8. The Holocaust
The Shoah (Holocaust) is central to the Israeli
psyche. Unlike most historical events whose influence
gradually recedes, it is fair to say that the influence
of this series of events on Israeli society has actually
increased with the passage of time. This process is complex
and difficult to describe in a few sentences; however,
understanding its dynamics is essential in any survey
of Israeli culture.
Large sectors of Israeli society – the mainstream,
the decision-makers and the cultural icons – were
emotionally ‘blocked’ for decades in their
attitude towards the Shoah. The main reason for this is
that it was difficult for many Israelis – and for
the society as a whole – to face this period in
Jewish history without the protective, ideological armor
of a Zionist perspective that condemned the victims even
as it mourned them. The prevailing activist stream in
Zionism perceived them as having ignored the warning signs
– of having clung to the relative comfort of the
Diaspora, and having ultimately gone to their deaths as
the proverbial ‘sheep to the slaughter.’ In
a sense, the Shoah confirmed the Zionists’ belief
regarding the perils of the Diaspora, the weakness of
the unassertive Diaspora Jew and the strength of the proud,
upstanding, national Jew that they believed Zionism had
produced. “We would have done things differently,”
they stated. For years, this patronizing attitude prevented
many Israelis from understanding the complexities of the
true situation that the Jews of Europe had faced.
This subject is finely described and satirized in Shulamit
Hareven’s superb story, The Witness. The story demonstrates
the problems encountered by a young Holocaust refugee
who arrives at an Israeli boarding-school after his whole
family has been murdered. Through the self-righteous tone
of the narrator, a teacher at the school, we witness the
callousness of the society at that time, and its inability
to identify and empathize with the experiences of the
victims and survivors.
The Zionists chose to memorialize instead the memory of
the proud fighters of Warsaw and other ghettos. These
represented the ‘positive’ side of Jewish
behavior as opposed to the faceless millions who had gone
shamefully to their deaths according to the prevailing
Zionist viewpoint. In such an atmosphere, it is hardly
surprising that – apart from those who had had direct
contact with the Shoah – the subject was kept at
a distance and intellectualized by much of Israeli society.
It is safe to say that this stage – which may be
called ‘Stage One’ of Israeli Holocaust memory
– lasted until well into the 1970s. Two exceptions
should be mentioned here, however, who were not part of
the denial that characterized most of Israeli society:
Aharon Applefield and Ida Fink, both outstanding in their
written evocation of Holocaust Europe, had had personal
experience of those events.
However, a number of factors gradually caused an erosion
of the usual Israeli distance from the Shoah, allowing
a more honest, personal evaluation of the past. At this
point, more understanding and empathy began to creep in.
Two sets of factors may have caused this transformation:
knowledge and emotional responses. The initial step towards
a deeper understanding of the recent past began with the
Eichman trial in 1961. For the first time, Holocaust survivors
were encouraged to come forward as witnesses and retell
their experiences openly before the Israeli public. Further
revelations concerning the German bureaucracy before and
during the war demonstrated clearly that the situation
had been far more complex than many had previously realized.
At a later stage, increasing knowledge about these events
began to permeate the Israeli consciousness. In addition,
many groups of young Israelis began serious study of the
Shoah that included taking trips to Poland.
The change in emotional responses is far more complex and
can be linked partly to a change in the Israelis’
self-image as they confronted a hostile world and found
themselves existentially threatened by Arab states and
terror. They had formerly seen themselves through the
prism of ideological Zionism as people who rejected fear
and neuroses – the heritage of the Diaspora Jew;
now they found themselves in fear for their families and
for themselves. The figure of the Jew as victim could
no longer be relegated to the outside Jewish world as
the exclusive property of the Diaspora Jew: they began
to consider themselves victims. In so doing, they began
to understand the plight of those co-religionists who
see the world standing by passively as the forces of hatred
close in on the Jews. As this occurred, they began not
only to acknowledge the Shoah in their heads but also
to feel it in their hearts. The empathy that previously
had been lacking in many Israelis now became evident and
the entire subject became acceptable. This is evident
in Israeli creative culture. For example, judging by the
ideological position represented in some of the early
Israeli art on display at Yad vashem, the official national
site of Shoah commemoration, Israeli artists and writers
have clearly become more empathetic.
This second, empathetic stage of Shoah remembrance is exemplified
by more recent group of writers who were not directly
involved themselves. Nonetheless, their work demonstrates
deep sensitivity particularly with regard to the lives
of survivors in Israel. David Grossman, Shulamit Hareven
and Savyon Liebrecht, for example, stress the tragedy
of lives forever changed by the events in Europe; Hareven
also criticizes the insensitive paternalism of the Yishuv
after the World War II.
The Israeli cinema generally has not focused on the Shoah.
Two important feature films that tackled the subject of
survivors in the early years of statehood, however, should
be mentioned. Both were made by Israel’s leading
film actress, Gila Almagor; drawing on her personal memories
as the daughter of a survivor family, she created two
truly wonderful, empathetic pictures in the 1980s and
90s. The Summer of Aviya (1988) and Underneath
the Domim Tree (1995) possess deep emotional power
and are two of the finest Israeli films. Another, very
different, film is the full-length documentary Because
of That War. This portrays the extraordinary attempt
of rock musician Yehuda Poliker and his partner Yaakov
Gil‘ad, both children of survivors, to write rock
songs about the Shoah, chronicling their parents’
experiences.
A large number of other documentaries have been made on
this subject. With time, however, the emphasis has changed.
At first statements were made on a large scale, not only
in film and literature, but also in monumental art such
as the powerful Scroll of Fire, situated in the Judean
hills around Jerusalem. In recent years, however, these
have tended to be replaced by smaller, more personal statements.
Many documentaries have now been produced in which survivors
record the details of their daily lives and recount their
personal history.
In some ways, the weight of this memory is becoming heavier
with the passage of time. Clearly this subject will be
part of the Israeli psyche and its artistic expression
for many years to come.