At the Jerusalem Film Festival -- New Film about the Execution of Adolph Eichmann

The Jerusalem Film Festival is in full swing, with tons of people attending every screening! 

The first Israeli film that I had the opportunity to see -- June Zero, directed by Jake Paltrow (an American-Israeli co-production) -- is an historical drama about memory. It takes place in Israel during the period leading up to the execution of Adolph Eichmann in 1962.  There are moral questions arising in Israeli society since this would be the first time that the State of Israel executes someone as a result of a lengthy trial.  Moreover, since no one wants Eichmann’s body to lie in a grave which could become a site for Nazi pilgrimage, there is much discussion and consternation concerning what to do with the body. 

During the Eichmann trial, Holocaust survivors in Israel began to tell their stories for the first time. As a result, this film deals with a serious dilemma which is still relevant today: are there negative aspects if stories of Holocaust survivors are told too much? Might this overwhelm us and foster a counter-productive narrative of victimhood? On the other hand, are we morally obliged to tell the stories so that people today recognize what actually happened in “that place” during “that time”, so that the history of this period is well known for this generation and for future ones? These questions – which are serious and sensitive ones—are raised in this film.

June Zero tells the story of a few key characters.  David is an adolescent boy whose father, a relatively new immigrant from Libya, takes his son to work at a factory, where he becomes invaluable because of his size (he can fit into small spaces) and because of his wit and creativity.  David becomes involved in the building of the oven that will cremate the body of Eichmann, so that his ashes may be scattered at sea.

It turns out that the building of the oven was not so easy.  It’s not as if expertise in the building of an oven for cremating a human body could be found in Israel.  Among other things, there was a serious question about how to get the temperature high enough so that the bones would burn to ashes.

This is also the story of the captain of the prison guards, who is tasked with the job of protecting Eichmann. He takes his job very seriously and must be sure that no harm will come to Eichmann, not by the hands of a survivor who might seek to take justice or revenge into his own hands, and not by the hands of Eichmann himself, who might want to deprive the State of Israel the opportunity to execute him. The prison captain must keep him safe so that no one is cheated out of the upcoming execution.

This is also the story of a young police interrogator who works for the prosecution, interviewing Eichmann.  He is himself a survivor of the ghetto and Auschwitz.  He visits Poland with one of the first delegations of visitors to Auschwitz, and finds meaning in the telling of his own heart-wrenching story of survival.

These characters and their stories are interwoven into a finely produced period piece which tries to portray the complexity of the times and the issues involved.  These issues continue to concern us in Israel today, as the history of the Holocaust, and the way the stories are told, are all too often used for narrow political purposes.

What is the meaning of the title of the film? In order to prevent the date of Eichmann’s execution from becoming memorialized, it was written in the Israeli press that the execution took place on June 0, 1962.