本当のことは言わない

アンカリーさんの記事によると、政府は強制収容所の生活をあたかも快適なもののように描いていたそうですが、恐らくその類の映像がありました。保守派のグレンベックの番組なのが気になりますが、2分30秒あたりにカリーさんの記事にある“We are protecting ourselves without violating the principles of Christian decency.”というナレーションもあります。

SCENES FROM THE JAPANESE INTERNMENT RESONATE TODAY

When the U.S. government held more than 120,000 civilians captive during World War II, it left an enduring stain on the nation.

BY ANN CURRY

People stayed in the assembly centers for months before they were moved, most by train, to 10 camps in remote mountains, deserts, and other inland areas. A government film produced at the time called it a “mass migration” to “pioneer communities” on desert lands “full of opportunity,” adding, “We are protecting ourselves without violating the principles of Christian decency.” The congressional commission that investigated the incarcerations later described it much differently, documenting “harsh” conditions, including “hard winters” and “unbearably hot and humid” summers in which people were forced to live in uninsulated and hastily built “tar paper barracks” that were “bleak” and “spartan,” with one room per family, in camps surrounded by “barbed-wire fences.” Military police manned watchtowers with machine guns and searchlights, and people perceived to be violating the boundaries were shot.

ナチスも同じようなことをやっていますよね。しかも戦争末期にこんな茶番をやっていたなんて。。。

(Wikipedia)

テレージエンシュタットの公開

1944年6月23日にテレージエンシュタットがデンマーク赤十字社と国際赤十字社に公開された。ドイツはこれに合わせてテレージエンシュタットの美化を開始した。ゲットーの名前を廃して「ユダヤ人入植地」と変更した。バラックが新築され、家が塗りなおされ、庭園も造られた。銀行や喫茶店、コンサートホール、遊び場も作られた。モーゼやユダヤ人長老エーデルシュタインの肖像画が入った紙幣が製造された[8]。過密を減少させるために1944年5月16日と18日に7503人がアウシュヴィッツ強制収容所へ移送された。赤十字社査察官の到着日当日には広場でサッカーの試合が行われ、公民館で子供たちのオペラも開催され、赤十字社を騙した[9]。

更に1944年8月から9月にかけてドイツはテレージエンシュタットで記録映画の撮影を行っている。しかしこれは結局、未完のままで終わった

Use as propaganda tool

The Red Cross did not investigate the living conditions of regular prisoners

Late in the war, after D-Day and the invasion of Normandy, the Nazis permitted representatives from the Danish Red Cross and the International Red Cross to visit Theresienstadt in order to dispel rumours about the extermination camps. The commission that visited on June 23, 1944, included Swiss Red Cross representative Maurice Rossel, E. Juel-Henningsen, the head physician at the Danish Ministry of Health, and Franz Hvass, the top civil servant at the Danish Foreign Ministry. Dr. Paul Eppstein was instructed by the SS to appear in the role of the mayor of Theresienstadt.[48]

Weeks of preparation preceded the visit. The area was cleaned up, and the Nazis deported many Jews to Auschwitz to minimise the appearance of overcrowding in Theresienstadt. Also deported in these actions were most of the Czechoslovak workers assigned to "Operation Embellishment". The Nazis directed the building of fake shops and cafés to imply that the Jews lived in relative comfort. The Danes whom the Red Cross visited lived in freshly painted rooms, not more than three in a room. Rooms viewed may have included the homes of the "prominent" Jews of Theresienstadt, who were afforded the special privilege of having as few as two occupants to a room.[16] The guests attended a performance of a children's opera, Brundibár, which was written by inmate Hans Krása.[citation needed] The Red Cross representatives were conducted on a tour following a predetermined path designated by a red line on a map. The representatives apparently did not attempt to divert from the tour route on which they were led by the Germans, who posed questions to the Jewish residents along the way. If the representatives asked residents questions directly, they were ignored, in accordance with the Germans' instructions to the residents prior to the tour. Despite this, the Red Cross apparently formed a positive impression of the town.[16]

Following the successful use of Theresienstadt as a supposed model internment camp during the Red Cross visit, the Nazis decided to make a propaganda film there. It was directed by Jewish prisoner Kurt Gerron, an experienced director and actor; he had appeared with Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel. Shooting took eleven days, starting September 1, 1944.[49] After the film was completed, the director and most of the cast were deported to Auschwitz. Gerron was murdered by gas chamber on 28 October 1944.[50]

The film was intended to show how well the Jews were living under the purportedly benevolent protection of the Third Reich. If taken at face value, it documents the Jews of Theresienstadt living a relatively comfortable existence within a thriving cultural centre and functioning successfully during the hardships of World War II. They had to comply and perform according to Nazi orders. Often called The Führer Gives a Village to the Jews, the correct name of the film is Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet ("Terezin: A Documentary Film of the Jewish Resettlement").[a] As the film was not completed until near the end of the war, it was never distributed as intended, although a few screenings were held. Most of the film was destroyed, but some footage has survived.[citation needed]