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When I first heard about the video, Dancing at Auschwitz, from Mir at Would Coulda Shoulda, I didn’t know how to feel. The film features a Holocaust survivor, his daughter, and her children and nieces dancing to Gloria Gaynor’s song "I Will Survive" at Auschwitz and other historic sites. I liked the idea of dancing - celebrating life in the face of such destruction and loss - but " Will Survive," despite the word "survive" in the title, didn’t seem like a good choice. Then I watched the video.
I couldn’t stop crying. To see this man go back to a place that robbed him of so much and dance with his family is incredible. He’s adorable as he fumbles some of the steps, and his family brings such life as they move around him. Be sure to watch until the very end, when he talks about what it means to go back more than 60 years later with his grandchildren.
The video is part of a larger project by artist Jane Korman. (Click on projects, then Dancing Auschwitz to get to the other videos and pictures.) The second video is from her childhood and shows her family dancing together in a forest. Korman explains how much dancing meant to her as a means of celebrating life. The final video is a documentary Korman made when the family went back to Poland and Germany. I actually found that to be the most difficult to watch: Korman’s father stands in a box car and re-enacts his journey to Auschwitz 65 years earlier. It seems insanely cruel, but as he explains, he is very happy that he has the chance to come back with his grandchildren. Not many people can say the same, he notes, because they were killed. The last part of the project includes photos in which the family re-enacts scenes at Auschwitz that made me feel sick while viewing. But maybe that is what makes it good art. It’s important to see and decide for oneself.
In June, I went to Treblinka, a death camp between Warsaw (my grandfather’s hometown) and Białystok (the Polish city occupied by Russia in 1939 to which he fled). It never crossed my mind to dance and celebrate life. I think the difference is that, as evil and horrible and destructive as Auschwitz was, it had survivors who could return with children and grandchildren. Treblinka was an extermination camp. This is where Warsaw's 350,000 Jews died if the ghetto didn’t kill them first, or if they didn't flee like my grandfather. All 2,000 people who arrived per transport were gassed and cremated within two hours. There were no barracks and no selections for forced labor. While over 800,000 people died at Treblinka, fewer than 100 escaped and survived. Literally there is no one to come back with their family to dance. At Treblinka, there is only the opportunity to honor the dead. In a twisted way, I am jealous that Korman could do what she did. At the end of my trip, I came away feeling the weight of my grandfather's loss more than ever.
Still, there are many ways to cope. I love how Korman grapples with this topic, even if it also upsets me. My own grandfather used (frequently bawdy) humor. Vered feels rage at what her family went through. Kgirl spoke to a survivor while waiting to use the facilities on a flight to Miami and shared her words. And many have their own families because the best way to celebrate surviving is to bring in new life to cherish.
Suzanne also blogs at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants and is the author of Off the Beaten (Subway) Track.
