Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
- Martin Niemöller
Holocaust documentaries are never easy to watch. They elicit gasps of horror at the sight of emaciated prisoners and bony corpses stacked up like firewood. They evoke tears of sorrow at stories of train rides to gas chambers and death marches to nowhere. They produce surges of outrage at the crackpot führer and his heartless goons, not to mention the countless lemmings who sieg heiled their approval of this unmitigated brutality.
Worst of all is the dreaded sense of shame that comes from being human. Who wants to admit membership in a race that can treat their fellow human beings with such contempt and savagery? My copy of Schindler’s List has been in its shrink wrapping for two decades. I know the story, so I’ll get to it someday. I’m in no hurry to watch it. After all, who wants to set himself up to be sad? The film’s plot is not pleasant, so why bother? Life has enough trouble, so why push “play” and get more of it on purpose?
This studied avoidance of pain took a backseat to parental responsibility on Thursday night, April 16. My son Andrew Valentino provided the visual effects for Misa’s Fugue, which premiered at the Miller Center for the Arts at Reading Area Community College. I was honored to attend the event with him. Drew is quite talented in all things digital, and genuinely tenderhearted in all things unjust. He is a student at Temple University and will graduate soon with a degree in Film and Media Arts. Needless to say, mom and dad are proud of him.
The project on which he collaborated is a 90-minute film that chronicles the extraordinary story of Holocaust survivor Frank “Misa” Grunwald. Misa, who now lives in Fishers, Indiana, was born in Czechoslovakia in September 1932. Four months later, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. While exposed to some of the most horrific people, places, and events of the Holocaust, Grunwald was able to endure the atrocities of genocide through a love for art and music that his childhood in Prague had instilled in him.
His story of suffering, loss, and self-discovery is poignantly told from the perspective of a child who has lived with these tragic memories for more than half a century. Encountering the notorious Dr. Josef Mengele and the legendary artist Dina Babbit along the way, Frank Grunwald’s life demonstrates the choice that all men and women must make—to devote their lives to the creation of human civilization or to the destruction of it. Grunwald chose the former, and he is finally able to tell his story in Misa’s Fugue.
Anti-Semitism is a real and present evil. Certainly the Holocaust, and all the sentiments that led up to it and linger beyond it, represent a catastrophic failure of humanity and a dire warning about the fragility of freedom. One can only weep over the nightmare that was Auschwitz and the horror that was Buchenwald. One can only hang his head in shame while reflecting on the depravity of Treblenka. The massive degradation of one ethnic people was the degradation of us all. And the quest to exterminate the Jews today by some fanatics around the world is utterly intolerable. Shakespeare said it well in another context:
And I, for winking at your discords too,
Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish’d
Let us not wink lest we be punished again. The indelible mark of the 1940s must never be removed from the pages of history, nor can it ever be allowed to duplicate itself. I’m thankful that Sean Gaston, Jennifer Goss, Zach Houp, Chuck Ebersole, Justin Rienhart, Andrew Valentino, and others at the Fleetwood Area High School have done their part to keep this story alive. Their tireless efforts at giving voice to Mr. Grunwald’s story replace that sense of human shame with a greater sense of human dignity.
Liberation eventually came for the survivors, albeit after way too much carnage. Still, it was a reminder that evil cannot stand forever, and that the flame of human hope can continue to burn well beyond the darkest of tragedies.
I think it may be time for me to pop in my copy of Schindler’s List. I’ll need to weep for several hours, but the survivors have had to weep for seven decades.
————————————-
Official film resources, including the trailer and project updates, can be found here.
The Reading Eagle published an article that can be found here, and the Kutztown Area Patriot published an article that can be found here.
Filed under: Bits & Pieces Tagged: Andrew Valentino, Anti-Semitism, Frank Grunwald, Holocaust, Misa's Fugue, Valentino Family Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
