A film clip advert for a house party called “Housewitz”, which paradoys the Auschwitz concentration camp, has upset Jews in Holland, Poland, and America, even though it was only intended to be a joke.
The advert, which was made for an Internet site, says that the party will take place on 4 May, the Netherlands Holocaust remembrance day.
It plays with the slogan ‘Tanzen macht frei’ (Dance makes free), instead of ‘Arbeit macht frei’ (Work makes free, the cynical Nazi-words on the entrance of Auschwitz).
The clip was originally placed on the web log geenstijl.nl but can now be seen on many other websites, including in Poland where it was even shown in discotheques.
The clip announces the DJ’s Michel der Heidi and Adolf Von Bauren with Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, speaks about “seven million partypeople, set their body’s on fire”, “dresscode; skinny Jew”. It shows many horrific pictures of the former deathcamp with statements like “hot showers, free of charge” and “train stops at partyground”.
Legal action
Both the American Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Central Jewish Council (CJO), the council that deals with the authorities about Jewish matters, have written to Dutch Minister of Justice Jan Piet Hein Donner, to being legal action against the clip and the people that reproduce it.
In a letter to Dimitrij Rupel, Chairman in Office of the 55 State Party OSCE, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Affairs, Dr. Shimon Samuels stressed that
"Geenstijl, a notoriously irreverent web log with 60,000 daily visitors, has gone beyond the bounds of freedom of ecpression to an unprecedented level of obscenity. Its disclaimer is an empty exercise pandering to the ’music’ assets of the skinhead community and the much broader raver world beyond."
Extensive apology
The clip was made by the Dutch twenty-two year old student Dicky Thijssen, who apologised extensively on the internet for the offence caused by his video: “I should never have done it. It was just a very, very bad joke. I couldn’t imagine how much people would be hurt. I’m very, very sorry and I will never do it again”. Thijssen receives hatemail every day.
Dutch Internet anti-discrimination watchdog known as MDI said Wednesday it would file legal action against geenstijl.nl, without lauching any action against Thijssen.
But the weblog geenstijl.nl refuses up to now to remove the clip with a so called ‘educational’ argument: “This clip showes how our educational system has failed.”
Offensive video
The pro-Israel Centre for Information and Documentation Israel in The Hague requested Geenstijl.nl to remove the clip from its site. Agnes van der Sluys of the C.I.D.I. told EJP that “The film is disgusting and offensive, especially for people that survived the Shoa.”
“They are just hiding behind this useless argument, this clip is also copied everywhere without this so-called ‘mirror’," Van der Sluys said. “We asked the MDI to insitute legal proceedings against against geen.stijl.nl. They always deal with offensive material on the internet,” she added.
“We asked for proceedings against this clip before and that request was dismissed. But this time the prosecutor can’t dismiss this charge so easily.”