Hunters and Holocaust Depictions: An Analysis

By Isobel Gibson

CONTENT WARNING: THIS ARTICLE DISCUSSES THE HOLOCAUST AND MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL READERS.

Two and a half years ago I went to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. It was moving, and utterly disgusting. The most striking aspect of the entire day spent learning about the Holocaust and Auschwitz was a glass display filled with human hair. It is difficult to express the profundity of this particular part of the exhibit; giant swathes of human hair, some braided, others stuck in a tangled knot, sit in silence as a marker for those who were murdered.

The reason why I talk of this specific instance of the physical remains of the Holocaust, and learning about it, is to highlight the sheer horror involved.

Significantly, the Holocaust is a horror that is still a lived experience – tears slowly rolled down the cheeks of my classmates who recognized family names among the records displayed in the Museum.

So, how do we, as a society, approach depicting the Holocaust? The 2020 television show Hunters, produced by Amazon Prime, has raised significant questions regarding the ethicality of portraying the Holocaust, and especially taking certain artistic liberties to do so. Hunters is based on an unlikely team of vigilantes coming together in 1970’s New York City to hunt down and kill former Nazis. The television show also portrays direct accounts of the Holocaust through flashbacks. These scenes are highly disturbing, and a strong part of the plot features Nazi’s forcing prisoners to play a game of human chess, which ultimately results in death and is, of course, a form of mental torture. Notably, Hunters does not claim to be documentary, but rather inspired by true events, including Operation Paperclip, as well as what the horrific reality was of being a victim or survivor of the Holocaust. This is where the controversy lies.

By fictionalizing experiences of the Holocaust, such as the existence of the human chess game, several significant risks are taken. First, it has been said by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum that the sensationalizing and fictive nature

of Hunters’ portrayal is “disrespectful and dangerous.” A more biting response, that I encourage everyone to read, was provided by Stephen Smith, the director of the USC Shoah Foundation in the Jewish Journal. Smith states:

This statement by Smith aptly reminds fans of the show that the complexities of depicting the Holocaust are unique and require great consideration. Depicting the Holocaust is so precarious, not only due to it being relatively recent and there being survivors in addition to ongoing, compounding, generational trauma, but also because there is a dangerous percent of the population, who are obviously anti-Semitic, who simply do not believe the Holocaust happened. Additionally, Hunters conflates the identity of the victim and the abuser. By having Holocaust survivors and their loved ones exact the torture they experienced on to the Nazis, in the name of retributive justice, does that make the horror and violence of the show easier to digest? In lieu of the criticism Hunters swiftly and abundantly received, the series creator David Weil responded, which I personally believe was very thoughtful and illuminating, although not necessarily exonerating. Weil begins the statement by stating how affecting his own visit to the Auschwitz camp was, particularly as his grandmother was a survivor of the Holocaust and of Auschwitz. The most pertinent piece of Weil’s statements is this:

“I fear the pernicious blending of fact and fiction risks being weaponized by Holocaust deniers.”

“In speaking to the “chess match” scene specifically… this is a fictionalized event. Why did I feel this scene was important to script and place in series / to most powerfully counteract the revisionist narrative that whitewashes Nazi perpetration, by showcasing the most extreme – and representationally truthful – sadism and violence that the Nazis perpetrated against the Jews and other victims. And why did I feel the need to create a fictional event when there were so many real horrors that existed? After all, it is true that Nazis perpetrated widespread and extreme acts of sadism and torture - and even incidents of cruel “games” – against their victims. I simply did not want to depict those specific, real acts of trauma.” Hunters has received numerous Award nominations and been renewed for a second season, and it is set to be released sometime in 2021; certainly, the need for examination, sensitivity, and reflection should continue given the questions that the show raises. Depicting the Holocaust is complex not only as a historical event of particular atrocity and evil, but also as a living phenomenon that continues to have major impacts today.