Turkey to become first Muslim nation to show Holocaust film

[Behind the Aegis]

ANKARA — Turkish public television will show an epic French documentary about the Holocaust, the first broadcast of its kind by national media in a Muslim state, it was announced Wednesday.


A spokesman for Turkish public television TRT said the 1985 film "Shoah" would be shown on one of the network's 14 channels, but did not say when.


The director of nine-hour-plus documentary, Claude Lanzmann, called the Turkish move historic.


"We should acknowledge the courage and determination of the Turks," said Lanzmann, who spent 11 years working on the documentary. "Turkey is a country people don't know and understand very badly."


Turkey's broadcast of the film is the culmination of work by the Aladdin Project, a Paris-based group which tries to improve Jewish-Muslim relations.


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[Firebrand Gary]

1. Good for Turkey!

They should be applauded for this.

[leftynyc]

2. Kudos to Turkey

I saw the second half of Shoah (it was being shown in two halves - 4-1/2 hours each). It was brutal - talking to witnesses in Poland who knew what was happening, who helped the nazis. Dad always told me there was a reason to put the death camps in Poland...he was right.

[COLGATE4]

3. Your Dad was right. But I regularly get flamed by posters

on DU when I respond that Poland was probably the most antisemitic country in Europe at the time of WWII. Cognitive dissonance is alive and well.

[leftynyc]

5. Flamed for the truth?

Given the amount of evidence, the flamers should probably keep their ignorance to themselves.

[COLGATE4]

7. Yep. I still remember the interview in Shoah

with the kindly Polish farmer who offered water to the Jews trapped in the cattle cars for days without in exchange for their gold or other valuables, only to not give them any after they had turned them over to him.

[bemildred]

4. +1. nt

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kudos to Turkey.

Thanks for the thread, Behind the Aegis.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. You're quite welcome.

This is an amazing thing, especially in a country where just a few years ago, Mein Kampf was the #1 bestseller. This is a huge step.