I never knew that I would not know how to carry on Shabbes. The previous Shabbes was an explosion of horror, but many of us, observing people, did not know of what had happened until its end. I knew almost everything in real-time. I felt something bad might occur, and my telephone was on in a quiet mode. Still, most of the observing Jewish world have entered the previous Shabbes in a very celebrating, enlightening, uplifted mood of the peak of our High Holidays 5784 on the closing end of it, outburst of Simcha Torah. The end of a week-long Sukkot was also sunny, assuring and encouraging. Life was about to smile towards all of us for the just started year 5784. So previous Friday October 6th, 2023, erev Shabbat, Shabbes eve, was an enlightened festive entering into the Shabbat, as we used to experience it all our previous life.
Week in, this ongoing erev Shabbat, October 13th, 2023, is not just drastically different. We are living in another world, on another planet. And I have no idea if we ever return to our previous world. In this new world, expectedly, almost all Jewish people have come together, forgetting disagreements. In this new world, unexpectedly, we have not many whom one would expect to be near, from our non-Jewish circles. Maybe, we all should be wiser, not expect a thing. Possibly. But as this is a widely-spread phenomena, it makes one think, even for a bit. Notice. Register, quickly. Just register. It is enough.
Another day, speaking with good real non-Jewish friends, those who took our pain close, I’ve heard, to a slight surprise of myself: ” Well, all these days, I am thinking of how odd, weird, inadequate has been (non-)reaction, that really deafening silence from the side of our Lutheran church here in Finland, and basically, all the other churches here”. And I was thinking: well, true, the church here, in Finland, also practices this incomprehensible deafening silence-mode. And the Vatican calls for Israel to restrain, of course.
I hope, they all would be able to look and to see – because it is two different things – just three of many photo documenting evidences from Israel, just those three which today ( October 13th, 2023) The Daily Telegraph opted to publish, after special consideration, and of which CNN did show one, mentioning the other two as ‘unpublishable’. Well, they are publishable, my dear CNN friends and colleagues. I know that you meant well, and I’ve gratefully noticed your truly compassionate work for real victims, citizens of Israel, and also citizens of a high number of countries worldwide. Those photos are unwatchable, that’s true. More so, those who prefer silence-mode in the churches of different denominations, those who are so unanimously felt comfortably silent, should see them.
As for us, we are entering the first Shabbat after the October 7th, 2023 Catastrophe, and we are consoling each other all these hours preceding the Shabbes in our new reality, and teaching each other of how to make it. We will, no doubt about that. Because of what has happened, we will celebrate and value life and light during this Shabbes of Bereishit, when we start the new annual circle of the Torah, on an entirely new level of compassion. Our light is indistinguishable, and this fact commands everything and anything else. In our new reality, even more so.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Spiral of Faith. Oil on canvas. 2005.
There you have a father who is crying in agony over his murdered in the attack against kibbutz 8-years daughter and saying that he felt her death as a blessing. An absolute blessing’ – due to the simple truth of what would have been waiting for his child as a hostage of the savages. So this assault on humanity which this war has to be called, actually, brings people to an existence beyond nature. The CNN correspondent who took the interview with the grieving father, took it well, both professionally and human-like.
Looking at the horror of the terrorist attack against Israel in October 2023, I do not remember when a military assault had created so many devastating, unbearable images during such a short time, 5-6 days. Each of them shows incredible human suffering, both victims of the Hams terror and their families, friends and all those people who have their hearts in the right place.
Professionally, extreme situations are always a litmus test for any media. Both in their professionalism and their decency. There are no other criteria in journalism, actually. This I can state having many decades’ experience of it.
When humanity is switched on in covering unspeakable, a decency works as a parachute saving us from falling on the ground of the abyss of horror after seeing for example a photo of a completely burned down Jewish child just a few days ago, on the Shabbat and the festive end of Jewish High Holidays.
CNN, Fox, Deutsche Welle, SKY News most of the time, and many other leading world TV channels work well, both professionally and human-wise. BBC and MSNBC are unsurprisingly appalling, with a shame of funding of tax-payers money in the case of stubbornly and so very lowly ever-biased BBC, and professionally off any standard MSNBC.
And then, there are those channels in some unlucky countries which are using hybrid tactics covering their barely veiled anti-Israel die-hard stand. In Finland, while commercial MTV3 works decently, after initially losing grip of the situation, its main, tax-payers funded YLE is a total blunder, both professionally and humane-wise.
Utterly biased in the beginning of their coverage of the terrible crimes against humanity, being justly and promptly criticised, they have opted for this too cunning for their own good hybrid tactics: sending a very good, honest, human-champion correspondent Antti Kuronen to cover the unfold of the terrorist attacks on the Israeli side, while supplementing his brave and honest, but edited as a very short reports by all usual suspects, all of them explaining the poor palestinian cause and ever excusing them for anything, in a decades-continuing motion. Their choices for interviews are heavily biased too. In contrast with existing documentation of the massacre and crimes, this is simply sacrilege.
This tactic does not really outsmart no one in our age of a massive stream of news from anywhere. But the stand of Finland’s state TV on the worst crimes against humanity in the modern time is appalling and unpardonable. In the end, people would remember not the media’s coverage. They would remember the media’s stand. And it is a deep memory, for both humans and its opposite.
Daily Entry of the War & Humanity Special project.
Michael Rogatchi (C). The Kotel. Fragment. Oil on canvas. 1999.
Now we all know what Holocaust was like, real-time, total-spread. Although the wide public does not know yet what Israeli soldiers, ZAKA, Magen David, and volunteers have been seen at the scenes of massive massacre of an evil force which is also a death cult . We have not seen, only being told about decapitated babies. We have not even been told publicly about Arab words on the faces of Jewish raped women, ablazed on their faces by the beasts’ lighters, while the victims were still alive. The names of beautiful Israeli kibbutzim which were justly known as ‘small piece of Paradise’, and were extremely popular with tourists, now have processed the hearts of many of us into ash. The number of victims is staggering. The way of their slaughter is wild in its atrocity. And nothing can change this catastrophe beyond the border of comprehension. You cannot fix it. In none of the ways. You can only avenge it. And it will be done, undoubtedly. This is the very least we can do reacting to this Holocaust of our time. We are grieving. And we need to prepare ourselves for more awful information about the October 2023 Massacre to come. Against this more than gruesome reality, where are those who are receiving their salary for their proclaimed missions regarding care of human rights, like odious Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Red Cross, and alike. Never in my life, I thought that the degree of bias can be that high. All of these organisations are sympathising with the wrong parties repeatedly, decades by now. I am personally tired from this ugly hypocrisy of professional defenders and watchers of the wrong causes. I am indignated that they all dare to defend even open terrorists against the gruesome evidence. Amnesty officials dared to say publicly, answering to the question of naive journalists of how come that the whole world and everybody is speaking and denouncing terrorists committed such hideous crimes, except Amnesty, that ‘their organisation only speaks publicly about the information that they can verify independently, by themselves’. Human Watch officials have a gut to criticise Israel for ‘overdoing’. The Red Cross is totally absent in the screaming situation with at least 150 hostages, including a 6-weeks baby and 90-years Holocaust survivor in an invalid chair, while they do have a full mandate to operate in this situation. Not to speak about anything else. This is a total moral fiasco for organisations whose essential purpose is to defend a basic humanity. This peak of hypocrisy is truly outrageous.
Daily entry of the WAR & HUMANITY Special Project.
Inna Rogatchi (C). MAHLER. Mixed technique. 2020.
There are two schools of thinking and two modes of behaviour when it comes to the reactions of things horrible. According to one school and mode, people switch to an introvert more, even the most extravert ones. This is how your own inner surviving mode operates. Many of us are better coping on one’s own, in a self-imposed shelter.
According to the other school and mode, people need support and a feeling of a shoulder from those who are nearby, in order to keep one’s balance and to feel safer, better and more assured. And then, in cases like the recent vicious massacre in Israel, there is a global outcry of indignation which brings hundreds and thousands on the streets.
This is what we are seeing in New York, in the series of ongoing rallies in support of Israel there, where Jewish youth refused to be shy in front of screaming voices of evil who came to demonstrate in support of the beasts. And when Jewish youth in New York confronted those pro-Palestinian screaming bandits with our Israeli flags, they did read the message in a second. They usually do.
It was a very dignified, important, large pro-Israeli event in London organised by many of our friends there, just next door to Downing Street, with the presence of a huge amount of people, each of them thoughtful, grieving and supporting the state of Israel and all our victims and their families.
Unsurprisingly, pro-Palestinian forces in London were able to collect and bring too many thugs-supporting-thugs in the front of the Israeli Embassy in London which is the subject of attacks and ugly demonstrations traditionally, sadly. This is not a democracy. It has nothing remotely close to democracy when horrendous massive crimes against humanity and military crimes are allowed to be cheered about in any of places world-wide. It shows the weakness of the governments who did allow it. It shows that those governments, each and every one of them, from the UK to Sweden and from Finland to Australia, are weak in front of sheer evil.
It is an utterly wrong signal which might backfire in all these societies where those weak governments refuse to make a distinction between good and evil.
But to strengthen our hearts, one should have a look at the extraordinary gathering in Paris yesterday night, Monday October 9th, 2023. Thousands of people, the sea of human beings, so many young of them, fortunately, have stood in front and all around the Eiffel Tower which was blue and white and with an Israeli flag, for four hours at least. They sang Hatikvah all together, in an unmistaken and assuring motion. The same evening, at the Grand Synagogue in Paris, a completely full house which hosts thousands, French Jewry of all ages sang Hatikvah in the same way, in the crystal-clear message of defiance and love, care and strength which. we all are having now, around the globe.
The world Jewry is wounded but we all are united and determined. Anyone who attended and saw mentioned and other ongoing vigils and gatherings of the people worldwide in support of Israel and Jewish people, got this very clear message of unity and determination. And in sharp contrast with the jackals who are attacking in the most mean way and disappearing in the most cowardly way, in a full accord with their nature, we are and will stay united, determined and strong. For our brethren in Israel. For Jewish people anywhere.
A beast is inferior to a human being because of the absence of associative thinking. This is the alphabet of biological knowledge. Plus the spirit which actually commands the department of associative thinking if to get the things as they are, not as Mr Darwin wanted to present them. Beasts attacks, beast wounds, and beast might kill. But any beast, and any group of beasts will be hunted down, and eliminated as mad beasts should, by the organised, unified and determined human beings. By intellect and spirit. By soul and skills. This is also an alphabetical position of behavioural psychology. This knowledge is chronically missing from Hamas and similar schools, obviously. They would have to learn it in an empiric way. And they will. Am Israel Chai.
Daily entry of the WAR & HUMANITY Special Project.
Inna Rogatchi (C). Israel Window. Mixed technique. 2023.
When the disaster as the Hamas massacre in Israel happens, solidarity is the main thing with regard to the outside world, both countries and people alike. The shock is so deep that victimised people and those who feel victimised as 99,9% of Jews all over the world are, are unable to think or do anything. We all have very similar symptoms. We do not sleep, do not eat, we are switching in between fervent impulses to get the latest news, which are so horrible that we are also getting into the other extreme of switching off everything completely. We are in agony. And in this case, the agony goes for days. Nothing matters any longer. The life before the massacre seems to be a thousand years away. The only thing that matters is attention and a warm word, a question, and a hug, even a virtual one. And a sincere demonstration of solidarity. The first expression of the sort internationally was thoughtfully made by the government of Austria which hoisted two large Israeli flags on the roofs of its Chancellery and its Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Not a light show, a real flag. Next to the flags of Austria and the European Union. Simple, decent, and telling. I personally would remember this gesture of decent, solid and importantly, timely solidarity forever. Precisely because it was not show-like. Then the projections of all sorts mushroomed all over the planet: Prague, Bratislava, New York, Miami, London, Brussels over the EU headquarter, Vilnius, Madrid, Sofia, Budapest, Sydney, Buenos-Aires, all over Italy, with beautiful, thoughtful, generous demonstration of care.
There are people who believe that it is not enough, or that it is just lip service. Perhaps, in some cases and to some degree this thinking is relevant. Still, a clear, visible expression of solidarity, especially in a capacity of a state, regional or municipal administration is incomparably better than absence of it – as we are seeing in Scandinavia, two Baltic countries except Lithuania ( with Estonia did it belatedly), Poland, etc. This kind of aloofness, the absence of compassion, zero solidarity feels weird. It feels out of place. It feels like a cold void of good. In a case like that, with the worst slaughter of civilians in 80 years, the absence of solidarity with Israel by all and every of those who abstained, be it state, city or any more or less meaningful public institution, shows absolutely clearly on which side that institution is. Although we are grieving, we have noticed. And we will remember the absence of solidarity, maybe less than its presence, but still graphically. Because the emotional language of compassion works on its own level and in its own way, and is engraved in people’s hearts. Just one more thing: the long and very dramatic history of humankind teaches us that those who are unable or unwilling of compassion towards others should not expect it towards themselves. And Israel is confident, always, with all our mighty, cordial and decent friends in the world. Am Israel Chai.
Daily entry of the WAR & HUMANITY Special Project.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Elijahu Song. Mixed technique. 2017. Permanent Art Collection. Patmos Foundation. Finland.
After terrible-news and events on Shabbat and sleepless night, the Jewish world and those who sympathise with us, are getting more and more devastating news. The death-toll of Israeli casualties, both military and civilian, rises exponent-like. As always, the best ones and most vulnerable ones pay with their lives for dirty manipulations, calculated escalation, and animalistic hatred demonstrated by the savages. More and more shocking, traumatising videos are circulating – as the one with a poor family in a captivity of the animals, father, mother and their two children, a girl in her 10th and a little boy of 5-6 years old. The family’s third child, an 18-year old girl, was just killed in front of them minutes before. Poor people, innocent civilians, are in shock and utter distress, with the father trying to console his wife, and she, in her turn, tries desperately to shield her two left children. What is the sobbing boy talking about at that moment? He asks his parents, have those who just killed his sister, also killed Netanyahu? He is essentially concerned about it. He understands, a Jewish child, that the enemy aims at the heart of his country meaning its prime-minister, its leader. Which other country has children like ours? Our hearts are bleeding, but our hands are steady, and our eyes are focused. The IDF is doing its job, and we will prevail. Am Israel Chai.
Daily entry of the WAR & HUMANITY Special Project.
Michael Rogatchi (C). Strength of Love. Zion Waltz. Oil on canvas. 2016.
Well, quite a holiday Israel had experienced in the worst assault since the Yom Kippur War, and – exactly on the day in a secular calendar marking its 50th anniversary. In the atrocity which would be known as Simchat Torah War. Which we win, undoubtedly. The toll is already devastating. Appalling cruelty by Hamas savages attacking Israel. Terrible losses. Terrible way of losses. All the horrifying pictures which we saw today would stay with us for good. Arrested, beaten and pushed in the jeep with a dozen of savages, a young Israeli woman. I heard her screams from inside the jeep, and am still hearing it all the time. Two young boys in the arms of their grandmother, completely terrified, pushed as hostages to Gaza. I will remember their all faces for a long time. Our soldiers, those who were murdered and those who were captured, looking at their murdered friend. All of them. Elderly women terrified by the savages in their own homes, and taken from their homes to Gaza as hostages. My goodness. It is a long list of revenge, but they all will be avenged. And more.
We are with our people, with the state of Israel, every inch and every second of these challenging and sobering days. We are with all our friends in Israel and their families, each and every of them. They are with the IDF and wishing them smashing, as quick as possible victory over the beasts. We all are collected and ready to fight. And we will prevail. Israel always does. Am Israel Chai.
Фильм Любови Аркус “Кто Тебя Победит Никто” ( 2021)
Инна Рогачий (С)
Просмотр фильма Любови Аркус “Кто Тебя Победил Никто” на Первом канале Российского Телевидения. Октябрь 2021. Фото (С) Первый Канал.
Любовь Аркус и ее замечательная команда работали над этим фильмом шесть лет. Слава Богу, что создателям, и прежде всего Любови Аркус, хватило силы воли и присутствия духа, чтобы завершить этот очень трудный, подчас почти невозможный проект, который сразу же стал явлением. Явлением памяти. Чутким, нежным, проникновенным, умным, взыскательным, не карамельным. Живым.
Память, чтобы она была и осталась живой, воссоздать необыкновенно трудно. Для этого нужны не только знания и понимание, чувство меры и вкус, деликатность и посвященность . Такие свершения требуют прежде всего проживания, отдачи автора. Это всегда кусок собственной жизни и часть собственной души, отношение к людям и явлениям, которые делают воссоздаваемую память живой. Любови Аркус удалось именно это, и это главный результат ее тяжелого шестилетнего труда.
Премьера фильма “Кто Тебя Победил Никто” в Москве. Любовь Аркус со съемочной труппой. Фото (С) Светлана Колосова.
В профессиональном смысле, кинопроизведение Аркус достигает подлинных высот в своем начале и конце, когда камера и монтаж начальных и финальных эпизодов документальной драмы об Алле Демидовой, но на самом деле, о ткани времени, в котором она и мы жили, являются художественным откровением. Начало и конец элегии Аркус нашему времени, второй половине 20-го века – это прекрасно сделанное кино, художественное, тонкое, изобретательное и мастерское.
Кинорежиссер, кинокритик Любовь Аркус.
Но документалистика, мой любимый жанр, потому что оставляет людей, не может состояться без конкретных персонажей – хотя кадры хроники толпы на похоронах Сталина, включенные в этот фильм, стали одним из самых сильных его впечатлений.
В своем фильме Любовь Аркус подарила нам прекрасные эпизоды с прекрасными, редкими людьми, выдающими театроведами, ее Учителем Майей Туровской и знаменитым Вадимом Гаевским, прекрасным кинорежиссером Кирой Муратовой, и гигантом сцены, театральным режиссером Анатолием Васильевым. Дело даже не в том, что в трех случаях, кроме Васильева, эти съемки стали последними снятыми интервью колоссов истории театра и выдающейся женщины-режиссера, что само по себе является очень ценным материалом документального фильма.
Майя Туровская.
Но то, как сняты и смонтированы все эпизоды с Туровской, Гаевским и Муратовой ( оператор этих эпизодов Ирина Штрих, ведущий оператор Алишер Хамидходжаев, монтаж Дмитрия Новосельцева), вызывает радость, тепло и любовь. Потому что это сделано не только совершенно профессионально – а именно, что с потрясающим, редким приближением, проникновением и любовью. Господи, как нам не хватает этой теплой, внимательной человечности, да еще так хорошо сделанной, сегодня, в наше нервное, неровное, какое-то синкопическое время. Спасибо, ребята, спасибо, Люба, за то, что привнесли это в нашу жизнь. Очень хороший монтаж фильма стал дебютом Дмитрия Новосельцева – это очень обращающий на себя внимание дебют.
Вадим Гаевский.
Для меня лично присутствие этих выдающихся людей в фильме стало самым большим подарком. Умные, светлые лица Гаевского и Туровской, такие знакомые многим театральным людям ( и мы с мужем в их числе), их неординарное видение, которым они с нами поделились на экране, как оказалось, в последний раз, просто стоят перед глазами долгое время после окончания просмотра, и никуда не уходят, а даже наоборот. Смотрела бы и слушала бы еще, и еще. Света, ума и доброты в мире стало бы еще больше, даже после их ухода из земной жизни.
Кира Муратова
Кира Муратова – умница, с ее тонким видением в большом и малом – из той же группы самых замечательных людей российской культуры, жемчужина, такая самодостаточная, такая скромная, такая интересная, и такая милая. И ее хочется и видеть, и слышать, и ощущать как можно дольше и больше после фильма Аркус. Такие люди обогащают наше существование во все времена и на все времена. И эти жемчужины посылают свои нежные блики, какие и есть у настоящего, не искусственного, жемчуга, в элегантном и точно выверенном визуальном измерении фильма.
Анатолий Васильев – он всегда интересен, потому что он всегда глубок и всегда является самим собой, человек-океан, вся красота и притягательность которого – на глубине. Но добраться до этой глубины, разглядеть ее и показать другим могут немногие. Любови Аркус это удалось. Я никогда не видела Васильева, этого гиганта российского и мирового театра, таким незащищенным, таким откровенным, таким щемящим. Если бы Люба Аркус сделала фильм о Васильеве, это было бы прекрасно. В ее фильме о Демидовой мы увидели проблески прекрасного, волнующего, интереснейшего явления Васильева.
Анатолий Васильев
Отдельное спасибо Любе за линию об Анатолии Эфросе. Историю и драму этого большого режиссера и замечательного, доброго человека, знают многие театральные люди. Но рассказать ее так точно и честно с большого экрана, в фильме, который останется навсегда, потому что стал документом эпохи ( именно ввиду честности замысла и смелости его исполнения) – это поступок. И этот поступок стал важной частью создания Аркус и ее командой именно живой, живущей памяти, самого благородного и самого трудного вида документалистики.
В этом фильме – много удивительных моментов. Я не стану их пересказывать, их нужно видеть. В этом своем впечатлении я рассказала о том, что тронуло больше всего лично меня.
Требовательность автора к самой себе в этом фильме на очень высоком уровне, и профессионально, и морально, и эстетически. Такой уровень требовательности вызывает большое коллегиальное уважение к Любе. Она создала мастерское произведение. На этом уровне требовательности, избрание камертоном длинного двухчасового фильма Бродского – как явления – не стало удивительным. Это стало очень точным, в десятку, решением автора. Бродский и был нашим камертоном в те годы, о которых рассказывает Аркус через судьбу Демидовой. Бродский – и никто иной.
Иосиф Бродский
Финал фильма, с наложением голоса Бродского с замечательным чтением своего “Осеннего Крика Ястреба” 1975 года, вскоре после его выдворения, а по сути, жестокой, неоправданной вышвырнутости из жизни как он ее понимал и ощущал, вообще, стихотворения, полного отчаяния, тоски и некоей толики уникальной ироничной бравурности Бродского, на разбирание этого стихотворения вслух Аллой Демидовой почти полвека спустя, слияние их голосов, разделение их голосов, преобладание голоса то Демидовой, то Бродского, и наоборот, на фоне крупного плана из вечного немого кино, стало лучшим из того, что я видела не только в богатой тематически и высокопрофессиональной российской кинодокументалистике, но и в жанре документального биографического кино вообще. Финал фильма “Кто тебя победил никто” стал опытом погружения, внесения зрителя во время Демидовой, Бродского, Валуцкого, Любимого, Высоцкого, Эфроса, Васильева, Таганки, которая была нашим всем на театре и в жизни в течение многих лет асфиксии и мечтаний – у тех, кто был способен – о полете ястреба без отчаяния, просто о возможности долететь до Коннектикута, посмотреть на него, побывать, сделать, помечтать, совершить, воплотить – то, что хочется, а не то, что разрешат.
Поймут ли зрители новых поколений, о чем это мы? О чем это Люба Аркус в двухчасовом портрете нашего времени на фоне 80-летней Аллы Демидовой? Я думаю, что да. Ведь делали этот фильм под руководством Любы Аркус молодые люди, что ей и им особое спасибо.
Когда наши друзья, которые посмотрели фильм чуть раньше нас, грустили, и печалились, что этот прекрасный фильм есть прощание – со многим и многими, я немного переживала. Грустно, все-таки. Вокзалы – места нервические. Но когда я увидела фильм и ту молодую команду, которая так точно профессионально и с такой человеческой любовью и пониманием помогла Любе воплотить ее большой, важный, неординарный и смелый замысел, то обрадовалась и успокоилась.
Этот фильм стал объемным, глубоким отпечатком нашей жизни второй половины 20го века в грядущем времени. Фильм будет жить и сохранит наше время, и людей нашего времени, в честной, проникновенной, изящной и теплой элегии Любы Аркус, честь ей и хвала.
Инна Рогачий (С). Посвящение Бродскому. 2014. Частное собрание, Москва, Россия.
Иосиф Бродский рассказывал в минуту редкой откровенности, похожей на задумчивую откровенность Анатолия Васильева в фильме Аркус, что первой для себя задачей, творческой и человеческой, он сокровенно хотел “сохранить родных. Чтобы они не исчезли. Чтобы ( их) помнили. Чтобы они были”. Бродский был очень хорошим – и очень несчастным – сыном.
Любовь Аркус совсем недаром избрала Бродского камертоном своего документального повествования. Она тоже сохранила. Мы и те, кто пришли и придут после нас, будем и будут помнить. Явления памяти состоялось. Спасибо, Люба. Большое спасибо.
The Lessons of Survival, Inna Rogatchi’s well-known documentary about her friendly, intimate conversations with legendary Simon Wiesenthal will be shown at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute ( VWI) program of the Institute’s participation at the Vienna and Austria annual mega cultural event, The Long Night of Museums, on October 2nd, 2021.
The documentary which was successfully shown global-wise, was filmed in Vienna, at Simon Wiesenthal’s residence and his office of the Jewish Documentation Centre, as well as in Mauthausen concentration camp, in Linz, and the other related places in Austria.
The film is different from many documentaries about the legendary Nazi-hunter in the way that Inna and Simon were close friends for many years, and the film reflects the intimacy and openness of their conversations on the most dramatic moments and tragic events prior, during and after the Second World War and the Holocaust. It is a special human document, rare in its openness and sincerity of its main protagonist Simon Wiesenthal, the one of the most crucial international figures in the post-Holocaust.
Additionally to the special qualities of ‘an open heart’ testimony of a monumental personality, the film is important due to its artistic features: special music by the Israeli composer Israel Sharon performed by Karizma Ensemble, and powerful unique art created by Michael Rogatchi whose works were deeply appreciated and loved by Simon Wiesenthal.
The combination of those unique human and artistic monologues has created the film which speaks from a very close distance and straight to the feelings of the viewers. The film’s concept and way of communication with its viewers is to leave each person alone with the unique monologues of Simon Wisenthal, added by the musical and artistic ‘solos’ of Israel Sharon and Michael Rogatchi accompanying the Simon Wiesenthal’s narrative in their own powerful and unique way.
Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies ( VWI) is very natural place for screening the film in the capital of Austria where Simon Wiesenthal lived and worked for many decades after the end of the Second World War.
Lang Nacht der Museen, the Long Night of Museums is an annual mega cultural event in Vienna and Austria. It is characterised not only by the fact that many great museums of the Austrian capital and all over the country would stay open at unusual late hours, but the fact that the museums comes with special programs, specially created events, showing rare artifact or organising special experience for the audience which is huge for the annual celebration of culture. In Vienna alone, the event traditionally gathers 200 000 people. The previous year 2020 the beloved by the Viennese public Lang Nacht der Museen event was not organised due to the covid pandemic. This year it is expected with enthusiasm although the traditional number of people attending can be smaller because of the restrictions. But still, the cultural festivities of the Long Night of Museums are back to Vienna and Austria this year, and the public is invited to wonderful museums of Vienna and the country on Saturday night of October 2nd, 2021.
The timing of the screening of Inna Rogatchi’s film about Simon Wiesenthal The Lessons of Survival ( in English) would be at 9.30 pm Viennese time at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, at Rabesteig, 3, 1010, Vienna.
First published in The Times of Israel – https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/chazak-jim-a-tribute-to-general-james-m-hutchens/
There are some people whose life is a novel, a movie, and it comes effortlessly and naturally because it is just the way they are.
Late General James M.Hutches, a beacon of light and assuredness, was just like that. If somebody would mention a semblance of my first phrase to Jim, he would laugh it off instantly, and he meant it. But in fact, so many episodes of his long life are worth a book of its own, with several of them written, that it is really hard to believe that all these episodes belong to the life of just one person.
His incredible service in Vietnam where he fought so bravely, being rewarded two Bronze Stars and one Purple Heart for his exemplary service to his country and his countrymen. His tireless work in support of Israel which he did for decades, devoted, efficient, noble. His fight against terrorism both in Israel and in the USA.
They all were deeds of the man with a great vision. Jim did know exactly what he is doing – or not doing , and where he gets involved – or not so, and why. The clarity of his vision was remarkable in the times of so many compromises of all sorts, and prevailing political correctness all around. And that clarity was reassuring in an honest, pure, curing way. The way many of us miss nowadays, increasingly so. The assuredness of Good Forces that emanated from Jim during his lifetime was magnetic. And healing.
It is what is expected largely from the servant of God which Jim was. But in his case, it was 101% true. No false, no pretension, no supposition, no suggestion. Reverend Hutchens was the man of organic goodness.
It took me some while to start to comprehend how to write about Jim in the past tense. He was always there – for us, for his friends, for his family, for Israel. He was limitlessly generous in providing his presence and availability to us all. He became the factor of stability of hope, light, supportive action, and assuredness.
I am writing a tribute to this remarkable man on his birthday, imagine. Jim would be 87 today. He passed away just five days before his 87th birthday, being weakened to the defining degree by the last 18 months of probably the most difficult period in his life. Due to the covid restrictions, he was confined within the four walls of the place where he lived this last period of his life. That confinement was heart-breaking for all who knew and loved the brave General.
* * *
Jim and his wife, artist Pat Hutchens who passed away in April 2014, were dear and close friends of my husband Michael’s and myself. Very dear and very close friends. A family, in many senses of the word. We were blessed with this family-like friendship for over twenty years.
It was during one of my frequent visits to Washington D.C. while advising some senior MEPs and participating in the work of the key foreign policy bodies of the European Parliament that I was speaking at an important US forum on the Middle East policies as an invited guest speaker when I have noticed a special figure and special face in the audience. In that fully packed audience that face and the reactions of that man on what I was saying were distinct in the most positive way.
He came to talk with me after my speech, and we have become instant friends. Next morning, Jim and I continued to talk over breakfast at my hotel , and during that talk I had to reschedule the rest of the day of my tightly planned program full of meetings, because both Jim and I just absolutely needed to talk more, and more, and more. It was a gift of friendship from the first sight.
Immediately after that rewarding encounter, Jim’s wife Pat, well-known artist and theologist ( as Jim himself) and my husband artist Michael joined our family-like unit, and from that moment over twenty years ago, it was a celebration of trust, compassion, solidarity, understanding, sharing, and support.
It was the family of the real American hero who was passionate about Israel where they did live for several years in the 1970s, and who did everything in their power to make this passion constructive. This was a truly rare attitude against so many challenges on their way, always. But not for once, their belief was not flinching for an inch. Israel and Jewish people have had staunch, selfless and very noble supporters as long as Pat and Jim Hutchens were living in this world.
Both Jim and Pat have decided to convert to Judaism at a certain stage of their lives, and till her end, Pat always signed her messages to us as Yael, her Jewish name, and Jim as Yaakov. He had a good command of Hebrew, as well. That essential change in their both’ lives turned to be dramatic and complicated, by the serious fault and ungraceful misunderstanding of the others, without a slightest sign of their both’ fault. What was amazing for Michael and myself always, was a total absence of bitterness in Jim and Pat after that incredibly traumatic experience. And their unwavering, encompassing love of Israel and Jewish people.
The one of the most stunning human deeds in support of Israel was Jim’s personal undertake of buying the remnants of the bus exploded by the terrorists in Tel-Aviv – and organising the shipping of the remnants of that bus all the way to Washington DC, installing this screaming evidence of the anti-Israel terror in the front of the Capitol, conducting many extraordinary rallies and events next to the bus there, thus really influencing and essentially helping the acceptance of several resolutions of the US Congress and Senate essential for the Israel’s struggle against terror on its soil.
Being an undisputed hero of the United States, being justly respected widely and highly, the former Deputy Chaplain of the US Army Brig. General James M. Hutchens spent a colossal amount of his time in his tireless practical everyday hard work supporting Israel. Myriads of the Israeli officials who were tasked with various important and often quite uneasy tasks knew that they could rely fully on General Hutchens who acted in quite unusual way.
When help was needed, Jim was not relying on a casual and sporadic telephone call. He was personally coming with the persons who needed support to all and every office at the Capitol Hill to make sure that the people from Israel would be heard, understood, and assisted. There was no better and more reliable man in the huge DC pool of senior influencers for Israelis than General Hutchens – who never failed to support Israel in anything he was addressed on, from the required political support to the serious, high-up and discreet resolving of truly tricky problems, as the one with the anti-Israeli flotillas.
He never, ever did it for a penny. I know about it in detail. He did it out of love, and his principles. That love was rooted deeply in both Jim and his wife, artist Pat who was the person who undertook a very demanding personal journey back to the Holocaust realities creating her famous by now Auschwizt Album Re-Visited series.
I was privileged to witness the process as it was evolving, worked on this project of her life with Pat, and wrote about it, with huge gratitude.
We were seeing each other regularly and often, not only in the States. When Jim and Pat were coming to Poland, with the Auschwitz Album Re-Visited exhibition which was the first show of those so very special images outside the US, and more, at the close proximity to the place of the actual actions depicted in the original monstrous Auschwitz Album put into the human and moral questioning context by brave Pat Hutchens, I flew over to Krakow specifically to be there with both of them during that uneasy and challenging experience.
Later on, I curated and organised several of the exhibitions of those incredibly important artworks in various European countries.
The generosity of both Jim and Pat Hutchens was legendary. Seeing them in so many various circumstances, at their home and while travelling, at the special events and during a casual walks, in the morning and in the evening, with telephone ringing often in their truly hospitable and open, inviting home, I was often thinking that those are the people who were born to help to others. But I knew that what has become such a natural way of life for both Jim and Pat, was rooted in their deepest conviction, crystal-clear understanding of right and wrong, and stern principles. Plus – two golden hearts which were as one, due to their fantastic love, respect and admiration for each other. They both have become true guardians of many. So many people love them, and always will.
* * *
There is no wonder that when The Rogatchi Foundation decided to introduce a Life Achievement Family Award to the range of our annual Humanist of the Year Awards, our Board and the International Advisory Board unanimously voted for Jim and Pat ( posthumously) Hutchens as the recipients of it. The wonder was the timing.
As it happened, a warm and enlightening ceremony of the Award in Virginia in early March 2020 was the very last public event attended by General James M. Hutchens in his long, heroic, fantastic, exemplary, rare life. All three of Jim and Pat’s children were there, along with many friends and colleagues. It was also the very last time when Jim was among the people, not by himself.
I flew to the US specifically for that occasion, without knowing that it would be the last time that I will be seeing Jim in person, but with absolute clear inner understanding that the ceremony must be done now. At the moment, I had no clue of the reasoning behind that strong push inside myself to accomplish the ceremony of awarding Jim as soon as possible. Now I know. When I was leaving the Ronald Reigan airport, flying back from Washington DC, I was flying from an already completely empty space. When I landed home, the era of covid pandemic had started.
Our mutual friend who was very kindly and devotedly visiting Jim all the time during his covid-caused confinement whenever it was possible, was seeing our brave general a week before his passing in his sleep. The general was weak, life was leaving him slowly but steadily. He was in and out of conscience, dreaming and waking in turns. Amy, our friend, was sitting next to Jim at the moment when he was in between that all the time prolonging dream and consciousness. Jim was saying something, Amy understood. That something was ‘Yahweh’.
I was both surprised and not. Because, for many years now, I remember the episode in which Jim played a very special role. The one of the towering figures of American Jewry, the person who contributed enormously much into the active support of Israel during all his life, was battling the vicious cancer for a few years. At a certain point, he was close to losing the battle. Jim, who was a good friend and colleague of that man, was visiting him in hospital regularly and often.
Once, the man had asked Jim, the Reverend, to promise him something. “Please, stay with me during that moment, Jim. Nobody else, but you. Promise me that it will be you”. For three last hours in that great Jewish man’s life Jim Hutchens was the person who held the hand of the dying Jewish fighter reciting all proper Jewish prayers with and for him. ‘Chazak, my friend, chazak”, – Jim was saying to his passing friend. “Chazak” – was the last word, with the smile, of the man whose purpose in life was the safety of Israel and legacy of Ze’ev Zhabotinsky.
* * * *
When one’s parents are leaving this world, it is part of us leaving. When one’s siblings are leaving, it is the same. When one’s relatives are leaving, our world cracks and crumbles. When one’s friends are leaving, our own personal world gets holes in it, the holes which are unrepairable. And then, there are the people, the giants of men, who were protecting you, supporting you, helping you, listening to you, understanding you, comforting you, all this without any pomposity, humbly, modestly, organically, cordially, with needed pitches of humour, always, and that good laughs together. People who understood you without words, and whose unassuming but steady love and unquestionable loyalty was your blessing and protection, your shield. When such people who are extremely rare in one’s life are leaving this world, after a paralysis of an instinctive non-belief in what has happened, you start to understand what it means to be orphaned.
It is not only Michael and I who lost a dear friend. It is Israel which has lost a great and loving supporter, Yaakov ben Abraham, with the passing of real American hero General James M. Hutchens. We hope that his memory will be long and fruitfully lasting.
