Documentary Nathan-ism Chronicles a Soldier’s Harrowing Nuremberg Story
From its beginning — especially during uncertain times — film has illuminated history and context that speak to current events. In a poignant intersection of art, history and the human experience, the documentary Nathan-ism, by filmmaker Elan Golod, is one such film. Nathan-ism opens Dec. 6 at the Laemmle Royal in West Los Angeles, with other cities to follow.
Golod set out to document the extraordinary story of 18-year-old Nathan Hilu, the son of Syrian-Jewish immigrants to New York. At the end of World War II Nathan is assigned a life-changing mission from the United States Army: to guard the most notorious Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials.
For one year, Nathan keeps suicide watch while getting a personal look at these men and the horrors they committed. This first-person exposure to humanity’s greatest evil serves as Nathan’s coming of age. It cannot go unnoticed that Nathan-ism arrives as the world witnesses another genocide in Palestine, but today, we see it unfolding in real time on our devices. Accordingly, through photographs of the Nuremberg trials, the film’s historic images revivify a contemporary audience.
Following World War II, the victorious allied governments formed the first international criminal tribunals to prosecute high-level political officials and military authorities for war crimes and other wartime atrocities. Nathan’s experiences in the Nuremberg prison included escorting Hermann Göring to a Christmas service and chatting with Albert Speer through the bars of his cell door. Göring, a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal, became one of the most powerful Nazi leaders in World War II and was a close friend of Adolf Hitler. Speer was a German architect who served as the minister of armaments and war production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II and was a close ally of Hitler. It was Speer who encouraged Nathan to document everything he witnessed. “Keep your eyes open and write what you see here,” he told him. Nathan took this to heart, becoming consumed by the memories and capturing them with raw sketches and notes in oil-pastel crayons and Sharpies. Even into his 90s, he amassed an extensive artwork dedicated to this life experience.
Laura Kruger, curator of the Hebrew Union College Museum at the Jewish Institute of Religion where Nathan’s work is stored, named Nathan an “outsider artist.” Kruger defined this as “artists outside of the art world; embedded in the culture, there are underknown people who will make the work whether [or not] there is anyone looking at it.”
After Nuremberg, Nathan would spend the next 70 years obsessively creating a visual narrative from his memories. Nathan-ism delves into Nathan’s relationship with his own stories, and the compulsion he has to share them with a world that doesn’t always listen. The protagonist never married or had children; the situation highlights a level of isolation, exposing a common challenge both for veterans and older folks in American society that is often overlooked. It’s perhaps in this environment that Nathan survives because, in fact, he struggles to tell his story whether it’s heard or not.
Of note, in a moving op-ed, “Nuremberg Courtroom 600 Screening,” Golod writes about screening his film at the actual Nuremberg court where 24 defendants were tried between November 1945 to October 1946. Golod explained “Nearly 80 years later, this iconic courtroom space would transform into a movie theater for one evening. A contemporary German audience, people whose grandparents might have been alive during those dark times, took their seats on the same wooden spectator benches of the Nuremberg Trials to watch Nathan-ism …
“… Nathan’s role in these trials placed him right in the midst of history as it unfolded. Tasked with guarding the defendants and preventing them from harming themselves, he ensured the chief architects of the Holocaust lived to stand trial for their crimes.”
He also described the experience of working with Nathan and their visits, writing how Nathan welcomed Golod into his world, “shaped by memories of his time as a young U.S. soldier in Germany, memories as vivid as the day they were formed. As a filmmaker, I was fascinated by how Nathan’s creative mind processed these experiences over a lifetime of mostly solitary reflection.”
Nathan told these stories with urgency, punctuating them with “it’s a true story,” as he sketched animated figures, coloring in details like their garments. But what happens when those memories take on a life of their own?
Nathan, through his art as archive and his emphatic narration, bears witness to historical atrocities. Yet, his emphasis also points to a recognition of his people, of Jewish survival, even after the tragic, systematic murder of some six million Jews during the Holocaust.
In his director’s statement, Golod, as a filmmaker, recalls being drawn to Nathan’s story to bridge the past and present, intertwining the historical with the personal, and blending the intimate with the grand.
“Nathan Hilu’s fervent need to tell his story mirrors my motivation in capturing it — to create a vehicle for empathy and understanding of marginalized voices, and to stress the impact certain events can have on one’s life to the end.
“With the rise of antisemitism and Holocaust denial worldwide, seeing the impact of the Nuremberg trials through the eyes of a soldier who witnessed them firsthand offers a unique opportunity to confront this history from a fresh perspective.
“His life and work raise questions, not just about the episodes of world history to which he unwittingly bore witness (of which there are many), but about the need to find meaning in our lives, and the effect that can have on our memories.”
The documentary has received widespread acclaim, winning several awards, including the Yad Vashem Award for Outstanding Holocaust-Related Documentary, a shortlist spot at the International Documentary Association Awards, and a prize from the Jewish Film Institute in the USA.
Details: www.nathan-ism.com
