I WIll Survive: Dancing Auschwitz

[truepenny]

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

(Part 1 is the part that's been getting all the buzz: a Holocaust survivor, his daughter, and his grandchildren dancing to "I Will Survive" at Auschwitz and other Holocaust sites. But I wanted to point out that, utterly marvelous as it is, it's only part of Jane Korman's I Will Survive: Dancing Auschwitz installation.)

Comments

[mastadge.livejournal.com]

Part 3 links to Part 2 again.

Here's the Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpfID7pLe7M&feature=related

Thanks for sharing; I hadn't heard about this.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Fixed. Thank you!

[mevincula.livejournal.com]

thank you --needed to see. it's good to cry tears of joy

[mondyboy.livejournal.com]

This is an Australian family, and the girl with the black hair is a close friend of my brothers. Its really split the community here in Australia (where it was a major news story) with some thinking its utterly offensive, no matter the justification and others thinking it's a slice of genius.

I think seeing the grandfather dance is wonderful.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you for commenting!

I can certainly understand why people might find it problematic (I was very dubious when I hit play, myself), but--aside from the joy of watching the grandfather slowly warm up to this weird idea and find delight in the dancing--I thought it was excellent for several reasons, most of which I find I can't articulate properly. But one of them is that it does, truly, celebrate survival and the fact--as the grandfather says--that it's sixty-plus years later and he's brought his grandchildren to Auschwitz, and another is that, for me at least, it's a glorious, vigorous, fearless KICK IN THE FACE to the Nazis. Not about disrespecting the victims, but about triumphing over the forces of evil, through surviving in spirit as well as in body.