Most stories we see about the Holocaust focus on the noble actions or withstanding of suffering in the midst of such a dark evil. Stella: A Life, from director Kilian Riedhof, provides a more ethically challenging view. To what extent should we judge someone who was betrayed others? Even more, we are made to consider if we would act any differently. The film is a fictional account based on a real history as found in trial records of a Soviet military court in 1946 and a German court in 1957.
Stella Goldschlag (Paula Beer) is young, pretty, and talented. She sings with a jazz band in Berlin, but dreams of fame and fortune on Broadway. However, it is 1940 and, as a Jew, she is always at risk. She can easily pass as Arian, so she often goes out after curfew, and is not averse to connecting with a German soldier. She works with a document forger—but it is not about saving people as much as it is about getting money.
Aaron Salomon ( Bekim Latifi), Stella Goldschlag (Paula Beer)
As the movie progresses, she and her family, go into hiding, are used as forced labor in a factory, escape, hide more. She is arrested after a former acquaintance points her out as a Jew in hiding. She is tortured. She and her parents are threatened with Auschwitz. Eventually, after much distress, she volunteers to be a “catcher”—one who tells the authorities of other Jews, so they can be arrested and imprisoned. She remains free, and her parents are sent to Theresienstadt, a somewhat safer concentration camp. Her actions led to the arrest of over 100 other Jews.
We might note that even before her arrest, Stella was somewhat ethically challenged. She is certainly the center of her universe. Evetything she does, she does for herself or those she loves. (Although her infidelity in marriage is problematic as well).
We tend to be very harsh on those who betray others. In Dante’s Divine Comedy, the deepest level of Hell is where traitors are consigned. Clearly, Stella betrayed other Jews. She even brags about it to other catchers. She and her partner enrich themselves through thievery after they have someone arrested. Case closed?
In looking at Stella, however, we must also keep in mind that she is living in a time and place where she is constantly under threat of death. It may be a bit misleading to say she volunteered to be a catcher. That is only after a long period of threats and torture. She saw this as the only way to save her own life and that of her parents. So, is she the criminal or the victim? How are we to judge her?
The question the film creates is how we would act in a similar situation? Would we submit after so much pain and suffering, if it seemed like our only hope? Would we betray others in the same situation? No doubt we would like to think of ourselves as too noble to stoop to that level, but it is a very existential question. That is especially important to keep in mind as the world around us grows more authoritarian.
Stella Goldschlag (Paula Beer)
The film reflects a bit of ambivalence of judgment. When she is put on trial in Germany in 1957, after having served ten years in a Soviet prison, the court finds her guilty of the crimes she is charged with. However, it sentences her to the ten years she has already been imprison—essentially saying she’s guilty, but needs no more punishment. Is that the right attitude—to recognize the offence, yet not demand anything more? It is not the film’s goal to answer such a question, but it clearly asks.
Stella: A Life is available on Digital and VOD.
Photos courtesy of Film Movement.
