Holocaust DP camps immigration
After viewing the film The Illegals and reading this week’s assigned secondary source readings,consider to what extent the film conveys realistically (in your view) the plight of Jewish survivors in post-war Europe and beyond, as portrayed to some extent in the readings you’ve completed this week and in the past few weeks (and perhaps especially last week).
Do you think the film captured, metaphorically or literally, the ways in which Jews conceived of their own experiences of survival and their path to a homeland after the war?
If so, how? If not, why not? Did Bauer and Patt’s articles illuminate any aspects of the film in particular?
Post your initial response of 5-7 paragraphs (plus citations of the text/film)
Included a short web resource from Yad Vashem with further background information about The Illegals and how it was made – in the covering comments for the module, also linked up to Simone Gigliotti’s very interesting lecture on the film, which considers it against other film narratives. Some of you may have also read Leon Uris’s Exodus, which relates similar themes.
At times, the sound on the film is quite challenging – the Closed Captioning is not too bad, though as you will see, it sometimes gets the transcription wrong. But you should be able to get the gist!
Primary Source Reading
Film: The Illegals, directed by Meyer Levin for Americans for Haganah
Click link to open resource.
TFB, “How Displaced Jews get to Palestine,” New York Times, July 15, 1948: (link updated 19 July 2019)
JTA, “Americans for Haganah”: (link updated 19 July)
Film Review, “The Illegals” – (not required)
Secondary source readings attached
