An attempt by the World Jewish Congress to stop Steven Spielberg from filming part of his next movie at Auschwitz has been met with a largely negative response from the noted producer-director, other Jews in Hollywood and spokesmen for Holocaust memorial institutions.
The WJC said it was concerned that commercial filming at the death camp, where more than 1 million Jews were killed, would disturb the dignity of the site.
A spokesman said the organization had been informed that Spielberg planned to use hundreds of extras and build a fake gas chamber for his movie, "Schindler’s List."
WJC leaders were also reportedly upset because Spielberg, the director of such hits as "E.T." and "Gremlins," had bypassed the International Auschwitz Museum Council — of which WJC Vice President Kalman Sultanik is vice chairman — and got permission to film directly from the Polish government.
Sultanik has submitted a protest to the Polish ambassador to the United States and left Wednesday for Warsaw, where the WJC leader promised to pursue the issue.
"Schindler’s List" is based on the best-seller by Thomas Keneally and tells the story of a brave German businessman who saved more than 1,000 Jews by employing them in his factory and refusing to turn them over to the Nazis and certain death.
Spielberg, currently in the final stages of editing the film "Jurassic Park," was not available for comment, but his spokesman, Marvin Levy, said that an advance production crew for "Schindler’s List" was already in Poland, and that filming would begin as scheduled in early March.
Levy said that actual filming at the Auschwitz camp would take no more than three days and that Spielberg did not plan to replicate a gas chamber.
AN ‘INSULT’ TO SPIELBERG?
Irish actor Liam Neeson has been cast in the lead role of Oskar Schindler, and the film is expected to be released in December of this year.
Other Jewish groups echoed WJC’s concern for the solemnity of the site, but expressed confidence that a filmmaker of Spielberg’s standing would treat the subject with sensitivity. They also saw the project as an opportunity to educate millions about the horrors of the Holocaust.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which has clashed with the WJC in the past, described the action by the latter organization as "really an insult," in the words of Rabbi Marvin Hier, the center’s dean.
"We unreservedly support Mr. Spielberg," Hier said. "To put so many restrictions on him will only give credence to Holocaust revisionists."
He noted that the television series based on Herman Wouk’s "War and Remembrance" had been shot at Auschwitz, with the sensitive guidance of Holocaust survivor Bronco Lustig, who is performing the same service for "Schindler’s List."
Michael Berenbaum, project director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, said he saw no objections to the film project if it were handled with taste and responsibility.
He hoped, however, that a location adjoining, rather than inside, the former death camp could be used for the film.
In Los Angeles, David Lehrer, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said he questioned whether it was necessary to film at Auschwitz itself, in light of the advanced technology for recreating any given location, but that some latitude should be allowed to someone of Spielberg’s accomplishments.
Members of the film industry strongly backed Spielberg. "I can’t understand this controversy. I think it’s marvelous that someone like Spielberg will do a film about the Holocaust," said screenwriter Hal Sitowitz.
‘WILL BRING MORE AWARENESS’
Director Jeremy Kagan agreed.
"It’s difficult enough in this day and age to get anyone in the mass media to pay attention to the Holocaust," he said. "If someone of Spielberg’s eminence is willing to take a chance on the subject, it will certainly bring more awareness to a public that would rather forget."
Informed of such reactions, WJC spokesman Elan Steinberg emphasized repeatedly that "we’re not ascribing any ill intentions to Spielberg."
But once a precedent had been set of bypassing the body responsible for the preservation of Auschwitz, the camp site could turn into a Hollywood back lot, Steinberg said.
"There is one strong view that only documentaries, and not commercial movies, should be filmed at Auschwitz," he added.
In Canada, Sigmund Sobolewski, co-director of the Auschwitz Awareness Society and himself a survivor, said he plans to raise the issue at the next meeting of the International Auschwitz Museum Council, being held later this month in Oswiecim, Poland.
"Mr. Spielberg, a Jew himself, must be aware of concerns about the dignity of this, the biggest Jewish cemetery in the world," said Sobolewski, who is Catholic.
(Contributing to this report was JTA correspondent Gil Kezwer in Toronto.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
