95. It has not gone unnoticed
I.
We begin this year (the eightieth since the Second World War) with humility. That is the natural reaction when watching the over nine-hour-long documentary Shoah; a reconstruction of the Holocaust. It is a historical document from 1985, in which the French philosopher and journalist Claude Lanzmann interviews survivors, perpetrators and witnesses, leaving you with a comprehensive account of the extermination of millions of Jews during the Second World War.
The film is a gruelling watch. No music, no archive footage, just portraits of people who lived through the Holocaust and images showing how the concentration camps were left behind. You even ride along for a long stretch on the front of a train heading for Auschwitz, the final journey for many. The people who speak often do so slowly; sometimes an interpreter is present, which makes it take twice as long. Ultimately, the film’s slow pace didn’t bother me: it allows you to really let it sink in.
These are harrowing stories. It is explained in detail how thousands of people were gassed, how the crematoria worked and how mass graves were cleared. The bodies crumbled in the hands of the men who had to remove them.
The film was made at just the right time. Forty years after the war, many people who had lived through it were still alive. It is a bizarre moment when Lanzmann walks into a café and starts questioning the man behind the bar. This man turns out to be Josef Oberhauser, an SS officer convicted of complicity in genocide, who is calmly serving beers here.
There are frequent confrontations of this kind. Ex-Nazis are secretly filmed as they recount their experiences in the camps in vivid detail, whilst trying to convince Lanzmann that they really had no idea of the horror that was taking place. What stays with you most are the survivors, who are often able to recount what they saw, but who always falter at some point or burst into tears due to unresolved trauma. Everyone should watch Shoah at least once, so that no one forgets what pure evil and inhumanity look like.
---II.
It is a literary tradition to read Gerard Reve’s De avonden at the end of the year. I decided to join in, as I had never read this Dutch classic before. You follow the main character, Frits van Egters (aged 23), during the last ten days of the year. Each day is a chapter, so it’s an easy read. Because the exact days of the week in 2024 happened to correspond with those in the book, I stepped into a time machine and travelled back to the year 1946.
The war has just ended and people are trying to find their feet. But Frits is stuck. In routine, in cynicism, in vexation. His glass is constantly half-full; he dwells on the minor misfortunes that befall him. He drops soap in the dark; a piece of bread he throws to the seagulls lands in a hole in the ice; he understands nothing of the performance he attends, and yet he applauds. Frits allows himself to be swept along in a hopeless existence. It’s no wonder he feels that way; he grew up with bleak prospects.
Reve describes it in a rather tragicomic way. The chapters seem to meander on, and our anti-hero is often irritating, yet his annoyances and philosophical musings are recognisable. We humans have been fretting over the same petty things for decades; that is reassuring. You could get carried away by Frits’s wallowing, but I actually found those musings particularly humorous.
The final pages are incredibly moving. Frits suddenly understands the importance of the everyday. “‘I am alive,’ he whispered, ‘I am breathing. And I am moving. I breathe, I move, so I live. What else can happen? There may be disasters, pains, horrors. But I live. I may be locked up, or afflicted by dreadful diseases. But I still breathe, and I move. And I live.’” Before he gets into bed on the last evening of 1946, he draws courage into his lungs. “‘It has been seen,’ he muttered, ‘it has not gone unnoticed.’”
PS.
I didn’t know Frietpan Frank, but I do now (via Floris de Bijl) and I immediately subscribed to his YouTube channel. This Frank tinkers away in his shed, putting together the craziest deep-frying experiments whilst providing deadpan commentary. In his latest video, he tries to find out whether you can fry frikandellen whilst the pan is spinning around. These are the videos YouTube was made for, people.
---Another person for whom YouTube was made: Bobby Fingers. The rock ’n’ roll artist is back with a new diorama, based on that time ‘the drummer from The Black Keys’ forgot his name on Joe Rogan’s podcast. There’s a ridiculous amount of work (and humour) in this one too.
---Freek de Jonge (aged 80) performed a Christmas stand-up routine. I caught up on it and thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s always a pleasure to let De Jonge take you on a journey (this time largely through my city, Utrecht). He’s still sharp on current affairs, with plenty of room for personal gripes (that bloody fibre-optic installation! the bottom shelves in the Albert Heijn that force the elderly to lie on their stomachs!). You laugh, you’re surprised, and at the end De Jonge sends you into the new year with a warm message.
---Last.fm’s year-end review is far better than Spotify’s. Better designed, without AI tags, featuring cool charts and more specific figures. Here’s my playback and this is the full 2024 overview.
Right then, let’s take one last look back. Vox has put together a nice, digestible overview of news events in 2024.
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