also issues of social and historical relevance which had greater
ramifications. 15
The American tv series about the families Weiss and Dorf succeeded in
14. By way of comparison, the 11-part tv dramatization of the German classic Buddenbrooks
by Thomas Mann had audience participation averaging 46% for the first 7 installments. That is
nearly 10% more than "Holocaust's" average of 37% over four nights.
15. The survey carried out by the Federal Center for Political Education in Bonn paid
particular attention to the conversations and discussions which went on during and after the
event. For a summary of the results see Tilman Ernst, "Umfragen der Bundeszentrale fiir
politische Bildung," Bild der Wissenschaft, 6 (Stuttgart, 1979).
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neo-Nazism and, finally the term "Holocaust" itself, pervaded and satiated
the daily life of most West Germans. What had formerly been the province of
a few educated circles and certain political groupings became a public event of
the first order.
views, and activities which became apparent after the event and were
explicitly related to "Holocaust."
One read and heard everywhere that "Holocaust's" most outstanding feat
was the "emotional shock" it produced. I must admit that this category means
very little to me. Not only is it difficult to verify or substantiate, but my main
problem with it is that it is too exclusively located in the emotional make-up of
16. In addition to Ernst's article in Bild der Wissenschaft, see Kristina Zerges/Hella Dunger,
"Telefonumfragen in Berlin," in the same issue. This study is part of a teaching and research
us on the four evenings it was telecast. We held over 25 of these discussions during the
"Holocaust" week and recorded some 70 hours of discussion. A publication on the results of this
section of the project is forthcoming.
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90 Zielinski
torture and rape, nor from the appeal to the viewer's pity and the
identification proffered with victims and murderers. The very way the whole
compression of the experience into the space of a week and the splitting of
society into two camps - for and against "Holocaust." The non-viewers did
not have much to say during that week because practically nothing else was
discussed.
This visceral reaction is symptomatic of the gaping hole that must have
existed in the minds and emotions of the viewers. "Holocaust's" impact sheds
carried out by the Federal Center for Political Education demonstrate that
those opposing limitation increased immediately after the telecast (although
39% is still way below half of the total population) but then 14 weeks later, the
advocates of retaining limitation (i.e., in favor of Nazi crimes no longer being
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any positive way to German fascism had been prohibited, it became very
apparent that "Holocaust" had had a "liberating" function on this taboo. The
growth of a new self-consciousness amongst those who had "gone along" with
fascism, who had "taken part," is still for me today one of the strangest effects
of the event. Accepted authorities and powerful figures who determine public
opinion like the editors of Der Spiegel and Stern, Rudolf Augstein and Henri
brutality - for all concentration camps. I came home from the war on the
eastern front knowing nothing about gas chambers or the systematic
murdering. War had made me insensitive. I suddenly realized that all the time
my one concern had been my own and my family's fate. I had lost sight of the
fate of the Jews" (Rudolf Augstein).'9 "I, at any rate, I knew that in
Germany's name defenseless people were being exterminated in the way
vermin are extinguished. And unashamed, I wore the uniform of an officer in
the German air force. Yes, I knew about it and was too cowardly to resist. Was
there anything I could have done at that point in time? That is not the
question" (Henri Nannen).20
In a kind of way, it became rather socially decorous to have "been around
then" and to publish your sincere or just recently concocted struggles with
your conscience. It was not the resistance fighters nor the victims who were
now put forward as an example but instead, the pitiable fellow-travelers.
Obviously one of the reasons lay in the massive positive echo this met with in
the general public. For many this was a common decisive experience. Long
18. Cf. T. Ernst, op. cit., and also his talk "'Holocaust' and Political Education," given at
American universities and Jewish organizations in Autumn, 1979. Manuscript. Partly published
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92 Zielinski
spotlights are now on the murderers. These are presented in film, they are
analyzed in detail, they are endowed with characteristic human traits. At first
Brandt, who emigrated because of the Nazis, was active in the resistance
movement, is reviled even today as a 'traitor to the people' because of it (and
not only by the Nazi press), who threw himself into the moral fray, but it was
German men now over 50 and thus provides the exemplary model for
identification. The most penetrating instance of this took place about seven
months after the telecast of "Holocaust." Against the venerable backdrop of
demands of social duty and knowing why he was required to obey. No one
contradicted, delved deeper or attempted a provocation, neither during the
program nor in the press reports which followed. Is it any wonder then, that
criticism of the top politician and West German figurehead, Carl Carstens,
formerly in Nazi service, has become so quiet as to be inaudible? The opposite
is true. Sympathy with him is going up all the time. After all, he is in office now,
and respect is due to that much authority, isn't it? A good illustration is the
a political office, and there were also the jarring war-cries of some of his
political opponents. Today, after the first six months in office, neither the
office nor its new holder has sustained any lasting injury. Carstens is becoming
acquainted with his new duties."22 In a society that has elevated the career to
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of violence. They are still suffering in the present day because of their
identity - Gypsies, homosexuals, the politically persecuted. For the first
time in the history of the Federal Republic, their voices have been heard
loudly and frequently in public demanding recognition, ideological and
material redress. Perhaps this protest was provoked by the fact that the tv
series hardly touched on their persecution and suffering. They have started to
insist on their rights and to publicize their story - with increasing success.
Onlookers in other countries may have gained the impression from the
event "Holocaust" in West Germany that the neo-Nazi movement here has
expanded and spread. This is not so, but it has not diminished either. What did
happen was that it acquired a quality it did not possess two years ago: the
movement commands a great deal of public attention and tries to get more in
an increasingly militant way. This is one of the most obviously contradictory
functions that "Holocaust" helped provoke. Although the general public and
the mass media have become more sensitive to what is happening on the
extreme Right, the neo-Nazis on the other hand have become more greedy
for publicity and attempt to create it by staging spectacular provocations.
Only very few of these are ever brought before a court of law. Nonetheless,
group often only gave evidence to the police very reluctantly" (my emphasis,
s. z.).
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94 Zielinski
institutions. School students, who had never heard anything about the Nazi
genocide, pressed their teachers to deal with the subject in class. Other
teachers used the provocative occasion to thematicize a subject which was
long overdue. The effects of this were not limited to the immediate teaching
West German "German-Polish Society" and the State Museum of OswiegimBrzezinka (Auschwitz-Birkenau), which has been touring major cities for
months now and has met with a great and positive response.
foreign features reached a new and wider public as did documentaries like
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some bogus - hit the book market. Hastily put together documentations on
the tv series appeared. But also a number of extensive and useful historical
studies were published along with much popular material and new editions of
state of torpor associated with this 'genre' - "Die Welt in jenem Sommer."
The film was directed by Ilse Hoffmann and based on the novel of the same
name by Robert Muller, who has never returned from his exile in England.
Using forceful and eloquent montages, this tv production portrays how a
young boy at the age of puberty experienced the everyday terror of the Nazi
regime in 1936, the year of the Olympic Games. The youngster is torn
between mute horror at the torment and discrimination his Jewish
grandmother and mother are subjected to, the persecution his sister's
boyfriend suffers as a former Communist on the one side, and on the other,
the frightening fascination which his social life in the brutal hierarchy of the
Hitler Youth represents for him. Although this film had a prime time slot, it
went the same way as its enlightening and instructive forerunners: published
story than adventure, crime, love, tears, and the fascination of horror. The
fact that "Holocaust" was consigned to the Third Channel confirmed that the
program directors were scared stiff of any wide popular effect it might have.
At the same time, this is symbolic of the contradiction within the American tv
series itself: an important historical theme has been dismantled, cut up into
snacks for easy consumption, which stimulates the famous tingling in the
stomach, evokes sorrow, hatred, identification and at the same time throws
up questions, triggers discussion and activates the grey matter.
This describes a qualitatively new phenomenon in the development of the
culture industry, actuated by the American entertainment factory which is
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96 Zielinski
brought against everything this factory churns out does not hold good when
confronted with a decisive slice of German and world history that has been
turned into a commodity. In spite of the commercial packaging of the Nazi
mass murder, the subject loses little of its monstrous explosiveness and still
experience like "The Deer Hunter," "Coming Home," and the most
spectacular "Apocalypse Now." It seems that the culture industry has
discovered social contention and reflection as a medium of marketing the
goods. It appropriates the social issue, but - and this takes place
independently of its intention - by doing this the issue itself becomes
effective in a mass context for the first time. The discussion is wrenched away
from its confinement in intellectual circles and placed firmly in the area of
And just like "Holocaust," both sides are severely limited by their onesidedness and narrow-mindedness. Reality, including the commodityculture reality, is more complex and contradictory than they allow. The task
then develop the usual elements. In the course of arriving at this recognition I
have come to think that "Holocaust" fulfilled also an important function vis i
vis the custodians of culture. I don't think I am the only one to be affected in
this way.
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