"Operation Finale"

The liberation of Mauthausen in May of 1945 — The liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Mauthausen, near Linz, Austria, on 6 May 1945, by elements of the Eleventh Armored Division of General George Patton’s Third Army. My father was there on that day, though I don’t believe that he’s in this photograph. He raised me with the moral obligation that he himself felt, that the crimes committed at Mauthausen and other such camps must never be forgotten. And I HAVEN’T forgotten. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons public domain)

My wife and I just returned from watching Operation Finale. I won’t say that we enjoyed it — it’s not the kind of film that one should “enjoy” — but we’re both glad that we went.

As I’ve explained here several times before, I feel a strong moral and personal/familial obligation both to see such films and to encourage others to see them, as well. My father enjoined upon me that I should never forget what happened in the Holocaust, and that I should do my best to help others never to forget. He was worried about that; he wanted me to remember the evil of which humans are capable. (I suppose that such remembrance is at least a factor in my insistence on limited government power, which is what makes me, politically speaking, a libertarian-leaning conservative.)

It’s also, I think, imperatively necessary to understand the history of (particularly European) anti-Semitism and, most specifically, of the Endlösung, the Nazis’ “Final Solution,” in order to fully comprehend the modern State of Israel.

On Mount Herzl, in the rain — A view of Yad Vashem on a rainy day. The Israeli Holocaust memorial is located on the western slope of Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, which is also known as the Mount of Remembrance.

(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

For years, we took our Israel tour groups to visit Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, in Jerusalem. But, evidently, a sizeable proportion (though not all) of our groups very strongly disliked that part of the tour, so we’ve omitted it for the past two or three years. I understand why they found Yad Vashem unpleasant. It’s certainly not intended to be fun. But I regret the fact that we no longer go there — both because the site helps mightily in understanding Zionism and the roots of modern Israel and because, once again, I see it as part of my obligation to help, in my very minor way, to keep awareness of the Shoah alive.

Anyway, I encourage you to see Operation Finale. It’s maybe not exactly the perfect movie for popcorn and Milk Duds, but it’s well worth seeing nonetheless. And it’s well done. Even though most of us already know, in broad outlines, how it’s going to end, there is still suspense in the film, and there are periods of what seems surprising potential moral ambiguity.

“Operation Finale”