The Last of the Unjust

The Last of the Unjust is a French-Austrian documentary film from 2013, directed by Claude Lanzmann. The movie is a continuation of Lanzmann's previous work, Shoah, and focuses on the story of Benjamin Murmelstein.

Benjamin Murmelstein was a Jewish elder appointed by Adolf Eichmann to be the last Jewish elder, or "Elderman", in the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia during World War II. Murmelstein's unique position gave him the responsibility to negotiate with the Nazis and to decide which fragments of Jewish life could be preserved in the ghetto.

The movie begins with Murmelstein detailing the history of the ghetto and his experiences through recounting his story to the director Lanzmann. Throughout the movie, archival footage from Theresienstadt is interwoven with Murmelstein's interviews, which comes together to create a layered picture of life in the ghetto, as well as Murmelstein's relationship with his captors.

Lanzmann chose to center the movie around Murmelstein's story after discovering a set of tapes of Murmelstein's testimony at trial in Rome in 1975. Lanzmann filmed Murmelstein's testimony and conducted extensive interviews with him before his death in 1989. Using the testimonies, Lanzmann explores the lines between collaboration, resistance, and survival in a morally precarious position.

Murmelstein's story offers a unique perspective on the Holocaust, as he was one of the few Jewish elders to speak out publicly on their role in the Nazi ghettos. His testimony offers insight into the complexity of a survivor's story and how victims must make decisions in impossible situations, many of which involve compromising one's own morality.

Throughout the interviews, Murmelstein provides a detailed account of his negotiations with Eichmann and his efforts to negotiate the release of Jewish prisoners. Despite Murmelstein's best efforts, his attempts failed, and he was one of the few captive Jews to survive as intended by the Nazi regime.

The film also touches on the larger question of whether Jewish elders, who were nominated by the Nazis to govern localized Jewish communities within ghettos, served as collaborators or as a means of maintaining Jewish life. The interviews with Murmelstein question this dichotomy and offer an opportunity to reflect on the complexities of survival and resistance during wartime.

The movie's presentation is slow-paced, allowing the viewer to reflect on the dialogues and reflect on the murkiness of moral choices in a time of war. The extensive use of archival footage of the Theresienstadt Ghetto brings to life Murmelstein's experiences, showing viewers what life in the ghetto was like and highlighting the dichotomy of life in the ghetto versus the reality of the Final Solution.

Overall, The Last of the Unjust is a deeply moving and complex movie about a survivor's complicated experiences and morally complex decisions. The film is a must-see for anyone seeking to understand the nuances of Holocaust survival, collaboration, and resistance.