4. The role of the Judenräte in serving Nazi racial policy. A discussion of Claude Lanzmann’s film The Last of the Unjust

Yvonne Kozlovsky Golan 

From the movie: The Last of the Unjust, 2013

Abstract

The article examines Claude Lanzmann’s understanding of Nazi racial policy in Theresienstadt, and the ambivalent role played by Rabbi Dr. Benjamin Murmelstein, one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Vienna. Lanzmann substantiates his position on the Judenrat of the Ghetto through a reconsideration of a 1975 interview with the head of the Jewish Council in Theresienstadt, Dr. Murmelstein. The original interview was filmed during the work on Lanzmann's film Shoah. Three decades later, Lanzmann revisited and reedited the interview to establish his perception of politics and responsibility in the Ghetto. The article analyzes the outcome of this project, The Last of the Unjust (France/Austria, 2013), to decipher Lanzmann’s position and its changes in the past decades.