Some Hungarians have responded with anti-Semitic abuse to the news that the acclaimed film "Son of Saul," which is set in Auschwitz during World War II, may win this year's Academy Award for best foreign film. Directed by Laszlo Nemes, the film won the jury's Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in May and a Golden Globe earlier this month. The movie tells the tale of a Jewish Sonderkommando in Auschwitz, who finds a corpse he believes to be his son and decides to provide him with a dignified burial. Sonderkommandos were prisoners who were forced to dispose of the gas chamber victims in the death camps during the Holocaust. According to the Australian newspaper The Age, some Hungarians are calling the movie "Holokamu" ("Holocaust hoax"). One Holocaust-denier denounced the film as "science fiction" on his Facebook page. Other responses included "Jewish propaganda!" and "For Jews, about Jews," the Jewish Press reported, while other responses were far more extreme. "So many anti-Semitic comments have been made; it's a disgrace," a member of the Jewish community in Budapest told The Age. "I wonder if the West is aware of how people here think." In May, Nemes said he wanted as many people as possible to see it in Hungary, a country plagued by anti-Semitism and xenophobia. He quoted a text message from the film's historical consultant, Zoltan Vagi, who wrote that Hungary had a great deal to atone for. The message said Hungary set a European record by sending 430,000 Jews to the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau within eight weeks in 1944, among them more than 100,000 children. "This film is about Saul's drive to give one Hungarian child of the 100,000 a proper, honest burial," he said. Surveys show Hungarian anti-Semitism at a persistently high level and the far-right Jobbik party, which has capitalized on that sentiment, is the main challenger of the ruling center-right Fidesz party. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declared a zero-tolerance policy against anti-Semitism, but has displayed signs of xenophobia and radicalization itself. Geza Rohrig, an amateur actor who gives a mesmerizing performance as Saul, said Hungarians are growing immune to the suffering of people they see as different, be they Jews or Roma gypsies. "I want as many people as possible to watch this film as I believe Hungarians, for some time now, have ignored the pain of certain other people," Rohrig said. The filmmakers rejected criticism that they depicted the Sonderkommandos in an overly understanding way, saying they worked painstakingly to remain faithful to facts. Some accounts see the Sonderkommandos as accomplices, while others say they had a choice between working or certain death. Jobbik's vice chairman said films about the Holocaust were not worthy of receiving public funds, which helped finance Nemes' movie. Asked about this, the filmmakers were reluctant to discuss current affairs. "We made the movie," producer Gabor Simon said. "What kind of waves it makes at home ... we agree on what effect the waves should have, but we would rather stay out of direct politics. Let's see how the waves splash, which it seems they do."
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Some in Hungary see Oscar nominee 'Son of Saul' as Holocaust hoax
The award-winning movie about a Jewish Sonderkommando in Auschwitz sparks anti-Semitic abuse on Hungarian social media • "So many anti-Semitic comments have been made; it's a disgrace," says member of Budapest Jewish community.