It is hard to judge/
think/ address the documentary film A Film Unfinished. By the admission of
those quoted in the film, deception was a key component in the film, The
Ghetto, which formed the basis of the documentary. This may be obvious given
that The Ghetto was a work of propaganda, but it also makes it hard to place
the film in the spectrum of our understanding regarding the Holocaust.
Certainly the film is important to the documentation of the Holocaust and the
Nazi regime, but just how important may be further determined by archival
research on the subject. It is still possible that documents might still be
discovered which shed light on the purpose behind The Ghetto (after all a reel
of outtakes was discovered almost half a century after the uncovering of The
Ghetto) but it is also equally possible that we may never be able to discover
to what end the film was serving. What is known is that the Nazis were
fanatical about documenting their regime and the randomness of the film would
make it appear as if there was indeed a specific purpose behind its creation.
By my way of thinking the biggest
contribution The Ghetto made to our understanding
of the Holocaust is that makes it clear that contradictions and contrasts were
rampant. In the film, the Nazis attempt to paint the Jews of the Warsaw in a
negative light by showing how they suffered in reality, and also how they
supposedly lived a life of luxury within the walls of the ghetto. (The film flashes
from a scene depicting a large pile of trash and human feces, to one showing a multiple
course meal in a restaurant.) The seemingly scattered nature of the scenes the
German filmmakers chose to shoot are not cohesive enough, one would think, to
be remotely convincing as a film of propaganda. Uncovering the reasoning behind
the film would more than likely be the greatest contributing factor The Ghetto could make to society’s
understanding of the Holocaust, rather than the film itself.
While viewing the film,
I had the strongest reactions to the scenes which depicted the grim reality of
life and almost certain death that the inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto faced.
However upsetting viewing the film was, it was one I knew I had to finish
because the Holocaust is an event which should never be forgotten or left to
fade into the vaults of history. Like Emmanuel Ringelblum I feel that I owe it
to history, to those of the future generations, and also to those who suffered
to learn what I can to make sure that I
never allow an event like it ever occur again. The humanity in me demands that I
steel myself for the cruelty, but like one of the survivors featured in A Film Unfinished , I also allow myself to
cry and not become completely desensitized.
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