In Quentin Tarantino’s film Inglourious Basterds (US, 2009), the fantasy of Jewish revenge on the Nazis is demonstrated through reciprocal brutality. Due to the mass murder of about six million Jewish Europeans during the Holocaust, Jews in cinema and television are often depicted as unfortunate and defenseless victims, while Nazis are portrayed as evil and heartless subjugators. However, in this fictional story, a reverse scenario is illustrated. Through the cinematic techniques of close ups and diegetic sound, the film emphasizes savagery and sweet revenge for the Jews. During the final scene featuring a surprise attack, armed Jews gain agency then transcend past revenge to become perpetrators, no different from the Nazis. Thus, the director uses lengthy sequences of violence to transform Jewish vengeance into disturbingly inhumane behaviors. In order to exemplify the significance of Jewish revenge, I will first explain a brief history of Jewish revolts against the Nazis, most notably in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Next, I will describe the fantasy of revenge in Holocaust cinema. Third, I will analyze the specific sequences of armed vengeance in Inglourious Basterds. Finally, this analysis will lead into my discussion of the director’s depictions of imagined Jewish revenge. Through the interpretation of particular film techniques, I plan to accentuate the malevolent and vindictive fantasies taken by Jews in order to highlight their resemblance to the monstrosities of
This summary paper on Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men will provide a summary and an overview of the main ideas of the text while attempting to focus on Browning's overall central argument which revolves around these seemingly “normal” and “ordinary men” and how they were transformed into murderers due to various elements. The summary paper will also be dedicated to the overall significance of the book and its significance in relation to the history of the Holocaust as a whole. Browning's novel is significant in generating a greater awareness towards the Holocaust but more specifically providing awareness towards who the perpetrators were as Browning provides an in depth examination into the ordinary men which were transformed into these mass murderers, while centering his argument on how and why did these normal and seemingly ordinary men transform into the mass murderers in which they became. The novel also takes the reader into an in depth, detailed account of the horrific actions of the German battalion towards the innocent Jewish population, as Browning details the
The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many
In Stephen Spielberg’s 1993 movie Schindler’s List, businessman and factory owner Oskar Schindler is concerned with both the welfare of his business as well as the workforce he employs of primarily Jewish people after witnessing their persecution by the German’s during the German’s occupation of Poland amid World War II. Themes pertaining to Social Psychology can be found in this film such as prejudice and discrimination, conformity, influence in social groups, aggression, cognitive dissonance, and altruism.
In his essay “A Victim,” Bruno Bettelheim claims that a “victim and [his] persecutor are inseparably interlocked” (Bettelheim 11). If a victim’s behavior corresponds to what the oppressor expects, Bettelheim warns, then the victim will activate the prepared anxieties that go with his stereotype. In other words, the oppressor’s “delusional creation […will] become real” (13). Bettelheim, a psychiatrist, defines his ideas of a victim and oppressor from his experience at a clinic in a German concentration camp. In the winter of 1938, the Gestapo used an event to step up anti-Semitic actions.
Jews suffered countless amounts of atrocities throughout the history of time. Both stories have themes in which man is evil to man, the will of the main character to survive and overcome evil is present, and the ability of some people to still be compassionate to each other during these times of evil. The book Maus, and the movie “The Pianist,” share many thematic similarities.
Bunting, Eve, and Stephen Gammell. Terrible Things: an Allegory of the Holocaust. Jewish Publication Society, 1989.
In spite of the fact that it is a commonly known historical piece of the Holocaust, it’s authenticity has been questioned. Some conspiracies deny that it even happened at all. Through the analyzation of Hitler’s own violent anti-Semitism, powerful position, and ability to convey Nazi propaganda into action, one can see how he is the sole cause of the Holocaust.
We remember the Holocaust, a time of horror, pain, and suffering. Approximately eleven million people were exterminated, 54.5% being Jew, and 45.5% being another kind of an Undesirable. All of this disaster was planned by Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. Him and his men took over parts of the world to dominate and create a perfect race. Someone with blue eyes, blonde hair, and fair skin.
Examining any issue pertaining to the Holocaust is accompanied with complexity and the possibility of controversy. This is especially true in dealing with the topic of Jewish resistance to the Holocaust. Historians are often divided on this complex issue, debating issues such as how “resistance” is defined and, in accordance with that definition, how much resistance occurred. According to Michael Marrus, “the very term Jewish resistance suggests a point of view.” Many factors, both internal such as differences in opinion on when or what resistance was appropriate, as well as external, such as the lack of arms with which to revolt, contributed to making resistance, particularly armed resistance, extremely difficult. When considering acts
In Maus, the German Nazis not only use physical violence to isolate and persecute the Jewish people, but they also take advantage of political propaganda to spread various ideals of Nazism, which include racism and anti-Semitism. The dual use of violent and non-violent means by the Nazis to promote intolerance against the Jews has effectively helped them create a homogenous society in which only the “superior” remains and the ones deemed to be the inferior are filtered out. Particularly, the wide spread of anti-Semitic messages through media, books, and public education has created false, erroneous images of the Jews. The non-Jews become the targets for these messages; they subconsciously internalize the immoral values and beliefs,
A powerful and provocative graphic novel, Maus, generates a Jewish individual’s life of grotesque and horror. With its ability of perception and interpretation, it tackles the main points of the ominous Holocaust and delivers a spooky aura to the absorbed audience. In comparison to Schindler’s List, the graphic novel shines brightly than the pale movie due to its realism and humor that is constantly present throughout the storyline. The novel has the ability to connect to the audience; thus, it gives an in-depth look and overall comprehension of the massacre that Spiegelman is trying to communicate. The graphic novel, Maus by Art Spiegelman, brings an honest account of the Holocaust to a wide audience because of its historical truth and intriguing viewpoints and characters that shows the effect and process of the genocide.
Eighteen million Europeans went through the Nazi concentration camps. Eleven million of them died, almost half of them at Auschwitz alone.1 Concentration camps are a revolting and embarrassing part of the world’s history. There is no doubt that concentration camps are a dark and depressing topic. Despite this, it is a subject that needs to be brought out into the open. The world needs to be educated on the tragedies of the concentration camps to prevent the reoccurrence of the Holocaust. Hitler’s camps imprisoned, tortured, and killed millions of Jews for over five years. Life in the Nazi concentration camps was full of terror and death for its individual prisoners as well as the entire Jewish
Adolf Hitler came to power over Germany in January of 1933. He hated Jews and blamed them for everything bad that had ever happened to Germany. Hitler’s goal in life was to eliminate the Jewish population. With his rise to power in Germany, he would put into action his plan of elimination. This is not only why German Jews were the main target of the Holocaust, but why they were a large part of the years before, during, and after the Holocaust. Hitler’s “final solution” almost eliminated the Jewish population in Europe during World War II. At the end of the war and along with his suicide, the Jewish population would survive the horror known as the Holocaust and the Jews would eventually find their way back to their homeland of Israel
The film ‘Schindler’s List’, directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the novel Schindler’s Ark, by Thomas Keneally, gives us an insight into the corruption and destructive capabilities of humans. This film portrays many themes, all of which are evoked due to the factual historical event of the Jewish Holocaust which occurred in Germany during WWII. The exploration of the themes of hope, use and misuse of power, the nature of evil and courage makes this film prominent over others. Spielberg’s purpose in making this film was to raise awareness of the
Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Bastards entails a Jewish revenge fantasy that is told through a counterfactual history of events in World War II. However, this story follows a completely different plot than what we are currently familiar with. Within these circumstances, audiences now question the very ideas and arguments that are often associated with World War II. We believe that Inglourious Basterds is a Jewish revenge fantasy that forces us to rethink our previous understandings by disrupting the viewers sense of content and nature in the history of World War II. Within this thesis, this paper will cover the Jewish lens vs. American lens, counter-plots with-in the film, ignored social undercurrents, and the idea that nobody