När jag växte upp i folkhemmets Uppsala så minns jag hur vi bland alla filmer vi såg på matinéerna på Röda Kvarn, Skandia, Fågel Blå och Grand, också såg Leslie Howards fina Pimpernel Smith. En uppdatering av Baronessan Orczy klassiska Röda Nejlikan, om motstånd mot franska revolutionen, till Andra Världskriget.
Vem hade någonsin trott att man skulle få uppleva att rasistiska, för att inte säga ariska, hunner skulle inta Vita Huset och störta USA och världen i fördärvet.
Vad jag inte visste som barn var att Raoul Wallenberg såg Pimpernel Smith i Sverige och inspirerades av den, en av de få som lyckades se filmen eftersom den inte fick visas på svenska biografer på grund av påtryckning från Nazityskland.
Wikipedian skriver: “Pimpernel” Smith
When Pimpernel Smith reached Sweden in November 1943, the Swedish Film Censorship Board decided to ban it from public viewing, as it was feared that such a critical portrayal of Nazi Germany could harm Sweden’s relationship with Germany and thus jeopardise the country’s neutrality in the Second World War. Raoul Wallenberg did, however, manage to see it at a private screening, together with his half-sister, Nina Lagergren.[11]
She later recalled that on their way home after the screening, “he told me this was the kind of thing he would like to do.”[12] Since 1941, Wallenberg had made frequent trips to Hungary, and knew how oppressed the Hungarian Jews were. He travelled as a representative and later joint owner of an export-import company that was trading with central Europe and was owned by a Hungarian Jew.
En film i tiden.
Francine Prose skriver om motståndet mot Donald Trump: We all have the power to resist Donald Trump – in big and small ways
On Thursday night, the news showed the daughter of Guadalupe García de Rayos break down in tears as she described packing a suitcase for her mother to take with her when she was deported to Mexico. I thought of how the European Jews, deported to Poland by the Nazis, were instructed to take with them only the possessions they could fit into a small valise.
……
So the hard work remains before us. A national day of opposition (no work, no travel, no spending) has been called for 17 February. A women’s strike is scheduled for 8 March. On Earth Day, scientists will be marching on Washington, and I’ve heard reports of a labor strike planned for 1 May.
Vi måste alla göra motstånd mot hunnerna i Washington. Filmen som inspirerade Raoul Wallenberg kan också inspirera oss idag.