Israel's version of Elie Wiesel, Yehiel De-Nur, pen name Ka-Tsetnik 135633, brought the Shoah (Holocaust) into public consciousness through his unflinching detailing of his horrific years in Auschwitz
Beautifully written, Beth. I was especially struck by your take on De-Nur’s courtroom collapse, not as a psychiatric break but as a moment society failed to hold space for grief.
Thanks! It was a mental mind shift to think about it this way for me too. It was one of the most illuminating parts of the film. “What if this was more about our discomfort with watching someone process grief than it was whether he was experiencing a breakdown or not?”
Unrelated to this film but a similar “.flip the script”’moment realization - When I wrote about “Another Simple Favor” last week and talked about “Women of the Hour” (about the serial killer targeting women around the 60s/70s show, “The Dating Game”) it was also a shift to the films focus on the victims rather than the perpetrator. It made me realize how in thrillers and mysteries we are constantly conditioned to understand motives of the killer as opposed to the effects on those fallen people. Would shifting the focus and exposing people to this perspective make us more empathetic as a society?
Excellent and informative post. The "Bastiaans method" you mentioned reminded me of the 60 Minutes story that recently aired where combat veterans sought the use of psychedelics to treat their PTSD.
Thanks Matthew. In my research, I saw that De Nur did a "60 Minutes" Interview with Mike Wallace way back when. I thought you might be going there :) It's interesting to see how use of Psilocybin has increased and become perhaps more mainstream than LSD was back in the 60s when it was considered experimentation
Beautifully written, Beth. I was especially struck by your take on De-Nur’s courtroom collapse, not as a psychiatric break but as a moment society failed to hold space for grief.
Thanks! It was a mental mind shift to think about it this way for me too. It was one of the most illuminating parts of the film. “What if this was more about our discomfort with watching someone process grief than it was whether he was experiencing a breakdown or not?”
Unrelated to this film but a similar “.flip the script”’moment realization - When I wrote about “Another Simple Favor” last week and talked about “Women of the Hour” (about the serial killer targeting women around the 60s/70s show, “The Dating Game”) it was also a shift to the films focus on the victims rather than the perpetrator. It made me realize how in thrillers and mysteries we are constantly conditioned to understand motives of the killer as opposed to the effects on those fallen people. Would shifting the focus and exposing people to this perspective make us more empathetic as a society?
It sounds like an interesting and important documentary to watch. Thank you for the review!
Thank you, Ingrid!
Excellent and informative post. The "Bastiaans method" you mentioned reminded me of the 60 Minutes story that recently aired where combat veterans sought the use of psychedelics to treat their PTSD.
Thanks Matthew. In my research, I saw that De Nur did a "60 Minutes" Interview with Mike Wallace way back when. I thought you might be going there :) It's interesting to see how use of Psilocybin has increased and become perhaps more mainstream than LSD was back in the 60s when it was considered experimentation
I've only knew the man by his name, and that he was an author. This post (and the film) shads light on an almost forgotten, very important person.