Haaretz: Jewish artist defends YouTube video 'Dancing Auschwitz'

A YouTube clip depicting five people dancing to the tune of Gloria Gaynor's song "I Will survive" in front of Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz has resurfaced at the center of a trans-Atlantic controversy.

Australian Jewish artist Jane Korman filmed her three children and her father, 89-year-old Holocaust survivor Adolk, in the video clip "I Will Survive: Dancing Auschwitz." 

The clip depicted the Korman family dancing in front of Holocaust land marks in Poland, including infamous entrance sign to Auschwitz death camp that says "Arbeit Macht Frei," a Polish synagogue, Dachau, Theresienstadt, and a memorial in Lodz.

Her father at one point in the clip even wore a shirt on which the word "Survivor" was written. During a recent family visit to Israel Korman said that she thought of the idea after she encountered hatred toward Israel and Jews in Australia.

Many Jewish survivors have reacted gravely to the video, accusing her of disrespect. Yet Korman told Australian daily The Jewish News that “it might be disrespectful, but he [her father] is saying:

‘we’re dancing, we should be dancing, we’re celebrating our survival and the generations after me,’ - the generation he’s created. We are affirming our existence.”

When the video was first released in December 2009, Melbourne media reacted strongly to the video and even accused Korman of using the Holocaust to promote her art. Korman said:

“I wanted to make artwork that creates a fresh interpretation of historical memory,” 

Apparently the video installation, which was exhibited in an Australia art gallery, was also picked up by several neo-Nazi websites in which they wrote:

"look, the Jews are still dancing in every corner. We aren't through with them; we will finish them in the next Holocaust." 

Rightardia comment:  the Holocaust is a poignant reminder of fascist scapegoating. In Germany it was the Jews. In the US it has been the blacks and now the Tea Partiers have added Hispanics.


The only criticisms of this film is that Rightardia wishes the family had taken some dancing lessons before they made the video.

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