The Seventh Million

This arresting video-essay is closely based on a controversial book by Israeli historian Tom Segev, which examines the most sensitive and previously closed chapters of Israeli history. Segev tells what he believes to be the last major story about the Holocaust: Zionist leadership’s ambiguous response while the Holocaust was happening and Israel’s struggle to deal with a terrible legacy. Director Benny Brunner (AL NAKBA, 1998 SFJFF) and writer Segev describe the disturbing postwar reception of Holocaust survivors, who found themselves ignored by a society devoted to heroism and the creation of a "new man." An important moment is the Eichmann trial in the early sixties, which served as group therapy for the nation as survivors were finally allowed to publicly tell their story. Segev’s narration is punctuated by fascinating gripping footage and tours through Holocaust memorial sites in Israel and at Auschwitz. Interviews with prominent Israeli thinkers provide a foil, sometimes directly countering Segev’s arguments, thus providing an interesting dialectic. This is a hard look at the complicated relationship between the Holocaust and Israeli political identity in the first fifty years following the most cataclysmic event in Jewish history.

Benny Brunner is an Israeli-Dutch filmmaker based in Amsterdam. Before becoming a professional film director he studied at Tel Aviv University's Film and Television Department, 1978 – 1982. Brunner is known for a number of in-depth historical and political documentaries. He directed Romania, The Taming of the Intellectuals (1990), a film about the intellectuals under Ceaucescu; A philosopher For All Seasons (1991), portraying the Israeli philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz; The Seventch Million – The Israelis and the Holocaust (1995); and Al Nakba: The Palestinian Catastrophe 1948 (1997). Benny Brunner's mother, Clara, wanted him to study law. But he, being an "oiber khuchem" (Yiddish: too smart for his own good), became a filmmaker believing that "I will make mountains of money by just directing people, and I will get to travel a lot." Non of this materialized. Benny Brunner loves Californian wine, long vacations, and Saluki dogs. He is a proud Macintosh and Newton user.