Eric S., I refer to your comments concerning the slave sale re-enactment in
Williamsburg and the resulting attention it got in the press, and not just on
public radio, and to the comment on Schindler's list. And, I am sure I am
jumping into what could be a firestorm...but... National TV coverage while
not always to be taken as the most accurate indicator of the power of an
event, did manage to show, via interviews with African-American people who
protested this re-enactment, the emotional power of what the re-enactment
signifies (at least inpart to this observer). There was a lot of anger and
profound distress. No two people will ever feel the same about the airing
of a painful and destructive past, not to mention the way in which it is
aired. But, does that mean that well-meaning people should not continue to
find ways to explore and learn from our common and often disastrous history?
I don't think so. Eric, go see Schindler's list. I am sure that people who
actually experienced the horror of the camps might find a commercial film
trivializing. But what about the rest of us? We will, we hope, never go thru
that firestorm but should we not attempt to find ways to understand it? Surely
that film, that re-enactment,is not all there is to support understanding, but
just as surely they work towards some measure of it? I think so. Anyway,
Schindler's list is a great film, (however flawed) whether or not it is great
history. It communicates by its power as art instead. The European holocaust
is part of my personal history and yet I was absolutely stunned by the power
of the film. I think I am not wrong in assuming that the re-enactment held a
similar terror and power for at least some of those who beheld it.