“Nathan-ism”, a fascinating, powerful film just opened at Quad Cinema, New York City and is scheduled to open on Friday, December 6th at Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles. Filmmaker Elan Golod brilliantly creates a documentary portrait of Nathan Hilu, the son of Syrian Jewish immigrants who came to New York, whose life was changed when he was 18 at the end of World War II. It was then that he received an assignment from the U.S. Army to guard the top Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials. (His grandfather was the Chief Rabbi in Damascus and his father was a peddler in New York).
Curious about the way this film came to be, I located the following article. From “Cinemacy” February 9, 2024 by Ryan Rojas, Golod is questioned:
“How did you first learn about Nathan Hilu, the subject of your documentary and directorial debut, Nathan-ism?
I was going down the internet rabbit hole searching for potential documentary-worthy stories and I came across an article in a small Jewish magazine about Nathan Hilu and an exhibition he had had at the Hebrew Union College Museum. I was immediately struck by the dramatic circumstances of his Nuremberg experiences.
I was also intrigued by the cognitive dissonance of this heavy subject matter treated in these vibrant Crayola colors, unlike much of the existing canon of Holocaust-related art. That felt inherently cinematic and worthy of deeper exploration of the person behind these visual memoirs.”
In a poignant intersection of art, history, and the human experience, the documentary “Nathan-ism” by Israeli-American filmmaker Elan Golod takes center stage at Courtroom 600 in Nuremberg, where the film was first seen.
Although Hilu went on to other assignments after his time in Nuremberg, he was fixated on that experience, and for 70 years he obsessively documented his thoughts through drawings. The film successfully manages the intricate relationship between artist, work, and memory, providing a unique lens into historical facts and offers audiences a true gift.
As a U.S. soldier who was assigned to suicide watch over the Nazi masterminds of the Holocaust during the trials, months after the war’s end in 1945, Hilu’s observations were unique. He accompanied Hermann Göring to a Christmas Service and noted that Göring “sang sweetly”. He observed that Göring liked Rembrandt’s paintings of Jews. He said, “We took good care of them while German’s outside were starving”. He was surprised that of all the masterminds who were tried, only one, Albert Speer, admitted guilt. He was obsessed with Göring’s suicide, returning to it in his drawings repeatedly. And, rather remarkably, he noted that the blond, blue eyed German was a myth- there were no super Germans-no blue eyes, nothing special-“they looked just like us.”
The film was so much more that Hilu’s words and his drawings where history is recorded, art is revealed, aging is observed, and the quirks of memory are puzzling. The original music enhanced the film, the archival films, the interviews and suspense regarding Hilu’s memory kept this viewer riveted.
Directed by Elan Golod and co-produced by Melanie Vi Levy, the film featured: Nathan Hilu, Eli Rosenbaum, Laura Kruger, Jeannie Rosenfeld, Megan Harris, Gustavo Stecher, and Lori Miller.
Nathan-ism (2023),Director – Elan Golod, Producer – Melanie Levy, World Premiere – Hot Docs 2023
Yad Vashem Award winner for “Cinematic Excellence in Holocaust Documentary Film making”, Recipient of Jewish Story Partners grant – Fall 2022
Photos were provided by “Nathan-ism”
Note – from: AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
Born in 1925 on New York’s Lower East Side, Manhattan, Nathan Hilu (d. April 19, 2019) was a soldier, artist and storyteller who referred to himself as an “illustrator of life.” He served in the U.S. Army during WWII, the Korean War and the Cold War, first as a prison guard at Nuremberg, then throughout Europe and ultimately in Tokyo, Japan where he was attached to the Counter Intelligence Corps.
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