Nazism takes center stage at Jewish film fest

Poor Adolf Hitler was the victim of vicious propaganda. The Jews were sent to Auschwitz for their own protection - from the Allies' bombing campaigns of course – and, as a general rule, don't believe all the stories you hear about the Holocaust and those who perpetrated it.

These are only some of Paul Hafner's favorite aphorisms, and the 83-year-old ex-Waffen SS officer drops them casually into conversations as he goes about his peaceful days in Madrid.

Regrets about his part in the war? Not the one. More like nostalgia. Hafner yearns for Nazi Germany and clings to it; immersing himself in an extensive collection of Fuehrer-related literature and rehashing his glory days with those that remain of his SS comrades who fled with him to Spain after the war.

And yet as the protagonist of director Gunter Schwaiger's documentary 'Hafner's Paradise,' the title-character never slips into any of the Nazi-sympathizer stereotypes that have become so ingrained in cinema-goers psyches.

Therein of course, lays the brilliance of 'Hafner's Paradise,' which Schwaiger is screening at the Jerusalem Cinematheque's Jewish Film Festival this coming Saturday.  

Hafner: Teetering between empathy and disgust

The elderly Hafner, a hog farmer who maintains a strict health regimen and socializes frequently with his friends, is almost disconcertingly poignant in his interaction with the camera, borderline exhibitionism coupled with an inexorable stubbornness – in one scene Hafner is confronted by a survivor of the Dachau death camp and unflinchingly tells the viewers that the Holocaust never happened.

Hafner's monstrosity unfolds gradually, almost offhandedly as Hafner goes about his day: pausing nonchalantly to raise his arm in the Nazi salute as a casual form of greeting an acquaintance and mulling over the state of his dentures far more than the stories told to him by the aforementioned Dachau survivor.

The moments when Hafner draws in the audience only serve to effectively highlight the moments when he pushes them away, empathy coloring and adding a unique layer to the sudden disgust.

"... is my friend"

Though the world has already been introduced to the story of Nazi officer Klaus Barbie in Ophüls' masterpiece, Hôtel Terminus - Scottish director Kevin MacDonald's film about the so-called 'Butcher of Lyon' provides viewers with a fresh angle on the Gestapo officer who died in prison in 1991 after serving four years of a life sentence for crimes against humanity.

It's hard to tell who MacDonald detests more: Barbie or the American intelligence services that used Nazi criminals to combat communism during the Cold War.

After France began demanding his extradition, Barbie fled to Bolivia - with the Vatican's assistance. There he served as an advisor to the fascist government and aided the CIA in its guerilla war against the forces of revolutionist Che Guevara. 

Barbie, helped the CIA fight Guevara

MacDonald's film, aptly titled 'My Enemy's Enemy,' elucidates the cynicism that emerged when two opposing ideological objectives clash – using the hated Nazis to fight communism – and whether, at the end of the day, the ends justify the means.

The festival will open Saturday night with a celebratory presentation of Nathan Axelrod's 1962 "Etz or Palestine" (from Hebrew: 'Heads or Palestine,' a play on heads-or-tails). Jewish director Paul Mazursky will be awarded a lifetime achievement award and screen 'Yippee' – his acclaimed new documentary that follows Breslev Hassidic Jews as they make a spiritual pilgrimage to the Rebbe's grave in Uman.

For more information about the Jewish Film Festival – Click here