NOT IDLY BY—PETER BERGSON
AMERICA AND THE HOLOCAUST
Best Documentary, Toronto Jewish Film Festival
A forceful contribution to our understanding of
the American reaction to the Holocaust—and of the American Jewish response.
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Not Idly By takes a sledgehammer to the widely accepted notion that we did what we could.
First stanza of an ad written by Ben Hecht for the Bergson Group, and placed in the New York Times—to the displeasure of the American Jewish leadership at the time. (The number of European Jews still surviving at that time is vastly overstated; we knew the murders were occurring, but we didn't realize how quickly they were occurring.)
About Not Idly By
and The U.S. and the Holocaust
Excerpts from The U.S. and the Holocaust Reveals the Dark Limits of Democracy
by Dara Horn (The Atlantic, Sept. 16, 2022)
Not Idly By, an hour-long work by the filmmaker Pierre Sauvage, addresses a similar subject as The U.S. and the Holocaust, but with a very different style. It’s about, and almost entirely narrated by, Peter Bergson, a Jewish activist from British-occupied Palestine who came to the U.S. during World War II to shout himself hoarse about the Holocaust. The U.S. and the Holocaust includes Bergson’s story too—his dozens of full-page ads in major newspapers highlighting massacres that those papers buried in inside pages; his star-studded, stadium-filling pageants; his 400-rabbi march on Washington. But
The U.S. and the Holocaust is sad, whereas Not Idly By is angry. Bergson, interviewed in 1978, rages with a Hebrew prophet’s fury.
Peter Bergson in Not Idly By (interview by Claude Lanzmann not used in Shoah). The film also draws on another 1978 interview by Laurence Jarvik for his pioneering documentary Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die?
Nobody rages in The U.S. and the Holocaust, because nobody rages on PBS. A subtle condescension is built into melancholic discussions of what might have been done to save more Jews, because in the final analysis, America saving more Jews was an optional, high-minded choice that would have been made only out of charity.
The Allies’ defeat of Hitler supposedly lets us off the moral hook for all this. One of the reasons that World War II films have such broad appeal is because many follow a Hollywood trajectory: Good triumphs over evil. Unfortunately, this version of events is false. As one of the historians in Burns’s series puts it, “We do rally as a nation to defeat fascism. We just don’t rally as a nation to rescue the victims of fascism.” The Nazis lost their war against the Allies, but they won their war against the Jews.
See additional comments, reviews, and panel discussions below.
In October, Not Idly By will be available for streaming.
Marie Brenner and Pierre Sauvage on: trouble-makers; President Roosevelt; Rabbi Stephen Wise (2010, Museum of Jewish Heritage, 3 min.)
The filmmaker introduces his challenging documentary Not Idly By—Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust in 2017.
Discussion 2.
Second panel discussion of Not Idly By with Dr. Rebecca Kook (daughter of Peter Bergson), scholar Dr. Rafael Medoff, scholar and moderator Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, and documentary filmmaker Pierre Sauvage. Co-hosted by the Sousa Mendes Foundation and the Chambon Foundation, March 20, 2022.
"It is clear that the audience found the film riveting, disturbing and important. And I agree." Dr. Rebecca Kook, daughter of Hillel Kook/Peter Bergson.
"The chat box for the discussion is clear evidence that the listeners were quite impressed with today’s program highlighting Peter Bergson. Praises were liberally showered on all three panelists. Hopefully, all this will spur efforts to have Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook) receive his well-merited recognition as soon as possible." Dr. Mordecai Paldiel.
First panel discussion of Not Idly By with Dr. Rebecca Kook (daughter of Peter Bergson), scholar Laurel Leff, author and journalist David Samuels, and documentary filmmaker Pierre Sauvage. Initially offered by the Boulder Jewish Film Festival, March 4, 2021.