:by RESENTEDP Hilla Bonen and Shoval Ankonina

To our English Teacher: Mercedes Hadad

March 2011

Introduction …………………………………………………….. 3

Cinema ……………………………………………………………. 4

Music ………………………………………………………………. 6

Interview …………………………………………………………. 9

Conclusions …………………………………………………….. 12

Bibliography …………………………………………………… 13

Comments and Remarks ……………………………………. 14

Introduction In frame of our multi-disciplinary project, shared with our twin school in New Jersey, about different aspects of learning "The Holocaust" we have decided to ask ourselves if it is moral to create art out of the holocaust. Naturally, "Holocaust" deals with horror, nightmares, terror, death, suffer, cruelty, and so on. But in this project we are trying to observe the topic from a different and unusual angle. We hope to find several perspectives from different points of view.

through cinema, music issue holocaust the Our project will deal with

interview: an and

Cinema - We're going to talk about holocaust movies, and to focus especially on the Italian tragic comedy "Life Is Beautiful" of Roberto Benigni. Music - We will represent some songs and singers like Yehuda Poliker who their work is influenced with the holocaust. Interview – We are going to bring an interview that we have done with a holocaust survivor who gave us her opinion about holocaust art.

:reasonsWe chose to do our project on this topic because of some

First – The holocaust is always an actual topic, and every time we hear about this topic, we can learn something new that we haven't known. This is also the reason that the holocaust is raised for discussion in every education framework.

The second reason we have chosen this topic is – The people who succeeded to survive the horrible holocaust-actually our holocaust survivors, are still alive! But, they become old from day to day, and at some stage, we won't have holocaust survivors who will be able to tell us their experiences from the war. Because of it – We saw fit to raise it and to write about it, but this time – From a special point of view. And because of people who think that the holocaust is a banal topic – We have related to this from a modern angle.

Chapter 1:

CINEMA

Holocaust movies tell the story of the Jews in Europe during World War II. There are different kinds of holocaust movies: Some tell an individual's surviving story, like "The Pianist". Others tell the made-up story during the war, like "Life Is Beautiful" which we will talk about more. Some movies describe the war from a Jewish point of view. Another type of movies is about the time before the war started like "Conspiracy", and about the time after the war

We chose to focus on the tragic comedy "Life Is Beautiful". As presented in the introduction, our research question is: Is it moral to take such sacred topic as the "Holocaust" and to turn it into entertainment like movies and even comedy?!

Our discussion is about one movie that, in our opinion, represents our question in the best way – The Italian tragic comedy, "Life Is Beautiful" [La Vitta a Bella]

Roberto Benigni presents in gracious and talented ways the real holocaust in a very different perspective and unusual one:

The first half of the movie is a romantic comedy set in the years before World War II. Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni), a young Italian Jew, arrives in Arezzo where he plans to set up a bookstore, taking a job as a waiter at his uncle's hotel. Guido is both funny and charismatic, especially when he meets a local school teacher, Dora, saying she looks like a princess. Dora, however, comes from a, non-Jewish Italian family. Several years pass, Guido and Dora get married and have a son, Giosuѐ, but the peaceful life does not last for long. Guido and Giosuѐ are taken to a work camp. In the camp, Guido hides his son from the Nazi guards, sneaks him food and tries to humor him. Guido convinces him that the

camp is just a game, in which the first person to get 1,000 points wins a ride on tank. He tells him that if he cries, complains that he wants his mother, or says that he is hungry, he will lose points. Guido convinces Giosuѐ that the camp guards are mean because they want the tank for themselves, Guido manages to keep the illusion for his son, right until the end when, in the chaos caused by the American advance, he tells his son to stay in a sweatbox until everybody leaves.

He told him this is the final test before he wins. When trying to find Dora, Guido gets caught, taken away and shot dead by a Nazi guard, but not before making his son laugh. Giosuѐ manages to survive and thinks he has won the game when an American tank arrives to liberate the camp. He is reunited with his mother, not knowing that his father has been killed.

When we watched the movie, we immediately noticed that it is not a regular holocaust movie. We are used to see terrifying views, most of the people can't, or don't want to watch and thus avoiding the movies. We found ourselves watching the movie till the end, a thing neither of us ever did. It was always too much for us to take.

In our opinion, that's better. Watching that movie made us more curious about the holocaust, and that's the reason we chose this movie from the rest of the holocaust movies. The movie "Life Is Beautiful" made us want to know more, in contrast to other movies, which only made us close our eyes and want to know as less as possible.

Chapter 2:

usicM

.holocaust musicIn our project, we have decided to write about These days, a lot of artists write and sing songs about the holocaust, from various points of view: Some artists choose to tell about the life of the Jews during the holocaust and the war, through survivors' stories or through their imagination. Others prefer to talk in their songs about the life after the war, about the survivors who succeeded to start over and restored their lives. The third type of the artists is the artists who have some connection to survivors' holocaust.

The songs that tell about the holocaust we hear mainly in the Memorial Day for the holocaust victims. There are artists who are second generation to holocaust survivors, their work is influenced with their memories and stories that their parents told them. Among those artists, we can find Shlomo Artzi with his song: "In Germany before the war" Hava Albershtein, with her song: "Ponar" Yehuda Poliker – With his album: "Efer ve'avak" ("ash and dust") There are other songs which were translated to Hebrew from Yiddish. For example – The song "The village is on fire", and "Ponar".

We chose to focus on two songs about the holocaust, but in a very different ways: The song "Kshetigdal" ("When you grow up") of Yehuda Poliker. And the song "Ponar" of Hava Albershtein.

The song "Kshetigdal" of Yehuda Poliker is not talking directly about the holocaust, it has a deeper and hidden meaning. As opposed to "Ponar" of Hava Albershtein which is a very direct and sad song.

When you grow up ("kshetigdal") – Yehuda Poliker

When you grow up Wait till you'll grow up, they tell you all time One tall man and a short woman. If you won't eat, you'll never grow up A good boy leaves the plate empty.

Grow up, grow and be an admiral Be an astronaut and fly to the outer space. You didn't even want to be a solider Just to be like everyone else. But, No one asked you.

When you are old, if you see some kid, Tell the young birf, you don't have to grow old. When you are old, and have a son of your own Who'll ask you "what will I be?" Just tell him "forget it, don't even ask".

Go home, drop from school You are a lost case, they tell you all the time. A big woman and a man with glasses Will be chasing you till the end, till your grave. Grow old, don't assimilate in the crowd Watch from the side, rock in a hammock. You didn't even wanted to be there So? No one asked you. You are just a falling bird.

When you hear this song on the first time, you don't think it's a song which has a connection to the holocaust. It sounds like a lullaby. The rhythm and the singer's tone are very calming and the words are not associated with death, ghettos or sorrow. But, if you listen carefully and know Yehuda Poliker's work, you can see the hidden meaning in the song.

In our opinion, the most powerful part in the song is the line –

A big woman and a man with glasses Will be chasing you till the end, till your grave.

This line shows that the singer feels toward his parents who were holocaust survivors. He sees them as foreign people that are chasing after him and will never let go. We think it's a metaphor for their memories and stories that he feels he will carry with him till his last day.

Ponar – Hava Albershtein

Quiet, quiet, son Here sprouts tombs The enemies panted them here. To Ponar there are lots of ways, Not even one to come back. This is where dad went to, And took our light with him.

Quiet, my son, my treasure, We should not cry in pain, Our enemy can't understand our tears. The big sea has limits Even the prison has boundaries, But our torture has no end.

In your country it's spring time But for us it's dark fall. Everyone around us has big light And we have only night. The trees will go gold, And the pain will grow bigger. The mother was left grieving- Her son is in Ponar.

Quiet, my beloved son, Along with freedom dad will come back, Fall asleep, my son, Just like the released Vilia, Like the new leaf on the top of the tree, You will regain the light, When freedom comes, When freedom comes.

When you hear this song, you immediately feel the subject of the song. The rhythm of the song is slow and sad. There are a lot of strong and horrifying lines in the song, like the first one: Quiet, quiet, son. Here sprouts tombs.

From the lyrics you can feel what the author feels. The author was an 11 years old boy, who was in the holocaust and wrote this song in Yiddish during the war. We see it as song of despair. When we listen to it, we can really feel the sorrow, the depress and the great torture the holocaust was for the people who actually went through it.

Chapter 3:

Interview with holocaust survivor:

? , pleaseWhat's your name 1.

My name is Clarie Swartz .

2. How old were you during the holocaust? I was a young woman, around the age of twenty two. I was a beautiful and healthy girl comparing to the others girls in the ghetto.

s ?3. Where were you living before you were taken by the Nazi

Me and my family lived in Hungary. The Nazis arrived there toward the end of the war. First, we were in a ghetto in our town, Slovakia .From there we were taken to Auschwitz.

4. Tell us about your life during the war. As I mentioned before, we were in the Slovakian Ghetto and then we were taken in a train with thousand of people. In Auschwitz they divided us to blokes and in each bloke they put 1200 people. It was very crowded. In these blokes we lived for few months. In Auschwitz was a "hospital", where the Jewish took care of each other. There were no means to do it properly but they did everything they could. All the girls who worked in this hospital got a piece of bread in the end of the day, and that's the reason I worked there. Except from the work in the hospital, the Nazis sent us to a factory to manufacture parts for airplanes. We didn’t want it, but we had no choice. In the end of the day we got a small bowl of soup. My parents were killed by the time we got there, in the gas chambers, and with them all my dear family and my friends from Hungary.

5. After all the horror that you passed how you succeeded to survive?

I think that all what happened to me was a miracle. Every week the Nazis did a medical examination for all the prisoners. These examinations were to check who can continue to work .The ones who were weak or sick were taken to the crematoriums. Luckily, I always passed those exams, and the Nazis decided I could work in the factory and that’s how I survived from week to week, thanks to the food there, though the work was very difficult. The main thing that helped me survive was my self-confidence. Every Sunday I'd tell myself: "This must be the last week of the war. I'll survive that week and then I'll be free and happy". Every Sunday I believed the war is about to be over, and that helped me. My optimism and mental strength held me through the days till it really was the last week of the war. 6. Were you the only one who survived? During the war I didn't meet any of my friends or family, they separated us. When the war was over I came back to Slovakia, but I didn't find anyone. Few days after my little brother, who was 19 years old at the time, arrived there too. He was a soldier. I didn't recognize him when I met him. He became so thinner and mature than I remembered. He told me he worked for the Germans, and since he had no clothes to wear he used to take clothes off dead Germans and wore it. Each time the Germans were looking for Jews to take, they skipped him thanks to his stolen clothes.

7. Tell us about your life after the war. How did you start your life over? When I came back to Hungary, my home was ruined. I had a gentile childhood friend there, so I lived with her for few months. She always said I could stay as long as I wanted. Few years later I met my husband, who was also a holocaust survivor. We got married and lived in Budapest. After 5 years in Budapest my husband really wanted to live in Israel, When we came to Israel I worked in a little restaurant and my husband was working too. We had a baby daughter, Hava. At the age of two and a half years Hava got very sick and passed away. That was very difficult for us, but few years later we had another baby daughter, Yehudit. Yehudit is 60 years old today, and has children and grandchildren of her own. After the war I felt a great need to live my life. As a young woman who has been through such awful things, I felt a great need to

compensate myself and my family. This is why I wanted so badly to have my own family. Thank God, today I'm happy for what I did with my life. I feel my whole life is one big miracle.

ay we are very impressed! We want to ask you8. Clarie, we have to s

our project question. As you probably know, today there are movies, locaust. What do you think about songs and other arts about the ho

that? I don't know any songs or other things, but I do know some movies, I think it is very important. We, the survivors, know what was there, we have been through it, we don't need movies to know. You, the young generation, don't and will never know. Those movies are good for you, because what you see in those movies is what we experienced. 9. You probably don't know, but apart from documentary movies, there are also comedies about the holocaust. What do you think

that?about Don’t believe those things! We didn't laugh in the holocaust, we only cried! It's not real things, it presents wrong reality and I don't think it's good. All the opposite- it's horrible! In my opinion, it should be forbidden, because it makes people think wrong things about the holocaust, don't do it!

Clary, we want to thank you so much for your time. We wish you many more happy and healthy years.

onclusionC This project deals with the Holocaust. But in this huge topic, we have decided to focus on one question:

Is it moral to create fiction, art, comedies, out of the holocaust?

We took this question and researched it through some points of view: Cinema, music, and an interview with holocaust survivor – As you've seen before.

After finishing the project, we noticed that there are two opinions about creating art out of the holocaust: Some people think it is wrong, they are against it because of two reasons: First – The holocaust is a holy topic. 6,000,000 people and children were tortured and killed in the strangest ways we can even imagine! It is too tragic to create funny arts like comedies and to laugh at it. Secondly – The survivors who are still alive can be deeply hurt, humiliated and sorry. They suffered, their relatives died, and who are we to make laugh on it?! There is no reason to cause them more pain, and therefore people are against it. The second opinion about creating art out of the holocaust is: In our days, there is no much awareness to the importance of the holocaust. The teenagers always are connected to technology, to the computer and the TV, and because of it, they choose to express their pain through movies, music, and even comedies. And if that is the only way which makes them to remember and never to forget the holocaust, it is acceptable! The second reason is – There are a lot of people or children who cannot hear about the holocaust, the real stories remind them terror and death and it's too hard for them, because, as you know, the holocaust is a very traumatic topic. But, when we hear a hard story about the holocaust through a movie or song, it makes it easier. The combination between horror stories by technology and especially by a funny way-like comedy – Is good for sensitive people.

In light of these two opinions, we decided, according to this, that we actually agree with the second opinion which says –

It is moral to have different kinds of art about the holocaust!

Because, our main goal should be to remember and to remind our generation and all the future generations, Jews and non

Jews, all over the world, that this horrible, unbelievable "Holocaust" really happened and will never be forgotten.

BIBLIOGRAPHY wiki\http://he.wikipedia.org

(The plot of the movie "Life Is Beautiful)

http://www.youtube.com (Holocaust songs – Ponar, Kshetigdal)

The holocaust survivor – Clarie Swarts

Comments and Remarks