Nazi Film Still Pains Relatives
German film director Veit Harlan wrote and directed “Jew Süss,” a 1940 box office success in Nazi Germany that, according to a New York Times article by Larry Rohter, is “perhaps the most notoriously anti-Semitic movie ever made.” New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis writes that the film, which opens in 1733, “tells the story of a Jewish money lender from the ghetto, Joseph Süss Oppenheimer (Ferdinand Marian), who rises to power in Wurttemberg (in what is southwestern Germany), where he gains control of the court, taxes the population, rapes a young married woman (who then drowns herself) and is finally executed.” Rohter notes that the film was “so effective that it was made required viewing for all members of the SS,” and to this day its “commercial exhibition or sale as a DVD is still prohibited in Germany and several other European countries.” German film director Felix Moeller has released a documentary titled “Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Süss.” According to Dargis, the film is “an exploration of the filmmaker, his career under National Socialism and the children and other relatives who bear his name and, with varying difficulty, his legacy.”
- “Jew Süss” is considered one of the most dangerous pieces of antisemitic propaganda of all time. What is propaganda? How does propaganda influence the way people think and act?
- While “some of [Harlan’s] children and grandchildren wanted nothing to do with his film, . . . a few try to defend him,” Rohter writes. In one extreme, Suzanne Körber, one of Harlan’s daughters “who took her mother’s surname and committed suicide in 1989, converted to Judaism after marrying a Jew whose parents perished in the Holocaust.” What responsibility should individuals, groups, and nations bear for the actions made by their ancestors or predecessors? For how long should they bear this responsibility?
- “Jew Süss,” Dargis writes, “was conceived as a hate film and exploited as a weapon of murder.” In fact, Harlan was “the only [film] director of the Nazi era to be tried after the war for crimes against humanity.” Twice, he was found not guilty. When does a piece of art become a piece of propaganda? Rohter writes that “unlike other propaganda films like ‘The Eternal Jew,’ a notorious screed, ‘Jew Süss’ was a commercial release, a hit that was seen by more than 20 million and featured some of the top stars of the day.” Should an artist be held responsible for the way his or her art impacts others?
- Rohter quotes Director of Film Forum Karen Cooper as saying that Moeller’s documentary “ ‘is a film that deals with issues of guilt and responsibility” for Harlan’s descendents, “which makes it every bit as relevant to you and me as to a German audience.’ ” In what ways might this film be relevant to a non-German audience?
- Jessica Jacoby, Suzanne Körber’s daughter and Veit Harlan’s granddaughter, told Rohter that “as a German and a Jew, I believe it is important to look at this particular part of the past. . . . Younger people have a different relationship to the past. It’s very far away for them, and some don’t even know who Goebbels was. But when I see a film like ‘Jew Süss,’ there’s still a huge amount of anger.’ ” What is Jacoby saying about the importance of facing history? Why might she feel this is especially important for the younger generation?
