YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO DOWNTOWN TO GET I THE ZIP "The best Pizza in Metro Detroit" 4 \ Dr. Paul Parks, an African American liberator, relates how a German officer spit in his face at Dachau. Dr. Parks shot the German officer. Katsiyo Miho, a Japanese American liberator describes the "walking dead ... skele- tons, and resolutely avows that "the Holocaust was the worst thing" he had seen. And yet another liberator, Warren Dunn, depicts the scene he witnessed as simply "totally unreal." The eloquence of survivors, of their hesitations and silences, imbues the film with dignity and honesty. The contrast between the brief segments of their lec- turing to students and the intimacy of their private comments places in relief what may be a quandary that surrounds the interview/speaking process so vital to such films as this one. To capture the spontaneity means non-staged, unrehearsed, unplanned testimonies. It means, too, that the viewer/listener must experience the ambivalence many survivors endure. Can Dario Gabbai ever be completely happy? Can Renee Firestone ever look at bathing suits with complete frivoli- ty? As Bill Basch exclaims that "we have regenerated" and Tom Lantos sees a sort of victory in his 17 grand- children, are they free of these memo- ries, these unbearable losses? Because of the protests prompted by the smell, the bodies were transported six kilometers by postal cars to Paterdamm, where a crematorium was constructed, "and the ashes were driven back" to Brandenburg and eventually sent to the families of the deceased. Dr. Lifton provides thoughtfully provocative theoretical commentary, as do several German scientists and sociologists. As with more traditional Holocaust documentaries, however, it is the survivor testimonies that are most riveting. This film uses now standard cam- era techniques of moving through the sites of the camps as they are today — through Block 10, the medical experimentation building at Auschwitz with its terrifying metal tables and troughs, for example — in incongruously bright colors. Those scenes are juxtaposed to black and white photographs of the same terrible places in their evil heydays. It contrasts to the more daring techniques of James Moll's Spielberg-produced The Last Days but surprisingly connects to it. Suddenly we see Dr. Mueller, styl- ishly dressed and convivially forth- As if recognizing that phenomenon, the film opens with the sounds of a train and closes with Renee Firestone tearfully leaving three candles lit on the ruins of Crematorium #5 at Birkenau. Randolph Braham's voice speaks over the image attributing that awful past to the time when man loses his . . . belief in the sanctity of human life." As some of us debate the propriety of comedy and the Holocaust (Life Is Beautiful) or the relative virtues of Holocaust testimonies, this ending should make us pause, should silence us, perhaps to contemplate more con- scientiously the silences between the words of survivor testimonies like those in The Last Days. I I *x:xx:xx:x 2 0K KOX 4! IC) No stars • Pasta Specialties • Pizza • Steaks• Chops • Poultry • Seafood • Cocktails OPEN DAILY — LUNCH & DINNER OPEN WEEKDAYS UNTIL 2:00 AM WEEKENDS UNTIL 3:30 AM A Ferndale Favorite Since 1961 'Ye 0 F 0 ,0,:0 WIN A BEANIE BABY FOR 25 CENTS! PARTY RENTALS AVAILABLE. LATEST IN ARCADE GAMES. Dr. Sidney Bolkosky is a professor of history at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and the co-author of "Life Unworthy ofLifi: A Holocaust Curriculum." — Sidney Bolkosky THE GREATEST BIRTHDAY IES ANYWHERE! PART Offer Good Monday Thru Thursday • Minimum 10 Kids 1 BLACK & WHITE AND COLOR PHOTO BOOTHS Excellent Worthy Mixed Poor Forget it coming as he was in The Last Days. Yet here he seems more confident, talking of his wife going to Auschwitz with him and, finally, of his responsibility for signing an authorization to serve meat from the crematorium during a meat shortage. "I did what was normal and expected of me: I signed ... I didn't think it was unethical to take that human meat. " And so we are left with a question, a problem: how will we ever decipher or understand such logic, such ethics coming from a man of considerable formal education, clearly civilized and remorseless? x:xx:xx:x 1/2 77 John Tarasychuk Detroit Free Press January 8th, 1999 The Last Days will be shown at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19; 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20; and 4 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 21, at the Detroit Film Theatre (DFT). Healing By Killing will be screened 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, at the DFT. 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