This video has made my day, my week, my year… how absolutely WONDERFUL!
“living well is the best revenge” is right!
I will admit that my first reaction is not positive – it seems kind of trivializing.
But of course, if the folks would actually did lose family feel this is empowering, then my opinion isn’t worth much more than warm spit, so more power to 'em.
The old man dancing along is an actual Auschwitz survivor! Those are his grandkids.
It’s impossible to effectively trivialize the holocaust at this point. Everyone knows what it is/was, and holds it up as the very worst example of what humans are capable of. That’s accepted by basically everyone in the Western World at this point. Even if you tried to trivialize it, you’d be written off as a nutjob.
How, then, could someone who actually lived through the experience ever possibly trivialize the holocaust by dancing?
Yeah, I saw this when it was over on Fark, and I’m really of two minds about it. I get what they’re trying to do and say, but at the same time it just seems a little disrespectful to the people who did die there. I don’t know. It’s not for me to judge, certainly. I think part of it is that the granddad doesn’t seem to be all that excited about the idea. I did really like his quote at the end, though.
I love it. Love it, love it, love it.
[QUOTE=Viktor Frankl, trauma psychologist and holocaust survivor]
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
[/QUOTE]
Dance on, Grandpa.
Someone showed me this a while ago and I thought the same thing. I get the whole thing about choosing how to view the things that happened to you, but it does seem a little disrespectful to me. I’ve been to Auschwitz myself, and if someone had been doing this while I was there I would have been horrified. But then, I don’t have a personal family connection to the experience, so maybe it’s not for me to say.
Fucking brilliant.
I see defeating Nazism as a three stage process.
- Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin win World War II.
- The Nuremberg Trials and Simon Wiesenthal round up the loose ends.
- Mel Brooks, Hogan’s Heroes, the Blues Brothers, and Downfall parodies ridicule its memory so nobody will ever take it seriously again. We’ve already put the Nazis in their grave. Now we piss on it.
For those who are torn and feel it’s disrespectful - it’s anything but. In fact, it is the ultimate expression of respect: respecting the price of death paid by so many, if you survive what others didn’t, what better respect could be paid than to live your own life as gratefully and joyfully as you possibly can? What better respect can be paid than, for yourself and those who died, thumb your nose at the Nazis and declare: Here I am! Here are my grandchildren! We are filled with joy and life and we go on, in spite of everything you tried to do, all the ones you did kill… you ultimately failed.
We dance not the graves of those you killed, we dance on the grave of your murder, your torture, your hatred. We dance on the grave of your evil plan and your evil existence.
A friend of mine is the daughter of a woman who survived Auschwitz, and she did exactly the reverse, and as far as I’m concerned she perpetuated the Nazis’ crimes by letting her life be defined by Auschwitz, by being miserable, depressed, suspicious - she died in Auschwitz, she just doesn’t know it. And she made her children’s lives utterly miserable.
This man and his grandchildren dancing? It’s beautiful. And if there is such a thing as life after death, I believe absolutely that the ones who were murdered would approve wholeheartedly.
Ya know, from reading the thread, I thought I would hate this. I’m very much a solemn memory, “Never Again” kind of guy. But I watched the video. And I fucking love it. The music, particularly that song, seems perfect. I’m not Jewish, and I’m a lousy dancer, but I think, given the opportunity, I’d be proud to shake my middle-aged ass at the Nazi bastards.
Now, there uh…seems to be something in my eye. Excuse me while I go flush it out.
I almost never watch these YouTube video-sensation things, but this one is irresistible. As far as I’m concerned, if that old man survived Auschwitz, he can jolly well go back there and do whatever he likes.
I think it’s fantastic. The creator of it (one of the grandchidren) specifically mentions having struggled with the appropriateness of it. I trust she spent far longer reaching the conclusion to complete the project than I have in justifying my positive reaction. I think it works extremely well on at least two levels: “I’m dancing on your graves you Nazi fucks” and “you didn’t get even close to breaking me - here I am, here is my family, and here is our happiness six decades later (you Nazi fucks)”.
The old man has a shirt on that says “Survivor”. Can anyone read what the others’ shirts say?
I didn’t really like the video, I get the concept, but it sorta squicks me out to basically be using the “I will survive” song at the concentration camps and such. Perhaps if the dancers had all been Auschwitz survivors, and not just what basically feels like one survivor, and his kids leading the way. The video doesn’t seem to emphasize the survivor, as much as it does of the kids using the “dancing guy” meme variation.
But good on that guy and his family I suppose.
I’m sitting here at work, smiling and crying at the same time. I love that this man was able to survive and return 60 some years later with his family and celebrate a life denied to the Nazi bastards.
The thing is, without that one Survivor, the rest of the dancers do not exist. To me, it says “We took your best shot, and it wasn’t good enough. We’re still here, and we can dance. Fuck you Nazi bastards.”
The problem is that “I Will Survive” is a break-up song. It seems to imply that the Holocaust is equivalent to breaking up. Kind of trivializes it, as others have said.
They’re lousy dancers, which helps in a funny way.
Not really any of my business - I am not Jewish. If that old guy lived thru the Holocaust, he can do whatever he wants. I kind of doubt that it was his idea, though.
I liked the Downfall vids on YouTube a lot better. Those mocked Hitler and his rage at being defeated. That’s a good thing to parody. The death of millions?
Like I said, not my business. Mazel tov.
Regards,
Shodan
No, it really, really doesn’t. How in the world can you even claim such a thing with a straight face?
Who parodied the death of millions?
There is a quote on the YouTube video:
“…it’s a wonderful thing that some survived. But to dance around Auschwitz publicly celebrating the survival of a few is crass and disrespectful to the memories of the dead. If some members of your family died in a car crash (God forbid) but I survived that crash, how would it be if I posted a video around of me doing a silly dance and celebrating my survival? It would be wrong.”
I think that sums up what I think is slightly disrespectful about it. I also agree with others that it seems like less the old guys idea and more his grandchildren - I know they wouldn’t exist without him, but it would be a different video if they were all survivors.
Have you ever been to Auschwitz-Birkenau? When I was there there were a lot of people there, some visibly upset, many old enough to have memories of parents, siblings, etc. that were lost. To do this in front of them seems disrespectful to me, and I would have thought less of people I saw doing that.