Holocaust survivor's dance sparks controversy

[demoleft]

Source: ap

JERUSALEM – He's a Holocaust survivor dancing with his family on what easily could have been his own grave.

A video clip of Adolek Kohn awkwardly shuffling and shimmying with his daughter and grandchildren to the sound of "I Will Survive" at Auschwitz and other sites where millions died during the Holocaust has become an Internet sensation.

It's also sparking debate over whether the images show disrespect for those who perished — or are an exuberant celebration of life.
...
Adding to the irony, Kohn and his dancing brood owe their fame to neo-Nazi groups who posted the clip on their websites and turned it viral, his daughter told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_survivor_s_dance

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he, of all, has a right to celebrate it as he pleases. my opinion.
on the meaning of his gesture there can be no doubt - and i'm sure his dance there is worth a thousand holliwood/european movies about the holocaust.

[Warpy]

1. I think it's a great "FUCK YOU! YOU FAILED!" to Hitler then

and fascists now.

The present day fascists are, of course, too stupid to realize it.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

8. what you said. n/t

:thumbsup:

[elehhhhna]

10. Yep. NAZI = FAIL. Haters.

[elehhhhna]

12. Here's the clip, btw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDQ7rTyKzBc

[BlancheSplanchnik]

28. oh, very good. thanks! n/t

[Taverner]

21. Yes, and I love it

[activa8tr]

2. Yahoo News.... they report in the oddest of ways on what any sane person would call

a miracle dance, and an opportunity to remember (we will never forget) with a few less tears than we normally do.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. I'm so sick of yahoo and their blatant bias.

They word their headlines very carefully, consistently bolstering repuke lies and fear mongering, consistently casting a pall of doubt, suspicion and negativity on Obama and all other Dems.

[activa8tr]

11. They really are a very piss poor source of journalism. Too bad so many

people get to read them with their Yahoo mail and other accounts.

Yahoo is about the worst at mail and other things, too!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

27. i actually have been fine with their email

I just wish I could easily switch to another carrier, on account of their bullshit partisanship, as well as the stupid infotainment. But I've used rhem for a long time, so it's my address for everything.

[Freddie Stubbs]

32. It's an Associated Press story

[tblue]

3. Amen! Let him dance! nt

[mike_c]

4. if anyone has earned the right to dance there, he has....

eom

[Hell Hath No Fury]

35. Absolutely true.

Nothing left to say abotu the whole incident, really.

[MilesColtrane]

5. He's dancing for all those who can't now.

[Richd506]

6. psychologicaly it's got to help in ways too

Being able to do that is a good "kiss my ass" message he is sending to all the painful memories it's given him. Laughter is good medicine.

[iamjoy]

15. Good For Him, Maybe

I can understand how this can be therapeutic or cathartic to him because he did survive. I think the strength of many people is in their ability to laugh at tragedy. On the other hand, this could be seen as cruel or insensitive to the family members and descendants of those who didn't survive. It's kind of touchy.

[Spazito]

9. I think it is a very powerful, perfectly appropriate action for a...

survivor and the only people who's criticism I would pay attention to would be that of other survivors. Only they, imo, have experienced what Mr. Kohn did, all others are judging without direct knowledge.

[Tx4obama]

13. Links to all THREE PARTS

Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Np3aZh6sU
(.... the second part of the 'Dancing Auschwitz' video installation series. This video shows Marysia and Adolek Kohn, the Wysokiers, Leda Gringlass and Jane Korman as a little girl dancing freely with her parents and their friends in a forest outside Melbourne.)

Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpfID7pLe7M
(This clip complements the previous two clips in the series 'I Will Survive: Dancing Auschwitz.' In June 2009, I, together with her father, her four children and niece, travelled to Poland to retrace her parents' past. While on a cattle wagon at Radagost Station in Lodz, her father experiences flashbacks. He reenacts the memory of his three-day journey in a similar cattle wagon, heading to Auschwitz, 65 years earlier, and appears to enter a trancelike state. In his native tongue, he carries on an improvised dialogue with the peasants he passed on the way.)

YouTube has blocked Jane Korman's original posting of Part One due to copyright violation..
Below are two links others have posted to Part 1 - that haven't been blocked yet:
PART ONE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7PtrFJtseg
PART ONE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDQ7rTyKzBc

[nodehopper]

25. interesting that the videos also use Leonard Cohen's Dance Me To The End of Love--it was written

about Nazi concentration camps. I wonder if they knew that? Probably...

[LostinVA]

14. These made me cry

[lumpy]

36. Yes, I ws teary also. And I understand.

nt

[Liberation Angel]

16. Link to Jane Korman's youtube channel (with comments and new vids)

http://www.youtube.com/user/janekorman

http://www.youtube.com/user/liberationangels (to see some of mine on these subjects/see todays comments at her site for better link)

[Tx4obama]

19. Part One has been blocked on her channel. See #13 post on this thread for a Part One link. n/t

[xchrom]

17. Wow- what a wonderful thing and what a great song to choose. Nt

[emilyg]

18. Good man.

[Lint Head]

20. He is dancing 'with' them. I've been to Germany and visited a death camp.

When I was there you could still smell a hint of rotten flesh though it was faint. There were still ashes and bones in the ovens.
He has earned the right to dance the dance of life. It's not like he is a Nazi dancing on the graves of his victims.
The lives of those people lived need to be remembered as much as their deaths. I'm sure some of those people danced during their lives.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. Ends with a section from Leonard Cohen's "Dance me to the End of Love"

Appropriate and moving throughout.

[RainDog]

23. ah, I was trying to place that!

...and Cohen's song based on a poem by the Spanish poet, Lorca, who was killed by the fascist nationalists in Spain's Civil War.

[nodehopper]

26. did you know it was written specifically about Nazi concentration camps?

So appropriate!

[msanthrope]

24. Good for him. He gets to do what the fuck he wants. n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

29. I kind of think if you survived going through Auschwitz

You can pretty much do anything you damn please.

[JoeyT]

30. That Yahoo article could've been one sentence long and said exactly the same thing.

"Breaking News: Concern trolls are concerned."

The comments on the other hand were as full of batshit as Free Republic.
Remember all the people we laughed at that were on AOL in the early days of the intarwebz? Looks like they mass migrated to Yahoo.

[Jkid]

31. His dance is merely defiance of the highest order.

Despite the best efforts of Nazi regime, the jewish people still managed to survive. This is a way to celebrate it in his own way.

[No Elephants]

33. Yeah. Let's begrudge a Holocaust survivor who will soon die a moment of celebrating his survival.

I HOPE YOU DANCE

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed,

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin',
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin',

Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,
When you come close to sellin' out reconsider,
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.

Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder
Where those years have gone.

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

Dance....I hope you dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.

Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone


I Hope You Dance - Song Lyrics
Written by Tia Sillers and Mark D Sanders
Originally performed by Lee Ann Womack
A #1 smash hit on the Country Charts for 6 weeks in 2000
It topped the 2001 Adult Contemporary charts for 11 weeks
It was also the Adult Contemporary song of the year for 2001
Country Music Association's Song of the Year and Single of the Year for 2000

[kimi]

34. He has every right, IMO

And I think that in the hereafter, the spirits would agree. JMHO.

[sabra]

37. wish I could have done this with my grandfather...

he was a survivor who passed away 11 years ago. Like Mr. Kohn said how many survivors are even capable to do this with their grandchildren?

[demoleft]

38. that's a nice thought. very tender. n/t

[al bupp]

39. Bittersweet though it may be,

this seems about as life-affirming a response to those horrible events and their locations as anything I can think of or have certainly ever seen.

I say right-on. And a big wry thanks to the neo-nazis who unwittingly and unintentionally made this go viral. Serves them right.

[Yo_Mama]

40. Heck, I got tears in my eyes when he made the V for Victory sign

Very appropriate for him to go there with his family. It looked like the kids did more dancing than he, but why not?

Think of everything he went through, everything he saw, all the agony, and the sheer guts it took to go on and live a life, have kids, raise them, and teach them to smile and laugh.

Thanks for posting this story, because otherwise I wouldn't have seen this this clip, and it really lifted my spirits in a dark time.