The missing scene: Entebbe, Holocaust, and echoes from the German past

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle

Abstract

The screening of the U.S. mini-series "Holocaust" by Marvin Chomsky on West German TV in 1979 is regarded as the turning point in the emergence of public consciousness of the Nazi genocide of Jews in the country. Notes that two years earlier, the West German public saw the film "Victory at Entebbe", also directed by Chomsky, and it generated a public controversy over the nation's Nazi past. "Victory at Entebbe" includes a scene of selection, which had occurred in reality during the hijack of June 1976, when the terrorists, two of whom were German radical leftists, separated Jews from other passengers in Entebbe. The public could see that the Nazi past was being continued, not by the Nazi old-timers, but by young leftists. The mini-series "Holocaust" did not include a selection scene, because it had already been shown in "Victory at Entebbe". The critics, especially the left, noted the continuity between the film and the mini-series, and the radical left press (e.g. "Pflasterstrand" and "Rote Fahne") branded the mini-series as serving Zionism and American capitalism. The recurrence of the Nazi era selection in the Entebbe events and their dramatization provoked a discussion on the Nazi legacy in the Federal Republic and discredited the radical left in Germany.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)243-263
Number of pages21
JournalJahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts
Volume14
StatePublished - 2015

RAMBI Publications

  • Rambi Publications
  • Entebbe Airport Raid, 1976
  • Holocaust (Television program)
  • Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Germany -- Public opinion
  • New Left -- Germany
  • Victory at Entebbe (Television program)

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