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‘Nathan-ism’ Review: Scrappy Art Doc Asks Whether Memories Can Take on a Life of Their Own
Nathan Hilu, an elderly Jewish war veteran, compulsively creates a visual narrative of his time guarding Nazi prisoners during the Nuremberg trials.
Offering an unusual take on the Holocaust, “ Nathan-ism ” is a low-budget portrait of garrulous, elderly New York outsider artist Nathan Hilu, a proud but impoverished Jewish veteran who compulsively, maniacally documents his WWII military experience in naïve drawings with a black Sharpie and colored crayons. An assignment to guard high-ranking Nazi prisoners — including Hermann Göring, Julius Streicher and Albert Speer — during the Nuremberg trials apparently made such a profound impact on him that he spends the next 70 years obsessively creating a visual narrative about that time. Journalist and art critic Jeannie Rosenfeld discusses the power of his images, which apart from those based on his war service, primarily show Jewish subject matter, from biblical illustrations to religious celebrations in his New York community.
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