National Socialism in Cinema --

National Socialism in Cinema -- putting the unspeakable into cinematic language One of the problems of depicting complex historical phenomena like the Holocaust in cinema is that film is the art of the particular, rather than the general. In other words, films, at least fictional films (and even most documentaries) cannot show the broad sweep of history, or go back to the very beginnings of a country's history to show how political and economic events conspired to create a mass tragedy.

At best, films can only show a part of life, and cast light onto a small sliver of history. The German films "Germany, Pale Mother" (1979) and "The Murderers are Among Us" (1946) do so successfully, raising questions about how Germany's horrific past haunts the souls of Germans in the present, while "Jakob the Liar" (1999) merely generalizes the historical tragedy, and takes it out of a meaningful historical context.

The problem of any historical film's focus on specific characters and events is perhaps supremely highlighted in the Robin Williams vehicle "Jakob the Liar." It takes place in a Nazi-controlled Jewish ghetto, but really could take place anywhere, amongst any group of people who are terrified in confined circumstances. The fact that residents of the camp are Jewish is incidental to the story.

The supposed location of "Jakob the Liar" is not even dignified with a specific place and name, the viewer only knows that the setting is World War II because it is guarded by soldiers in Nazi uniforms. The ghetto could be located Warsaw, presumably, but perhaps that would require too much attention to historical detail for the director Peter Kassovitz. The Jewish residents of the ghetto in "Jakob the Liar" are certainly not about to rebel, instead they are terrified of the Nazi guards and patrols.

Much of their day is spent waiting for the news that they will be sent away to death camps or work camps. They seem depressed and defeated. The real focus of the film is how information is communicated and distorted like a giant game of telephone amongst an insular group of people.

The real drama begins not with the beginning of the war, or the Jews' incarceration, or the Polish Jew's first inkling of their possible fate in the death camps, but when the Robin Williams character (Jakob of the title) hears a radio broadcast from a Nazi radio that the war is going badly for the Germans. When he communicates this to his fellow residents, this news gives Jakob's fellow Jews hope.

While before some of the ghetto residents were contemplating giving up, not rebellion, now they consider that it might be worthwhile to try to keep hope alive for a bit longer. The historical reasons for the Holocaust, such as German and also Polish gentile anti-Semitism (which has been accused of contributing to the sheer number of persons who were slaughtered in Poland) is not addressed.

Instead, the film is concerned about how the Jewish community of the ghetto perceives Jakob, and whether a message that gives people hope is worthwhile, even if it might be false. The community first embraces the news that the Germans will lose, then the community begins to doubt its veracity. How can Jakob possibly know or hear such a thing? The ghetto residents begin to wonder if perhaps Jakob has a radio that he is secretly hiding from his fellow Jews.

Rather than turn against the Nazis, they begin to bicker, debate, and gossip with one another. Although this type of behavior surely occurred in ghettos, camps, and in any community on edge where information is scarce and lives are on the line, the disproportionate attention given to this concept, seems rather tangential to the main issues of the Holocaust, and seems a questionable and an ineffective way to use the historical past in the present. Many of the residents of the ghetto seem less than exemplary.

For example, as rumors begin to flood the forcibly close-knit community, Jakob finds a way to confirm the truth of what he tells. He begins to make up good things about the war's progress that will help bolster people's spirits. He really has no radio, and he has no access to knowledge that the war is going poorly other than the one tidbit of information he revealed. But because now people seem so hopeful, when they believe him, he cannot resist making up more and more.

The theme of the film is that as long as people's spirits are strong, they will survive -- a message that seems cruelly in contrast to the real Holocaust, when even strong spirits such as Anne Frank met an early demise. The only function of the Holocaust in relation to this theme is that the viewers are 'in' on the joke that the Nazis are in fact losing, that Jakob is unwittingly speaking the truth even though he does not know it at the moment.

However, to make a hero of a liar in a film about the Holocaust, given the existence of anti-Semites who deny the Holocaust still exist in the world seems irresponsible as well as a poor use of a historical tragedy to make a heart-warming family film. The film even includes the obligatory heart-warming child character that is being hidden by Jakob from the Nazis.

The message of the past for the future seems odd in this film, that the triumph of good is inevitable, and lies told in good faith come true. In contrast, the German film "Germany, Pale Mother" makes a real, sincere attempt to come to grips with the intellectual and emotional fall-out of the Holocaust and shows how even after the end of the war, the legacy of terror lives on in the hearts of all survivors, even German survivors. The film provides a real, historical context for what occurs.

It begins when the Nazi party is just starting to take root in Germany. It strikes a balance between focusing on individuals, yet still shows how individuals function in specific historical circumstances of the time with veracity. The anti-Nazi Lene and Hans are still affected negatively by the war in their nation, even though they love one another. The two of them marry and have a child, but are torn apart when Hans is forced to serve in the army, which emotionally scars him for life.

He is forced to see and commit horrible atrocities, and later suffers in a POW camp. Lene tries to be strong for Anna, her child, even after she is forced to endure rape, famine, and a freezing and hopeless winter, but when the war ends she falls apart and eventually commits suicide. Anna is also emotionally scarred by the war because her parents are incapable of giving her love. Although they began the war as good people, the war has damaged them.

Germany has proven the mother of young Anna -- a cold mother of failure. The film shows that everyone was and is affected by the war in Germany, even people who were not overt targets of the Nazis, even the generation born during or after the war. The film is in no sense a complete picture of the war, of course -- it is not a film that embraces the full horror of the Holocaust in its many facets, although this was the greatest tragedy created by National Socialism.

But it is an important and effective portrait of what may be an overlooked part of the war in other nations besides Germany, and can provoke soul-searching within the hearts and minds of any audience. Also, the fact that it is directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms, a woman, adds an important female perspective to the cinematic narrative of World War II. Anna and Lene's development and estrangement are the main focus of the film.

The film is brutally honest, and shows how deeply affected all persons were by the war, and that lies cannot comfort people, as suggested by "Jakob the Liar." The Murderers are Among Us" is a 1946 film that provides a perspective on the tragedies created by World War II when the memory was still historically 'fresh' in the mind of the director, actors, and audience. The film depicts the story of a photographer named Susanne Wallner, a German woman who was incarcerated in concentration camp. The film is set in.