‘Dancing Auschwitz’ video gets mixed response

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — A YouTube video of a family singing and dancing at Auschwitz has received more than half a million hits and mixed reaction.

Australian artist Jane Korman f ilmed her 89-year-old father Adolek Kohn, a former inmate at Auschwitz, and her three children dancing outside the infamous death camp, as well as at Dachau and Terezin to the tune of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”

The video has skyrocketed to more than 500,000 hits on YouTube and has generated more than 3,000 responses. Many of the comments were sympathetic, but some were scathing. The video also has been exploited by neo-Nazi websites.

Korman, of Melbourne, posted a message defending her work. “My intention was to present a fresh perspective to younger generations who have often become desensitized to the horrors of the Holocaust,” she said.

In an interview, Korman’s father said first the family prayed for the martyrs. “The dancing was also very important because we are alive, we survived,” Kohn said.

Not everyone agreed. Kamil Cwiok, 86, told The Daily Mail, “It seems to trivialize the horrors that were committed there.”