There are no memorials for Peter Bergson, nor any buildings or prizes named for him. Odd, considering that Bergson, perhaps more than anyone else, sounded the alarm about the destruction of Europe’s Jews during World War II.
Though he died in relatively obscurity eight years ago, Bergson’s legacy is invoked any time Jews take to the streets to protest anti-Semitism or genocide.
Bergson’s story and an attending tale of neglect that permitted millions to perish in the Holocaust, is told in “Against the Tide,” a new documentary from the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s film division. It will screen Thursday, March 26, in Campbell as a presentation of the Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival.
The center’s dean and founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier, will be on hand at the benefit showing for a follow-up Q&A session.
So will Oscar-winning director Richard Trank, who wrote and directed the documentary, which is narrated by actor Dustin Hoffman. Trank came upon the film’s central story almost by accident, when he came across an interview with Bergson shot by filmmaker Claude Lanzmann in 1978 for the epic film, “Shoah,” but ultimately never used. The footage had languished in a film vault ever since.
“I saw it and was blown away,” says the L.A.-based director. “It was shot really well. Everything he says is a gem.”
The documentary weaves many themes, from the heroic resistance of Warsaw Ghetto Jews to Otto Frank’s desperate effort to get his family out of Nazi-occupied Holland.
But the heart of the film centers on Bergson’s efforts to prick the conscience of America and stave off Hitler’s plan of annihilation.
Born Hillel Kook in British Palestine, Bergson later moved the United States. Starting in 1942, he tried everything: media buys, glitzy stage shows, marches on Washington, anything to get President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress to act.
Bergson had his detractors. As Trank’s film shockingly points out, the most vehement of them were not anti-Semites or isolationists. They were other Jews. Principal among them was Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, one of the most revered Jewish Americans of the last century.
Worried about the image of Jews in American society, Wise fought Bergson at every turn, deferring to Roosevelt’s handling of the war. Put bluntly, Wise did not want to make waves; Bergson tried to trigger a tsunami.
Says Trank of Wise, “Here you have this great man who had done so many things, a man so courageous early in his career, who was on the wrong side of the story. His view was that FDR would do everything for the Jewish people, and he didn’t want to do anything to upset Roosevelt.”
But Bergson wanted nothing more than to upset Roosevelt. He arranged a famous rabbis’ march on Washington, though the president’s Jewish adviser, Samuel Rosenman, told his boss not to associate with “those kind of Jews.”
All that agitation resulted in some successes, most notably the establishment of the War Refugee Board near the end of the Holocaust. But it was too little, too late, to save many European Jews.
Adds Trank: “If you were to say to [Bergson] ‘it’s amazing what you did,’ he would say, ‘We didn’t do enough.’”
That message comes through in the film, not only with gruesome footage shot in liberated camps, but also in one haunting, remarkable photo. It shows Anne Frank poking her head out of the attic window to watch a wedding party below in the streets of Amsterdam.
Trank has been down this cinematic road before. On staff at the Simon Weisenthal Center since 1982, he has collaborated with Heir on several films, including the Oscar-winner “Long Way Home” and “I Have Never Forgotten You.” This latest is the 10th production from the center’s Moriah Films.
Though Trank hopes his film’s message of speaking out against genocide resonates with viewers, he also wishes to raise awareness about Bergson, whom he views as an unsung hero of the Jewish people.
“He went into political oblivion,” notes Trank. “Often this happens: You find people who did amazing things and nobody knows about it until after they’re gone.”
“Against the Tide” screens 7 p.m. Thursday, March 26 at Camera 7 Theater, Pruneyard Shopping Center, 1875 S. Bascom Ave., Campbell. Tickets: $9-$11. Information: (800) 838-3006 or www.svjff.org.