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Germans hit hard by ‘Holocaust series
by Marc. H. Tanenbaum
NEW YORK (JTA)—Noth
ing—no book, no TV documen
tary, no film, no lecture—has
touched the soul of modern
Germany on the moral watershed
tragedy of the Nazi Holocaust as
has the NBC-TV series,
“Holocaust." That dramatic but
factual conclusion has emerged
from a series of overseas telephone
calls that I had with public officials
in West Germany, and in
particular, with leaders in the
village of Obernammergau,
on the Thursday following the
viewing of the third installment of
“Holocaust."
According to reports from West
Germany in major American
newspapers, an estimated 14
million people, or 39 percent of the
34 million people in the viewing
audience, watched the third of the
four installments that Thursday
night. This was up from 13 million
viewers, or 36 percent last who
watched the second installment,
and 11 million, or 32 percent, who
watched the first installment.
The viewing audience for each of
the three installments was more
than double the predicted 13
percent that was expected to watch
the program over Westdeutsche
Rundfunk (WDR) of Cologne, the
regional station coordinating the
telecasts. The number of people
watching the last installment was
not available at the time of this
report.
The German officials I spoke
with said that the figures reported
in the American newspapers were
underestimated, and that, in fact,
some 20 million people had seen
the second installment. That
means that one in three potential
regional viewers were exposed to
the “Holocaust" account. “That
audience broke every reoord for
regional television in Germany,”
one official told me.
More than 20,000 people called
the WDR television offices
following the Tuesday night
showing, and two-thirds of the
callers were in favor of
“Holocaust" televised in Germany.
Many of the viewers told the TV
station authorities that they either
could not go on watching it, and
some said that they could not sleep
and had to take valium or sleeping
pills so powerful was the program’s
impact.
One authority said, “The
experience with the program
already has been quite
extraordinary. Nobody, even the
most sympathetic in the TV
industry, expected such an
emotional reaction. It has
staggered everybody."
The effect has even spread to
East Germany where, according to
reports, many living beyond the
West Germany regional
broadcasting range are demanding
to see the series. Regional
television broadcasts can be
received in East Berlin and in areas
along the boundary, but most East
German viewers are beyond their
range. According to reports,
among the East Germans who had
seen the program and called to
express their reactions, positive
comments outnumbered negative
comments 6-2.
I spoke with several people in
the village of Oberammergau who
are involved in an effort to revise
the anti-Semitic version of the
Oberammergau Passion Play
scheduled for production in April
1980. Hans Schwaighofer; director
of the Rosner text of the Passion
Play, told me: “Practically
everybody in Oberammergau has
watched the first two installments
of ‘Holocaust.’ The impact has
been tremendous. There is a feeling
of shock throughout much of
Oberammergau, Many people are
walking around the streets of the
village saying, ‘God's sake!’ and
shaking their heads in disbelief.
How did we let that happen?”
The Oberammergau Town
Council has sent around a
questionnaire to all the villagers
inviting them to sign up for the
1980 Passion Play. In light of the
shocked feeling in the village in the
wake of ‘Holocaust’ many are
refusing to answer the
questionnaire, and it is now being
extended for another eight days.
Several hundred of the younger
villagers identified with the Rosner
text have indicated that they will
refuse to act in the Daisenberger
version of the Passion Play which
has been condemned by Christian
and Jewish authorities alike as
“structurally anti-Semitic.” Some
Oberammergau officials told me
that they now hope that the
reaction to ‘Holocaust’ will play an
important role in influencing the
rejection of the anti-Jewish
Daisenberger text of the play.
There were a good number of
negative and hostile reactions of
Germans vfrho asked, “Why reopen
old wounds? We should forget all
this. It is enough time already."
Heinz Galinski, head of the
Jewish community in West Berlin,
said that “the reaction of the
Jewish community throughout the
West Germany hsul been positive,”
adding that he had received many
calls from Jews and non-Jews
alike. There are about 27,000 Jews
in West Germany today, a tragic
remnant of the more than 300,000
Jews who lived in pre-war
Germany.
Galinski said the “timing of the
showing was perfect. It comes at a
time when there is talk again of the
Auschwitz lie," a reference to the
Nazi effort to revise history and
claim that the genocide of Jews
never took place, “when some
students are making jokes again
about Jews, when the statute of
limitations on Nazi war crimes of
murder is an issue and at a time
when everybody seems to be
preaching ‘let us forget.”*
Perhaps the most significant
response of all to “Holocaust" was
that of Chancellor Helmut
Schmidt. In a debate in the lower
house of the West German
Parliament recently Chancellor
Helmut Schmidt commended the
"Holocaust" series, said the film is
a “must" in connection with the
current controversy over
extending the legal time limit
under which Nazi war criminals
can be prosecuted. He added that
the series encourages critical and
moral reflection which “is
important in view of the decision
each of us must make for himself in
the course of this year on the
statute of limitations."
(Rabbi Tanenbaum. national inter-religious affairs director of
the American Jewish Committee, was script consultant to the
NBC- TV "Holocaust" series.)
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