The Boat is Full

1
The Boat is Full

• Switzerland and the Holocaust

2
The Boat is Full

• Original German title Das Boot ist voll
• From 1981.
• Director Marcus Imhoof (not Jewish)
• Shows the expulsion of a handful of desperate
  Jewish refugees by the neutral Swiss.
• Symbolizes the worlds rejection (during WWII) of
  the Levitican commandment Neither shalt thou
  stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor.
  (Leviticus 19 16)

3
Switzerland and the Holocaust

• Although Switzerland was neutral politically,
  their role is not without guilt.
• There are times to be neutral and times when
  taking a stand is the only moral alternative.
• Is neutrality a defensible position with regard
  to the Holocaust?
• The Swiss see themselves as having a better
  record than the Germans with regard to the war,
  but there is much hypocrisy in this.
• The Swiss were also anti-Semitic, and they helped
  the Nazi war effort in financial ways.

4
Switzerland and the Holocaust

• In July 1942, after only 8,000 refugees are
  accepted by Switzerland, the parliament declares
  the country full.
• 10,000 after that are deported back into their
  respective countries.
• The idea that there is no room is related to the
  Lebensraum idea of the Nazis.

5
Switzerland and the Holocaust

• The Swiss and the Germans have a great deal of
  common cultural identity.
• The Swiss speak four different languages, but
  German is the most common.
• The Swiss went along with many Nazi dictates.
  They have this on their conscience.
• They did not help the refugees as did, for
  example, the Danes.
• They had knowledge of what was happening and did
  not act

6
Switzerland and the Holocaust

• The Swiss collaborated indirectly with the
  Germans because they did not organize to help the
  Jews.
• They followed the anti-Semitic lead of the
  Germans (their cultural cousins).
• This film shows this indirect collaboration and
  is a film of bad conscience.

7
Switzerland and Nazi gold

• Switzerland received hundreds of millions of
  dollars worth of looted gold from the Nazis.
• These assets helped the Nazi effort during the
  war.
• After the war, the Swiss still had much of this
  money.
• The allies got 58.1 million from them to help
  rebuild Europe.
• It is estimated that several hundred million of
  the Nazi looted gold was still in Swiss hands
  after the war.

8
Jewish Accounts in Switzerland

• In addition to assets looted by the Nazis and
  held in Switzerland, there were bank accounts set
  up in Switzerland during the war by Jews and
  other refugees.
• When millions lost their lives in the Holocaust,
  this money was left in Switzerland.
• Swiss laws demanded that the death of the account
  holder be proven. Paper work kept families from
  the assets.

9
Survivors Claim Assets and Property

• In the 1990s this history became public and
  Holocaust survivors began to demand Switzerland
  turn over the assets of Swiss Holocaust-era bank
  accounts.
• After much controversy, international litigation,
  and procedural debate, Swiss banks established a
  humanitarian fund of 70 million to benefit
  Holocaust victims, other Swiss companies
  contributed to the fund which reached 300
  million.

10
Techniques used in the Film

• Note any differences between the way this film
  was made and some of the others we have seen?
• Music?
• Colors?
• Camera views?
• Use of children?
• Emotional content?