Jeanette Isabella

0706295576

Kajian Film dan Media

Final Essay

Tears Lie in These Letters: Oyfn Pripetshik as a Symbol of the Loss of Childhood in Schindler’s List

With seven Academy Awards and three Golden Globes, not to mention other awards and

praises given to the film, it is hard to deny that Schindler’s List is one of the most celebrated

films of all time. It is a long film—a three-hours-and-seven-minutes long World War II film

without a visible nation-against-nation battle, a Holocaust film without the gore as usually shown

happen in Auschwitz, and a Nazi film without Hitler. The only battle in Schindler’s List is a

battle of wits, the terrifying Auschwitz is where the Jews are heard laughing, and the Nazi, near

the end of the film, chose to walk away than murdering some Jews. One might say that it is a

peculiar film about the World War II, but again that is not the main focus of the film. Instead

war, the focus in Schindler’s List is how people can change. Both director by Steven Spielberg

and composer John Williams have created the kind of atmosphere most suitable for a film about

transformation; melancholia. One of the strongest, as well as the most memorable, melancholy

sequences of the film is the Red Genia sequence, when during the Liquidation of the Ghetto (as

seen in the film happened in March 13, 1943), a young girl wearing a red coat seen walked

amidst the chaos while a non-diegetic song Oyfn Pripetshik can be heard. This song is never

heard again for the rest of the film—unlike “Gloomy Sunday” which being played over and

over—and for a good reason. Spielberg most likely chose the song Oyfn Pripetshik to serve as a

symbol of the loss of childhood, to reinforce the reflection of tremendous suffering of the Jewish

children during the time, in his audience’s mind.

Sound is a powerful film aspect; according to Sergei Eisenstein, putting a form of sound

to a film will create a ―synchronization of senses‖ (Bordwell & Thompson 1997, p.265), which

relates the sound heard and the sequence seen with how the audience’s mind perceive the union.

Sound can create various feelings and associated with certain images within one’s thought, when

paired with a right sequence (Bordwell & Thompson 1997, p.296). This works for both diegetic,

which the source of the sound is in the sequence when it is heard, and the non-diegetic, which

refers to a sound which source is not in the sequence when it is heard, such as music when no

one is playing (or listening to) a musical instrument, and narrations. To illustrate how an image

can be formed though a song-and-sequence combination in Schindler’s List, one should reflect

how the instrumental, diegetic music “Gloomy Sunday” is used as the Germans are seen

socializing with each other during the introduction of Schindler at the beginning of the film, thus

creating an image of celebration when the same music is heard later when Schindler and his wife

are having a night out, and during the party at Goeth’s villa. As a diegetic sound, the

instrumental also gives the audience a quick glimpse of a popular music of the era, as it must be

since it is being played everywhere and in every occasion, mostly happy times.

On the other hand, the non-diegetic song Oyfn Pripetshik is only played once, though still

holds a pivotal role to the film. This Yiddish song is about a rabbi teaching young Jewish

children the alef bet—the alphabet. The song, which was originally a six-part song yet turned

into simply two parts with the refrain sung over and over in the film, speaks about the

importance of preserving the Jewish culture in remembrance of their bloodshed roots. The song

here serves as a symbol of the loss of childhood for the Jewish children during the Holocaust,

mainly after the Liquidation of the Ghetto as shown in the film. Following is the refrain of the

song, as used in the film and its English translation (see Appendix 1 for the complete lyric),

Zet zhe kinderlekh, gedenkt zhe, tayere,

Vos ir lernt do;

Zogt zhe nokh a mol un take nokh a mol:

Komets-alef: o!

See, children, remember, dear ones,

What you learn here;

Repeat and repeat yet again,

"Komets alef: o!"

(Rubin 2006, 186)

The song is sung in the sequence where a little girl, known as Red Genia – literally ―red child‖—

in the character list, depicted traipsing confusedly in the midst of chaos ensuing on the streets of

the Ghetto. A symbol of adolescent’s innocence and representation of any Jewish children during

the time, she walks through the street and over the blaring machine guns and people screaming,

and the song from the happier times tells the children to remember what they learn ―here‖ on the

streets—hopelessness, confusion, anger, and fear. The filmmakers chose to repeat the refrain

instead continuing with the song while Red Genia is seen wandering (see Figure 1), thus showing

how the children might feel during the time of turmoil. By putting a non-diegetic Yiddish song in

this sequence, the filmmakers suggest that the children are telling themselves to see and

remember what is happening around them, all the while repeating the familiar phrase ―komets

alefo‖ (which means ―komets-alef is pronounced O‖) referring to Yiddish name of the vowel O

(Weinreich 1968: 26) for comfort. According to several videos and online exhibitions on Jewish

children during the Holocaust in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website, it was

normal to see the children due to the pain and confusion of losing their home and family, which

both are symbols of safety, became attached to certain things from their pre-Holocaust days, such

as small tokens and songs, in order to ―reaffirm a tie to their missing parents or family‖

(USHMM 2004a). Both the diegetic (the screams, cries, and machine guns) and non-diegetic (the

song) sound in this sequence also support the sequence which shows the child walking against

the flow of the crowd as well as switching from one line of adult to another (see Figure 2) in

representing the loneliness and confusion took place during the separation of the Jewish children

from their parents during the time when many children were being sent away from their homes

on their own (USHMM 2004a; USHMM 2004b) to find safety in someone else’s household, as

Red Genia seen does (see Figure 3 and Figure 4). The film uses the song Oyfn Pripetshik to

portray the hellish condition of the Liquidation of the Ghetto, which led to the traumatic lost of

childhood home which the Jewish children had to suffer, and how the children absorbed the

feeling of hopelessness, confusion, hate, and fear—all not the kind of feelings natural to a child.

Figure 1. 1:05:53 Figure 2. 1:06:17

Figure 3. 1:07:04 Figure 4. 1:07:38

By learning fear and hatred, the Jewish children in the film are shown forced to mature

psychologically. The children song also signifies this transition, the loss of home and selflessness

as seen in an earlier scene. During the Liquidation of the Ghetto sequence, right before the song

is sung, the audiences are treated the scene in which Adam Levy, a Jewish boy who is being

employed by the Nazi as a scout to report any hiding Jews, saved Danka Dresner and her mother

by lying to the Nazi and promising to ―put [them] in the good line‖ (Figure 5). Both Danka and

her mother’s responses to Adam confirmed that they are familiar with him, as he is a friend of

Danka’s brother. Here the audiences are shown the bravery and unselfishness of this little boy,

saving two people without much thought about his own safety—Adam must already realized that

if the Nazis realize that he had lied to them, he will be punished severely, and yet he still did it.

Later in the film however this kind of selflessness could no longer be seen. Instead risking their

safety to help Olek Rosner, the children hiding in the Plaszow camp’s latrine waste cesspit chose

to shun him away, even Danka whose life was saved earlier (see Figure 6).

Figure 5. 1:05:06 Figure 6. 2:01:32

By witnessing hatred to the Jewish by the German, in this case during the Liquidation of

the Ghetto, the Jewish children learned to fear, as admitted by the children who survived the

Holocaust that no one would bother to help during the war, as everyone was in the same

miserable condition, and if they want to survive, they were expected to save themselves—only

by killing one’s sense of pity and selflessness one could endure the suffering (USHMM 2004b).

The song Oyfn Pripetshik calls to /See, children, remember, dear ones/ what you learn here/, and

indeed remember is what the children in the film are shown to do. It was a cruel time when the

choice was either let someone else die, or perish themselves; it was a time when bravery and

self-sacrifice were no longer honored. There seems only one thing left in the children’s mind

when forced to live in constant fear of being shot and treated like dirt, like what happened during

the Liquidation—and it was not how to risk their safety for others’ sake. By learning fear, the

children have become more calculative, like how the adults are depicted in the film earlier. Both

Figure 7 and Figure 8 show scene in which two different persons are being denied a sanctuary by

the occupants of the hidden trapdoor and loose floor board, respectively. The scene in Figure 7

shows an adult refusing another adult to hide with her, while the one in Figure 8 shows two boys

refusing another boy, yet both scenes convey a same selfishness feeling; though they know that

rejection may cost their hopeful friends’ life, they still show the better-you-than-me kind of

selfishness which usually related to adults, not adolescents.

Figure 7. 1:02:55 Figure 8. 2:00:59

In a word, sound is one of the most powerful film aspects. Sound creates an atmosphere

necessary to manipulate how audiences’ see a scene, while sometimes offers a glimpse of the

story left untold by the film. Thanks to the use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds by

Steven Spielberg in Schindler’s List, the audiences may be able to observe the situation of the

time further, not only limited to what presented in the film. The sounds (diegetic screaming

people, dogs barking, and machine guns shooting, and the non-diegetic song Oyfn Pripetshik)

related to the Liquidation of the Ghetto sequence shows the Jewish children’s plights during the

Nazi occupation of Jewish-laden cities Therefore the sequence, especially the song which is

familiar to any Jewish household, serve as symbol of the loss of childhood for the Jewish

children, both physically (losing home and parents) and psychologically (being forced to mature

beyond their years), as an outstanding difference is visible if one compare the way the people

behave before and after the sequence which the song could be heard, telling the story of the

Jewish children which often left forgotten. Without this pivotal, heart-wrecking song supporting

the scene, Schindler’s List most likely will become another good vs. evil film, where the children

will simply served as meaningless casualties.

Bibliography

Bordwell, D. & Thompson, K. Film Art: an Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2008.

Dick, Bernard, F. Anatomy of Film. New York: Bedford/St.Martin. 2002.

Internet Movie Database, the. ―Schindler’s List (1993)‖ <www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052/awards>.

Accessed January 3, 2012

Rubin, Emanuel. Music in Jewish History and Culture. Harmonie Park Press. 2006. p. 186

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2004b). ―Hidden Children: Hardships‖. Holocaust

Encyclopedia. <www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/?Moduleld=10006125>. Accessed on January 3, 2012

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2004a). ―Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and

the Holocaust‖. Online Exhibitions. <www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hiddenchildren>.

Accessed on January 3, 2012.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2004c). ―Personal Histories: Children‖. Online

Exhibitions. <www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/phistories/>. Accessed on January 3,

2012.

Weinreich, Uriel. Modern Yiddish-English English-Yiddihs Dictionary. YIVO Institute for

Jewish Research, New York. 1968. p. 26

Appendix 1

Oyfn Pripetshik / On the Hearth

Yiddish lyric and English translation

Oyfn pripetshik brent a fayerl,

Un in shtub iz heys,

Un der rebe lernt kleyne kinderlekh,

Dem alef-beys.

Refrain:

Zet zhe kinderlekh, gedenkt zhe, tayere,

Vos ir lernt do;

Zogt zhe nokh a mol un take nokh a mol:

Komets-alef: o!

Lernt, kinder, mit groys kheyshek,

Azoy zog ikh aykh on;

Ver s'vet gikher fun aykh kenen ivre -

Der bakumt a fon.

Lernt, kinder, hot nit moyre,

Yeder onheyb iz shver;

Gliklekh der vos hot gelernt toyre,

Tsi darf der mentsh nokh mer?

Ir vet, kinder, elter vern,

Vet ir aleyn farshteyn,

Vifl in di oysyes lign trern,

Un vi fil geveyn.

Az ir vet, kinder, dem goles shlepn,

Oysgemutshet zayn,

Zolt ir fun di oysyes koyekh shepn,

Kukt in zey arayn!

On the hearth, a fire burns,

And in the house it is warm.

And the rabbi is teaching little children,

The alphabet.

Refrain:

See, children, remember, dear ones,

What you learn here;

Repeat and repeat yet again,

"Komets alef: o!"

Learn, children, with great enthusiasm.

So I instruct you;

He among you who learns Hebrew faster –

He will receive a flag.

Learn children, don't be afraid,

Every beginning is hard;

Lucky is the one has learned Torah,

What more does a person need?

When you grow older, children,

You will understand by yourselves,

How many tears lie in these letters,

And how much lament.

When you, children, will bear the Exile,

And will be exhausted,

May you derive strength from these letters,

Look in at them!

(Rubin 2006, 186)