Switzerland's Nazi ties

CYNTHIA RAMSAY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

Swiss director Erich Schmid Thomas will make a rare Vancouver appearance this month at a screening that includes his award-winning documentary He Called Himself Surava, which was one of the first films to expose "neutral" Switzerland's relationship with Nazi Germany.

Made in 1995, He Called Himself Surava examines the fascinating and courageous life of Swiss journalist and writer Hans Werner Hirsch, aka Peter Surava, Ernst Steiger, James Walker, Franz Bastian, Pierre Martin and a host of other names. Hirsch was forced to assume different identities because, during the Second World War, he was determined to print the truth about the Nazis and their extermination of the Jews.

After having worked at various jobs, including freelance journalism, Hirsch, at the age of 28, took on the task of managing the Nation newspaper in the early 1940s.
"The main task was not to create just any newspaper," says Hirsch in the documentary, "but to defend democracy."

Under Hirsch's guidance, the Nation's circulation increased from 8,000 readers to some 120,000 readers within four years. As the paper's influence increased, so did the threat it posed to the Swiss authorities. The Nation was repeatedly harassed by government censors, with photos of Nazi crimes being deemed "atrocity propaganda" and damaging to "the reputation of Germany, a friendly power."

Hirsch himself was subjected to anti-Semitic slurs and a campaign to expose him as being Jewish, which he wasn't. Eventually, he was arrested, tried and convicted on trumped up charges. Reduced to poverty and his reputation ruined, he and his wife withdrew from society. They even attempted suicide.

During his life, Hirsch wrote more than 20 books, including The Courage to Inner Freedom and On the Way to Oneself. Only his autobiography, He Called Himself Peter Surava, was written under his real name, Peter Hirsch. Hirsch passed away 10 months after Thomas' documentary was completed.

He Called Himself Surava screens Saturday, Feb. 22, 9:35 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m., at the Pacific Cinémathèque, 1131 Howe St. Another Thomas documentary, Meier 19, about a Zurich policeman who tried to uncover a case of police corruption and became a counterculture hero, will also be shown: Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 23 at 9:15 p.m.

Thomas will be in attendance for both movies' screenings. Advance tickets are available through www.cinematheque.bc.ca.

^TOP