June Zero Brings an Important Moment in Israeli and Holocaust History to Life

A briskly paced movie about the trial in Israel of Adolf Eichmann and its effect on Israelis was the third offering Thursday evening in this summer’s White Mountain Jewish Film Festival. 

Eichmann was an important figure in the implementation of Hitler’s campaign to rid Europe, much of it occupied by Nazi Germany in 1939-45, of all Jews. Eichmann was captured - illegally - in Argentina in 1960 by agents of the Israeli government and forcibly taken to Israel, where he was tried publicly and convicted of crimes against humanity and crimes against the Jewish people. 

Although judicial execution and revenge lie outside of the Jewish ethos, as it is understood now, the film “June Zero” centers around the conviction and hanging of Eichmann and the cremation of his body.  As Rabbi Donna noted, Jewish law had no precedent for disposing of a body other than burial, nor a history of building a crematorium. Only the story, she related, of Esther offers a clue, and that we know is a farce. Dealing with Eichmann’s remains was a new challenge to both the Rabbinate and the values of the traumatized young nation. (See note below regarding disputes over Eichmann’s role as Holocaust “mastermind.)

Festival Directors Dorothy and Dave Goldstone

Dr. Martin Kessel, BHC vice president, offered remarks before the screening and guided a question-and-answer session afterwards. Dorothy Goldstone, the impresario of the film series, now in its tenth year, chose Martin because he lived in Israel at the time. (He earned a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Hebrew University and served as a reserve duty soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces in 1966-1984.)

Martin’s introductory remarks included a news clip from the 1961 trial in which we hear the voice of Gideon Hausner, the chief prosecutor, and see Eichmann in court in Jerusalem, standing in a bullet-proof, transparent box.  Martin recalled that Israelis had paid rapt attention to the Eichmann trial, which was especially disturbing for Holocaust survivors and their children. He described hearing the radio transmission of the trial everywhere: in homes, in shops, in schools.

The country, he recounted, was generally satisfied with the of Eichmann. Martin recalls no rejoicing; he was only 24 at the time, and involved with his studies and young family. But he recalled, perhaps, a quiet sigh of relief that Eichmann had been served justice . He also explained that the film title “June Zero” reflected an effort to leave it unclear when Eichmann was executed, lest that date be memorialized by neo-Nazis, though the date of the hanging was June 1,1962, Martin related.

Writer-director Jake Paltrow leavens this heavy story with the tale of David, a smart, mouthy 13-year-old Libyan Jew who is impressed into helping to construct the cremation oven. Paltrow uses David’s conscription to illustrate the invidious attitude of European Israelis towards Jews from the Middle East and Africa, as well as showcase a child’s naive understanding of the grave moral questions the nation faced.

The film offered a multifaceted view of how the trial and execution affected Israelis. Eichmann’s personal bodyguard, a Moroccan Israeli named Hayim, not only keeps Eichmann alive and protected from any possible vigilante attack, but converses with Eichmann in Spanish. He does his best to treat Eichmann with dignity. Janek, a Polish survivor and factory worker among those commissioned to build the mobile crematorium, is overwhelmed by the responsibility of turning Eichmann’s body to ashes. Micha, a Polish-Israeli, became the chief interrogator at the trial. As a boy in a Polish Jewish ghetto, Micha survived 80 lashes at the hand of an SS officer and went on to survive Auschwitz. He wants people to know exactly what happened in Poland, and is willing to revisit the sites of his family’s annihilation to keep the memory alive.

Israelis who were in Palestine at the time of the mandate represented yet other perspectives. A former Etzel leader, now running the factory commissioned to build the crematorium, is still a ruthless, wily, and effective leader. He wants to revenge. A beautiful Sabra working for the Jewish Agency wonders at refugees who hold onto the past; she is looking at a future portraying strength and resolve.

Voiced in some English, with Hebrew, Polish, Arabic dialogs subtitled in English, the film moves rapidly, the subtitles sometimes too rapidly for complete reading. The film also offers views of an early Israel, with lush orange groves, barren deserts, stately Mandate buildings, rusting factories, donkey carts and sturdy old trucks.

Before the screening, a sumptuous buffet, including vegan options, was offered on the terrace of the Colonial Theater by Sharon Heyman and Barry Zitser. 

  –Edward Cowan with Jacki Katzman

Note from Edward Cowan: The film presumes Eichmann was a “Nazi monster who had masterminded the ‘final solution’,” the Nazi term for the extermination of the Jews. Head prosecutor Hausner called Eichmann the "mastermind"; we can guess why Hausner assigned that primary or paramount role to Eichmann--to justify what Israel had done (kidnapped Eichmann illegally) and was doing--trying and executing him.

Whether Eichmann, a Nazi to be sure, was the “mastermind” or a zealous administrator of that campaign is open to examination.  An online historical note by the World Jewish Congress and UNESCO states that in 1941, Reinhard Heydrich was “given responsibility for the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’.” He convened the January 1942 Wansee-Berlin conference of high-ranking Nazis, including Eichmann, to resolve the “Jewish question.” 

Eichmann was 56 when he was hanged, cremated, with his ashes sprinkled in the sea beyond Israel’s territorial waters.