Defiance is a truly great movie which shows the dramatic and moving story of Jews in Belarus surviving in the forests from Nazi persecution and execution during WWII. They were led by a group of brothers who took in any Jew on the run, provided for them, and defended them. The circumstances under which they had to survive were tremendous. It shows how they stuck together through it all, how they organised themselves and how they found ways of survival in impossible circumstances.
Defiance tells yet another dramatic story of Jewish survival during WWII. What these six years have done to that persecuted people is hardly understandable for outsiders. It certainly explains why Israel today is so determined to defend herself in order to avoid another such catastrophy. Finally, since 1948, Israel received back her land and can be independent and able to defend herself. The Holocaust is not the first terrible thing that happened to the Jews: they were persecuted for centuries, persecuted from one corner of Europe to another; there were blood libels, progroms, random plunderings and killings; there false accusations, blaming the Jews for all kinds of evils, and treating them as scapegoats; the Crusaders killed Jews, burning them in their synagogues, while singing Psalms from the Bible (!) and holding up large wooden crosses; the Inquisition forced conversion on Jews, else excluding them from trade; the Muslims made them second-class citizens, taking up to half their earnings, and sometimes killing at will; the list goes on and on... The Holocaust is really only the climax of all the Jewish people had to endure over the centuries. Who can deny a post-Holocaust people the right to defend itself after all their suffering?
No comments:
Post a Comment