I Will Survive: Dancing Auschwitz (video)

On a recent trip to Europe, a family of three generations (a Holocaust survivor, his daughter and his grandchildren) dance to Gloria Gaynor's pop song - 'I Will Survive' at concentration camps and memorials throughout Europe.

This clip was first edited with the help of my friend Pisithpong Siraphisit who runs Compeung Art Village, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

This dance is a tribute to the tenacity of the human spirit and a celebration of life.

Despite the systematic brutality and cruelty endured, we have still survived.

(Kol Isha (recorded singer) and Mixed (family) Dancing alert..)




I really wanted to post this video before Tisha B'Av. I think the message relayed in the video is very appropriate for Tisha B'Av. If not for the fact that the music and dancing was very strong in the video, and not just in the background, I would have posted it (though then the video would not have been quite as appropriate in its message - it is the performance that makes it a powerful message).

The video has sparked a debate about whether or not it is appropriate to be dancing in front of what were concentration camps.

My opinion on this is that for anybody but a survivor to do this would have been irreverant, disrespectful and inappropriate. Because it is a survivor and his immediate family, that makes it not just appropriate, but even a powerful message to the Nazis and to anti-semites.

The survivor in the video is sending a message to Hitler and his cronies, and those today who support them and would like to follow in their footsteps, that we have survived, we continue to live and we will dance on your grave. You wanted to destroy us, but we live life to the fullest.