The filmmaker warns of a resurgence of hatred of Jews in his country and in the world, as strong “as in Germany in the 1930s”.
Par Marc Fourny
© Kevin Winter/Getty Images via AFP
Published on
Subscriber-only audio playback
SPielberg is sounding the alarm: according to him, anti-Semitism has never been so present and assumed in the media and on social networks. A situation that he compares to that which the world knew in the 1930s, reports the site Deadline. “Not since Germany in the 1930s had I seen an anti-Semitism that no longer hides, and that stands tall and proud, one hand on its hip, like Hitler and Mussolini, as if challenging us to fight it, the director explained on the show The Late Show on CBS. I had never experienced it, and especially not in the United States. »
And to denounce the danger which consists in “marginalising people who do not belong to an ethnic majority”. “Hate has become a club that has gathered more members than I could have imagined in America. And hatred and anti-Semitism go hand in hand, you can’t separate them from each other,” explains the filmmaker.
“Not since Germany in the ’30s have I witnessed antisemitism, no longer lurking but standing proud with hands on hips like Hitler and Mussolini — kind of daring us to defy it. I’ve never experienced this in my entire life. Especially in this country.” — Steven Spielberg #Colbert pic.twitter.com/ZGMmnVEFMZ
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) March 3, 2023
According to the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization, anti-Semitic acts have reached record levels in recent years, especially in 2021, with more than ten incidents per day recorded as vandalism, destruction and physical and verbal attacks: 50% of his acts occurred in Europe, 30% in the United States.
With, sometimes, an outrageous speech relayed by certain celebrities, like the American rapper Kanye West, whose Instagram account was suspended in December 2022 when he showed his admiration for Hitler, whose extermination policy led to death 6 million Jews during World War II.
Humanist
Steven Spielberg has always been very vigilant on the issue of intolerance, both in his interviews and through certain films. In his latest feature film, Les Fabelmanthe director returns to anti-Semitism by evoking the rejection or intimidation felt by his young hero Sammy in 1950s America.
He is also widely known for having produced, in 1993, Schindler’s List, which approaches the Holocaust, rewarded, at the time, by seven oscars. In the process, using proceeds from the film, the filmmaker created the Shoah Foundation and collected the dramatic stories of more than 50,000 survivors, in more than thirty languages. “One of the most important jobs I’ve ever done,” he said.
A humanist to the end, the director wants to believe that man is also capable of the best and makes a phrase from Anne Frank his own. “I think she was right when she said most people are good,” he concluded in The Late Show. She said she saw good in most people. And I think that deep down inside of us, our hearts are capable of kindness and empathy…”