By Govindini Murty. This Veterans Day, please take the time to thank our veterans for their service – and also think about how you can honor the ideals of freedom, civilization, and democracy that they fight for.
The first and best way to do this is by learning about history. Knowledge of history is critical for providing a sense of context to our lives and for also offering fascinating parallels that can illuminate the present day.
One of the best WWII historical documentaries I’ve seen in recent years is Murry Sidlin’s Defiant Requiem, which screened earlier this year on PBS and has just become available on Netflix. Defiant Requiem tells the heartbreaking story of the Jewish prisoners of the concentration camp Terezin who, led by conductor Rafael Schächter, defied their Nazi captors by performing Verdi’s Requiem.
The documentary brings home in the most powerful way why it was so important that the free nations of the world fought so valiantly in WWII to defeat the Nazis and Axis powers – and why we must continue to fight for freedom today to make sure such atrocities never happen again.
The courageous prisoners of Terezin themselves might not have fought with arms, but they fought for the human spirit under the most difficult of circumstances by preserving the arts, humanities, and all the civilized values that the Nazis worked so hard to extinguish. They did this by creating an “accidental university” at Terezin, giving thousands of lectures on history, art, philosophy, religion, and science; by writing literature, poetry, and plays; and by creating numerous paintings, drawings, and artworks – and by giving concerts, most notably of Verdi’s Requiem, with its powerful, universal message of justice and redemption.
Renowned conductor Murry Sidlin, who founded the Defiant Requiem Foundation and its Rafael Schächter Institute for Arts and Humanities to bring light to the history of the Terezin prisoners, was honored earlier this year with the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Medal of Valor for his efforts.
We had the chance to speak with Murry Sidlin earlier this year about Defiant Requiem and his extraordinary work to keep alive the memory of Rafael Schächter and the prisoners of Terezin. Every year, the Defiant Requiem Foundation carries out reenactments of the Verdi concert at Terezin and a multitude of other locations. The foundation’s Rafael Schächter Institute also hosts educational activities every summer at Terezin to keep alive the memory of the prisoners’ artistic and humanistic efforts. As the institute’s website states, these activities “honor the prisoners’ act of choosing to learn, to listen, to discuss, and to be educationally and artistically enriched, amidst brutality, impoverishment, terror, and inhuman deprivation.”
You can seen Defiant Requiem on Netflix and can read more of our Huffington Post interview with Murry Sidlin.
Other excellent historical films worth viewing this Veterans Day include Patton, The Longest Day, The Battle of the Bulge, and Bridge on the River Kwai. These films have an epic scope and intelligence that continues to make them compelling viewing. Watching them has also inspired me to learn more about history. This summer I finally sat and read Ladislas Farago’s superb biography Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, and came to a much better understanding of WWII and how crucial the brilliant tactics, speed, and daring of generals like General George S. Patton were to winning the war.
To get a deeper understanding of WWII, it’s also fascinating to see some of the color documentaries that were shot during the war. Several I can recommend include John Ford’s The Battle of Midway, William Wyler’s The Memphis Belle, and John Huston’s Report From the Aleutians. These first-hand accounts of the war are astounding, especially as one considers that the cameramen risked their lives to film this footage. John Ford was present during the Battle of Midway and was knocked unconscious by bombing as he shot the film. In classic John Ford style, he recovered and kept on filming.
In recent cinema, there have been a number of gripping European-made dramas about WWII that have come out in the past few years.
• Army of Crime (2011), directed by Robert Guediguian, tells the true story of Jewish, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, Spanish, Italian, and Armenian immigrant members of the French Resistance who fought the Nazis with daring acts of sabotage in Paris in 1943.
• Flame and Citron (2008), directed by Ole Christian Madsen, dramatizes the real lives of Danish resistance fighters code-named Flame (Thure Lindhardt) and Citron (Mads Mikkelsen) as they assassinate Nazis and their collaborators – at incalculable risk to themselves.
• Max Schmeling (2010), directed by Uwe Boll, tells the true story of the champion German boxer Max Schmeling (played by real German boxing champ Henry Maske) who defied the Nazis by boxing with Joe Louis (and who supported Louis years later when he fell on hard times). When Schmeling doesn’t go along with Nazi plans (he saves two Jewish children and has a Jewish manager), he’s sent to the front, where he is injured and ultimately helps free an Allied POW.
Each of these films taught me about a new facet of WWII history and helped me to better understand the real sacrifices of WWII veterans.
As for more contemporary history, I’m looking forward to Peter Berg’s Afghanistan-set Lone Survivor, having its premiere at AFI Fest this November 12th and starring Mark Wahlberg and Eric Bana. Planned for wide release in January, the film is based on Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell’s true account Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10. Early buzz on the film is extraordinary and it is already receiving award’s season consideration.
It’s often said that without knowing history, you’re condemned to repeat it – and this is true now more than ever. Without having a thorough knowledge of the history of America’s founding or of the fight for freedom in WWI and WWII and more recent conflicts – how will you know when your own freedom is being abridged today, or when we aren’t taking sufficient steps to support freedom around the world today?
So this Veterans Day, please take the time to honor our veterans by learning more about history and the ideals that they fought for.
Posted on November 11th, 2013 at 7:15pm.
