OK, so the name of this post may be a little misleading. I am talking about the movie, The Debt. I must admit, that leaving the theater at the end of the movie, the crowd was as silent as if they were leaving the graveside funeral of a friend, and had no idea what to say, nor to whom to say it. It was eerie, to be honest with you. If you aren't familiar with the movie, the link above will help. However, both in the link, and in this blog, there may be some spoiler moments, so be forewarned!
The general theme of the movie is this. Following the Holocaust, a special team is commissioned by the Mossad, the Israeli special forces, to track down, capture, and bring back to Israel the man called the Surgeon of Birkenau, for the crimes he had committed during the war. The team is composed of 3 people, two men and a woman. And the story is told some 40 years after the events took place.
As we see the story unfold, it seems that there are two stories. As it turns out, there are. The mission to capture the Surgeon of Birkenau had, in reality, failed. Yet, the team, upon their return, had told everyone that it was successful, and that the Surgeon of Birkenau was dead. They stuck to their story so well, that the woman's daughter eventually grew up, and wrote a book about how wonderful her mother was, and the others on the team, for killing this butcher of the Holocaust.
I think that this was the major problem that I had coming out of the movie. There is so much antagonism toward the Holocaust around the world, even to the point of denying that it ever happened, that to portray the Israeli Mossad as being liars is akin to anti-Holocaust anti-semitism. I am not saying that the movie makers, or even the writers of the novel upon which the movie was based, Ha-Hov, are anti-Semitic. But the feeling that I was left with after the movie was one where if someone had that bent, there is a TON of anti-Israel anti-Jewish ammunition in this movie.
The reality of the Holocaust was NOT denied by any of the characters, including the Surgeon. In fact, many of his comments about what he had done were vicious, and probably a fairly accurate rendering of the feelings of many of the Nazi criminals from that time. In fact, some of the things that he says, if believed to be true, could be used as some of that ammunition I was talking about. At one point, he says, and I am paraphrasing, that the Jews were so easy to kill because they never had any courage, and never fought for themselves. And that is why it was a good thing that they died so easily. This also gave me cause for concern.
There are many Jews who fought valiantly against the atrocities of the Holocaust, albeit to their deaths. And not just Jews, but Christians as well, who also went to their deaths. The lie that Jews didn't fight is ridiculous. Those who didn't were caught unaware, and were never given the chance to fight, the way a frog put in a pot of cold water won't try to jump out, and by the time the water gets too hot, his legs have already been boiled.
So the movie was troubling for me. For Kim as well. I also came to the conclusion that it would be more troubling if it were based on a true story than if it were simply fiction. Still troubling if it were only fiction because of the implications mentioned above, but more so if it were true.
THE STORY IS NOT TRUE!!!!!
There was a character upon which the Surgeon of Birkenau is based, however, he wasn't a surgeon. He wasn't at Birkenau. He was a doctor who performed experiments related to heredity, particularly with twins. He definitely committed atrocities, the same as most of the Nazi's in the concentration camps. However, it was not as the novel or the movie presented.
Nor was there a Mossad team tasked with his tracking, identification, capture and return. The real person, who had escaped the concentration camp before it had been liberated, died many years later of a stroke while swimming in a community pool, not by an Israeli assassin.
It is really important that we know what to believe regarding Israel, and the Jewish people. And the importance that God places on His covenant with them. Genesis 12:3 informs us all that those who bless Israel will be blessed, and that him who curses her shall be cursed. With anti-Semitism on the rise, the truth about God's Chosen People must be our guide, both for the natural olive branches, and for those who have been grafted in by faith. This movie is one example of a falsehood that, when used by those will malicious intent, can generate additional falsehoods that are hard to contain. Let's do our part, through our own lives, and our own actions, to stand with Israel, the olive tree, and remember that without her, there would be no Messiah.
The general theme of the movie is this. Following the Holocaust, a special team is commissioned by the Mossad, the Israeli special forces, to track down, capture, and bring back to Israel the man called the Surgeon of Birkenau, for the crimes he had committed during the war. The team is composed of 3 people, two men and a woman. And the story is told some 40 years after the events took place.
As we see the story unfold, it seems that there are two stories. As it turns out, there are. The mission to capture the Surgeon of Birkenau had, in reality, failed. Yet, the team, upon their return, had told everyone that it was successful, and that the Surgeon of Birkenau was dead. They stuck to their story so well, that the woman's daughter eventually grew up, and wrote a book about how wonderful her mother was, and the others on the team, for killing this butcher of the Holocaust.
I think that this was the major problem that I had coming out of the movie. There is so much antagonism toward the Holocaust around the world, even to the point of denying that it ever happened, that to portray the Israeli Mossad as being liars is akin to anti-Holocaust anti-semitism. I am not saying that the movie makers, or even the writers of the novel upon which the movie was based, Ha-Hov, are anti-Semitic. But the feeling that I was left with after the movie was one where if someone had that bent, there is a TON of anti-Israel anti-Jewish ammunition in this movie.
The reality of the Holocaust was NOT denied by any of the characters, including the Surgeon. In fact, many of his comments about what he had done were vicious, and probably a fairly accurate rendering of the feelings of many of the Nazi criminals from that time. In fact, some of the things that he says, if believed to be true, could be used as some of that ammunition I was talking about. At one point, he says, and I am paraphrasing, that the Jews were so easy to kill because they never had any courage, and never fought for themselves. And that is why it was a good thing that they died so easily. This also gave me cause for concern.
There are many Jews who fought valiantly against the atrocities of the Holocaust, albeit to their deaths. And not just Jews, but Christians as well, who also went to their deaths. The lie that Jews didn't fight is ridiculous. Those who didn't were caught unaware, and were never given the chance to fight, the way a frog put in a pot of cold water won't try to jump out, and by the time the water gets too hot, his legs have already been boiled.
So the movie was troubling for me. For Kim as well. I also came to the conclusion that it would be more troubling if it were based on a true story than if it were simply fiction. Still troubling if it were only fiction because of the implications mentioned above, but more so if it were true.
THE STORY IS NOT TRUE!!!!!
There was a character upon which the Surgeon of Birkenau is based, however, he wasn't a surgeon. He wasn't at Birkenau. He was a doctor who performed experiments related to heredity, particularly with twins. He definitely committed atrocities, the same as most of the Nazi's in the concentration camps. However, it was not as the novel or the movie presented.
Nor was there a Mossad team tasked with his tracking, identification, capture and return. The real person, who had escaped the concentration camp before it had been liberated, died many years later of a stroke while swimming in a community pool, not by an Israeli assassin.
It is really important that we know what to believe regarding Israel, and the Jewish people. And the importance that God places on His covenant with them. Genesis 12:3 informs us all that those who bless Israel will be blessed, and that him who curses her shall be cursed. With anti-Semitism on the rise, the truth about God's Chosen People must be our guide, both for the natural olive branches, and for those who have been grafted in by faith. This movie is one example of a falsehood that, when used by those will malicious intent, can generate additional falsehoods that are hard to contain. Let's do our part, through our own lives, and our own actions, to stand with Israel, the olive tree, and remember that without her, there would be no Messiah.
