By Lee Pfeiffer
German director Veit Harlan would have been considered to be the James Cameron of his day. A superstar director during the era in which Adolf Hitler came to power, Harlan was known for his inimitable skill in putting together crowd-pleasing films. However, his legacy has been forever tainted by a work that was his most successful, but most notorious. Jew Suss was Harlan's 18th century costume drama that was a thinly-veiled anti-Semitic screed, using the worst types of Jewish stereotypes as villains. Unlike the crude "documentaries" made by Goebbels, Harlan's film had the facade of being a popular entertainment. Though no one other than SS members were required to see it, the film proved to be a huge commercial hit, selling more than 20 million tickets in 1940. This was after the outbreak of WWII, which began with Germany's invasion of Poland in September 1939. However, Hitler had yet to move the Holocaust into its most nightmarish stage, and still felt compelled to motivate public opinion against the Jews.
A new documentary, Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suss, is the work of a contemporary German filmmaker, Felix Moeller, who examines the legacy of Harlan's movie and its impact in the ensuing decades. Moeller tries to unravel Harlan's motivations for making the movie. Did he feel forced to use his talents for evil purposes or did he create the movie to ingratiate himself with Hitler? Adding to the mystery is the fact that Harlan was once married to a Jewish woman. The documentary will be showing at the Film Forum in New York for two weeks. Click here for more.