Suppressing Ugly Truth for Beautiful Art
by Alan M.
Dershowitz
May 1, 2012 at 10:00 am
May 1, 2012 at 10:00 am
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The Metropolitan
Museum in New York, in its current exhibit on the collection of Gertrude Stein
and her family, has made a decision to suppress the ugly truth about her
collaboration with Nazism during the German occupation of France. Anyone
walking through this beautiful exhibit of the Stein family's exquisite tastes
in art would learn nothing about Gertrude's horrendous taste in politics and
friends. Stein, a "racial" Jew according to Nazi ideology, managed to
survive the Holocaust, while the vast majority of her co-religionists were
deported and slaughtered. The exhibit says "remarkably, the two women
[Stein and her companion Alice Toklas] survived the war with their possessions
intact." It adds that "Bernard Fay, a close friend…and influential Vichy
collaborator is thought to have protected them." That is an incomplete and
distorted account of what actually happened. Stein and Toklas survived the
Holocaust for one simple reason: Gertrude Stein was herself a major
collaborator with the Vichy regime and a supporter of its pro-Nazi leadership.
According to a new book entitled Unlikely
Collaboration: Gertrude Stein, Bernard Fay and the Vichy Dilemma, by
Barbara Will, Stein publicly proclaimed her admiration for Hitler during the
1930s, proposing him for a Nobel Peace Prize. In the worst days of the Vichy
regime, she volunteered to write an introduction to the speeches of General
Phillipe Petain, the Nazi puppet leader who deported thousands of Jews, but who
she regarded as a great French hero. She wanted his speeches translated into
English, with her introduction, so that Americans would see the virtues of the
Vichy regime. In that respect she was like other modernist writers, such as
Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot who proudly proclaimed their pro-Fascist ideology,
but Stein's support for Fascism was more bizarre because she was Jewish.
Stein's closest friend, and a man who greatly
influenced her turn toward fascism was Bernard Fay, who the Vichy government
put in charge of hunting down Masons, Jews and other perceived enemies of the
State. Fay was more than a mere collaborator as suggested by the Met exhibit.
He was a full blown Nazi operative, responsible for the deaths of many people.
After the war, when the horrendous results were known to all, Gertrude wrote in
support of Fay when he was placed on trial for his Nazi war crimes.
Perhaps an artist should be judged without
regard to his or her political affiliations or actions, but the Met exhibit
purports to present the story of the Stein collection and of Gertrude's life in
France. It ends with a misleading description of her activities during the war
years. It would perhaps be different if this were only an exhibition of the
Steins' art collection rather than a biographical account of her family's life
in France. By withholding from the viewers an important part of the truth, the
Met is engaging in a falsification of history.
Why would the Met do that? Presenting a
complete picture—large warts and all—and allowing viewers to judge for
themselves as to what to make of her collaborations, would be far more
interesting and educational.
When museums put on exhibitions, they often
tend to glorify those whose work they are exhibiting. Sometimes they fail to
convey an accurate historical picture. What the Met is doing is different. By
offering a false explanation of how Stein and Toklas "remarkably"
survived the Holocaust, while living in a town from which dozens of Jewish
children were deported to death camps, the Met has distorted the history of the
Holocaust and failed to point a finger of blame at collaborators, such as
Stein, who made it possible.
The Met is a great museum. I love to go there.
But when I visited the Stein exhibit, I was disappointed. There is still time
for the Met to make it right. It should have a statement describing, fully and
accurately, Stein's collaboration. And it should offer for sale at the
exhibition shop Barbara Will's book, exposing Gertrude's pernicious
collaboration, alongside the books currently on sale, all which glorify the
Steins.
Before publishing this article, I wrote to the
museum inquiring about the omission and proposing some changes. They justified
the omission by arguing that the exhibit was primarily about the Steins' art
and not about Gertrude's politics, but they agreed to sell Barbara Will's book.
They have not yet responded to my request to include in the exhibit itself some
information about Gertrude Stein's ignoble role in the Nazi occupation of
France. Unless they do, those who see the exhibit will continue to be
misinformed about the ugly truth of a woman with beautiful art.
Related Topics: Alan M.
Dershowitz
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