DianaObsessed with the Holocaust
June 12th 2008 23:32
I blame the theme song for 'Schindler's List'.
Have you ever heard that? You've seen the movie, right? Read the book. But the theme song, that is something else.
It appears in a book of movie themes I use for teaching and this year two students at least have elected to learn it. OK, it is the most haunting, lyrical, sad, slow and beautiful tune you will have heard for quite a while. And lends itself perfectly to flute or violin with piano accompaniment.
But it provokes profound images of the movie.
So, in teaching it I started explaining to the 14 year olds in my class what it is the theme for and what the movie is about.
Would you believe, these kids were pretty hazy about stuff about the second world war? They had kind of heard of Hitler but didn't really know which countries were involved and only had a vague idea about the holocaust.
Anyway, I told them a couple of books to read if they want to learn more (Hanna's Suitcase, Diary of Anne Frank) but made them promise to talk to me about them if they did follow these up. So we have started a little discussion group about the war and the Jews and those types of issues and these students are able to play the music with more feeling cos they know what the song is trying to portray.
Then last week at the horse trials the PA played classical music all through the dressage tests. This drove me insane, cos I knew them all and they kept being repeated and it was torture.
But the 'Schindler's List' theme was one of them. Over and over those sad haunting phrases kept on and on, filling the day, filling my head, filling my eyes with tears and echoing over the paddocks and hills beyond.
This week then has started me on a bit of an obsession again with that era and I have just finished reading 'The Pianist' which covers the Warsaw ghetto and the German invasion.
Have you read it? Apparently it has been made into a film, but I always like to read the book first.
It is pretty harrowing.
Yesterday I went to the library and got a whole lot of other books out on the topic. Do you think there is something wrong with me?
Have you experienced this deep interest?
Whatever you do, do not be tempted to listen to the theme song for 'Schindler's List' : you will suffer for it!
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