Offspring of SS Officers Dance for Holocaust Survivors

Ceremony in Jerusalem Conjures Up Mixed Feelings

By: David Shear for Shalomlife.com

A number of Holocaust survivors took part in a unique dance ceremony held at the Jerusalem International Convention Centre on Wednesday, but the event was about much more than just dance.

The dance group that performed was the German troupe known as the YC Dance group, of which a number of its dancers happen to be the grandchildren or great-grandchildren of the notorious Nazi group, the SS, which, under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II (1939–45). The SS, along with the Nazi Party, was banned in Germany as a criminal organization after 1945.
"We are not to blame for what our fathers did, but as long as there are survivors still alive, we have a responsibility to talk to them, ask forgiveness and try to relieve the terrible pain they are in," said one member of the dance group.
"Being in contact with us isn't easy for the survivors, but when we meet with them they always greet us with open arms," said Paul Davis Peter, another dance member whose grandfather served as an officer in the German Armed Forces during World War II.

"Usually they are willing to accept our forgiveness, and we know that what they went through cannot be described or explained in words, and they are entitled to treat us however they please. Our role as Germans and dancers performing in front of Holocaust survivors is to say there is a new generation in Germany that will make sure that what happened then will not happen again."

"This evening is very difficult and very emotional,” said 80-year-old survivor Sarah Goldfinger. “It brings back memories and it will be hard to sleep tonight. I receive the group with mixed feelings. I appreciate them coming here, because I understand how difficult it must have been for them."

Oy vey: How animated films draw on Jewish stereotypes

In lending their voice to animated movies like 'Madagascar' and 'Antz,' Jewish actors play into the long-held stereotype of the urbanized Jew who is unable to survive the wild.

With the re-release of the movie "Finding Nemo" (2003), which made prominent use of Jewish actors, and the recent announcement of its sequel, "Finding Dory" (2015), it is perhaps timely to consider how animated films feature Jews and Jewishness.

Little to nothing has been written about the representation of Jews in animated films. Yet these films, which generally feature anthropomorphic animals, very often make use of Jewish actors. The result, consciously or otherwise, is that they also often make use of Jewish stereotypes.

This is particularly interesting given what film scholars call the "metamorphic condition": the fact that in animation literally anything can happen. The laws of physics – gravity, for example – can be flouted at any time, as can filmic conventions. Doors can bend, people can fly, liquids can turn into solids, solids back into liquids – all in the blink of an eye.

Yet despite this "anything-is-possible" rule of animation, which allows for endless feats of creativity, the genre still sticks to age-old stereotypes of Jews.

There are numerous examples of this, from the "An American Tail" films (1986-1999) to "Antz" (1998). But perhaps the best example is Dreamworks' "Madagascar" (2005), in which four zoo animals – Alex, a lion; Marty, a zebra; Melman Mankiewicz III, a giraffe; and Gloria, a hippopotamus – escape from Central Park Zoo, where they lead pampered lives, to see the world beyond the zoo.

 Continue reading. 

Israeli company looks to U.S. to advance hummus science

Sabra Dipping Company, the joint venture between Israel’s Strauss and the U.S. food and drinks maker PepsiCo, opens a R & D center in Virginia devoted to the science, production, engineering, packaging and delivery of the chickpea-based spread.

The next scientific breakthrough in the hummus world isn’t likely to happen in Tel Aviv or Beirut but in a suburb of Richmond, Virginia. At least that is what Strauss Group is counting on as it dedicated on Tuesday a research and development center devoted to the science, production, engineering, packaging and delivery of the chickpea-based spread.

Dubbed the Center of Excellence, the facility is being operated by Sabra Dipping Company, the joint venture between Israel’s Strauss and the U.S. food and drinks maker PepsiCo, and is adjacent to a manufacturing plant that has operated on the site since 2012.

While hummus is Sabra’s flagship dip, the center’s staff won’t be dedicating all their time to research on chickpeas but on all the other ingredients that go into Sabra’s line of prepared salads. The center will cooperate with local universities and agricultural research centers and will include a culinary center as well as laboratories.

“Opening the research and development center, the first of its kind in the world, is an important milestone for the Strauss Group in its partnership with Pepsico worldwide,” said Strauss CEO Gadi Lesin Tuesday. “It enhances our transformation into a leading international player both in the salads segment and in dips.”

Continue reading.

Child Survivors Return Home

What happens when a documentarian turns the camera on himself? "For almost 50 years I've been filming other people's lives," says Holocaust survivor and filmmaker Marian Marzynski at the start of his new documentary Never Forget to Lie, "but my childhood seems to be my psyche's unfinished business."

Marzynski and others he interviews survived the Holocaust in Poland by posing as Christian children, often without their parents. Marzynski even became a devoted altar boy.  Never Forget, which airs on PBS's Frontline, returns Marzynski and his subjects to the physical sites of their most difficult memories: the courtyard of a building in the Warsaw ghetto, a forest near Treblinka, the mountain pass between Poland and Slovakia where one man saw his mother for the last time.
Sixty-eight years after the war, the recollections these encounters jog are often cloudy or fragmented, consisting of a single conversation or emotion. It's sometimes hard to watch. But Marzynski's camera is patient, lingering on tiny details of rooms and landscapes as though trying to help rekindle the survivors' memories. In the process, we, the viewers, become repositories for images and stories that might otherwise have vanished.