Did the world really need this?
July 14, 2010
[b]Auschwitz ‘I Will Survive’ Dance Video Creator, Jane Korman, And Father, Adolek Kohn, Speak Out /b
First Posted: 07-14-10 11:12 AM | Updated: 07-14-10 11:20 AM
Jane Korman and her father, Holocaust survivor Adolek Kohn, spoke with BBC Tuesday to defend the video they made last summer, which shows the two accompanied by Kohn’s three grandchildren dancing to Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” in front of Auschwitz and other Holocaust sites.
“Despite the systematic brutality and cruelty endured, we have still survived,” she said about the video’s intentions. Korman told the BBC that it was about creating something that young people could connect with:
"It was really important for me to create some sort of work that had a fresh interpretation of the Holocaust. Especially for the younger generation, because I could see that even the word 'Holocaust' and the images that one sees of the Holocaust were numbing and in fact, they weren't even interested."
Since it was put on YouTube in January, the video has received over 330,000 hits and over 2,000 comments from viewers, who have called it everything from ‘heart-warming’ to ‘despicable.’
YouTube user colonelcandoo said “I am sure the millions of peopled who died here would be ecstatic that you and your family are alive and dancing here. Keep on dancing…”
Other viewers found a different message in Korman’s art, however, which she said is “a tribute to the tenacity of the human spirit and a celebration of life.”
“This video is touching. Thank you!” Said user zeonchar.
Kohn, who dances throughout the video with the word ‘Survivor’ on his shirt, said that he did not mind dancing.
“If somebody had asked me then that I would come 62 years later with my grandchildren to Auschwitz, I would send him to a madhouse,” he said.