The first Holocaust film Lawrence Baron showed his 9-year-old son was “Life is Beautiful.” After the film, the boy asked his father: “Why did they shoot that funny man?”
A tough question. But one that, in this family, began the task of learning about a time in history many critics say no one who wasn’t there can truly understand and that no film can adequately portray.
Monday night about 50 people attended Baron’s presentation, “Ashen images on a silver screen,” sponsored by the University Harold Schnitzer Family Program in conjunction with Yom HaShoah.
“I take movies very seriously,” Baron said. “(These images are) so prevalent, I don’t think we can ignore their impact.”
Baron teaches modern Jewish history at San Diego State University. He also directs the Lipinsky Institute, which functions range from supporting teaching and research in modern Jewish history to offering internships in Judaic studies.
Though critics of Hollywood depictions of the Holocaust have denounced them as glossing over or romanticizing it, Baron argued that the way Steven Spielberg and other directors have handled the subject serves an important educational purpose.
Baron said it is always a challenge to go back in history and portray it accurately. He said few film makers claim to have made the definitive Holocaust film, but instead they seek to bring a focused part of it to the screen. They seek to individualize mass-destruction.
“The greater the scale of violence, the easier it is to be unmoved by it,” Baron said. “It loses its form and shape.”
Admittedly there are distortions, but Baron said to try and document it purely, without any creative adaptation, results in a less effective movie.
Katy Kinports, a junior Judaic studies major, said she thought the big-name Holocaust films like “Life is Beautiful” and “Schindler’s List” do gloss over the enormity of the Holocaust, but other, less commercially successful films, are more informative.
“It’s important that there be movies to get people thinking about serious issues like the Holocaust,” Kinports said. “There are other ways to learn about it (too).”
Senior Robb Beck said he thought Baron did a decent job of covering the idea of representation and the tension between story telling and historical documentation.
Baron will lead a seminar, “Christianities of Complicity and Compassion,” today at noon in Room 375 McKenzie Hall. Fruit, cookies and beverages will be served, and guests are encouraged to bring their lunches.