SHTETL Marzynski Wrongheaded Kerner

Film and the Holocaust: New Perspectives on Dramas, Documentaries, and Experimental Films, by Aaron Kerner. 2011

The Mystification of the Holocaust in Holocaust Filmography. SHTETL: Marian Marzynski’s Misconduct Candidly Acknowledged and Analyzed

This book examines scores of Holocaust films, dissecting them from every angle imaginable. [Needless to say, no other genocide of any other peoples gets anywhere this kind of attention, reflection, and sacralization.] Many materials on the Shoah give at least cursory mention of the many non-Jewish genocides that had taken place, if only to deflect argument. Not this one. A search of the index yields not even one entry on the Armenian Genocide (AGHET) or the Romani Genocide (PORAJMOS). So the reader who wants a completely Judeocentric version of historical events will very much find it in this book.

MARIAN MARZYNSKI’S ANTI-POLISH DOCUMENTARY SHTETL, AND HIS TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE POLE ZBIGNIEW ROMANIUK

Author Aaron Kerner gets it right as he describes the situation involving Polish Jew Marian Marzynski and his interaction with Zbigniew Romaniuk, a Pole of good will (and perhaps a little naivete) who wanted to learn about Poland’s Jewish past. (pp. 222-224).

Film-maker Marian Marzynski admittedly acted in a very inappropriate manner towards Romaniuk. Author Kerner acknowledges as much, “Marzynski invites himself to one of the town meetings in preparation for the town celebration. There, he unfairly torpedoes Romaniuk in a public forum, by challenging the young public official to incorporate Jewish history into the program…Certainly, the questions are legitimate, but Marzynski’s vitriol does not serve him well, as he attacks the one Pole who exhibits sympathy, even enthusiastic interest in Jewish history in Poland. Marzynski adds fodder to that Polish refrain often tinged with anti-Semitism: ‘We were victims too.’” (p. 224).

[Really? Since when has the remembrance of Polish suffering become a form of anti-Semitism?]