A FLY IN THE OINTMENT

Victor Bloom MD

We were privileged the other night to attend a performance of Grosse Pointe South's musical production of "42nd Street". It was a classic and demanding musical in the great American tradition and the cast was simply superb. The director, Ellen Bowen, evidently had the creative talent to elicit professional performances from high school students, which is a feat rarely accomplished. There were no awkward moments, nobody tripping and falling, despite a rather complex choreography. All the legs went together, just like the Rockettes, and the tap-dancing was both complicated and amazingly coordinated.

I could have been on 42nd street itself, Broadway, to be exact, before I realized, by seeing the cast after the show, that they were still teenagers. The whole happening was at a level that was simply incredible. And luckily for the thousands who attended, there were four sold-out performances. I wouldn't be surprised that some of the performers would go straight to Hollywood or Times Square and make names for themselves. It was an evening to be remembered.

Nothing I say can detract from the fact that the production and performance was of stellar quality. However, a tiny, probably unnoticed part of the production gave pause. This fly in the ointment was not on the stage, but relatively hidden in one of the cast autobiographies within the Playbill.

One of the students chose to include a gratuitous joke in his write-up. He thanked "the patrons of this musical (and their Nazi gold!) Ha ha! Just kidding! But enough of this witty banter, it's just a formality."

It's no joke! He implies that the patrons are rich from Nazi gold, which would be an insult to the patrons. But then he says he was just kidding, and then he says that kidding is a formality.

It is a pity that the Playbill was not adequately supervised and edited so that this offensive attempt at humor was deleted. I am sure no one is guilty of malicious intent, but it would be good for such oversights as this to be prevented in the future. Such a joke is offensive to the patrons and especially offensive to those who are aware of the history of 'Nazi gold'.

Recently the media have disseminated the recent findings that Swiss banks have been hoarding and hiding Nazi gold. Only lately have the Swiss authorities admitted the fact, and are doing some investigation and promising some reparations.

I saw pictures of gold bullion in the newspapers, and could not help but recall the origin of much of it. Part of the processing of bodies in the death camps during World War II was the extraction of gold fillings from the corpses. These were melted down for the war effort of the Third Reich, in order to pay the labor and purchase the machines to make armaments. It is said by some that the Jews financed their own destruction and let the Holocaust happen, which is tantamount to blaming the victims.

I am sure that many Grosse Pointers have seen "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Schindler's List". Pogroms and the Holocaust are not too far from recent memory. It is hard to imagine who is bandying about the phrase, "Nazi gold", that the student took it as the source of some joke.

There may be a tiny subculture of Grosse Pointers who might joke about Nazi gold, but that group is hopefully small and inarticulate, so all they can be is a fly in the ointment.

Recent history has shown the horrors of prejudice run amok. It can start as a tiny spark and explode into a conflagration, a genocide. It would be good to catch the spark before it degenerates into a more widely held and acceptable belief.

Dr. Bloom is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is a member of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and corresponding editor of their quarterly journal, Academy Forum. He welcomes comments and questions at his e-mail address: vbloom@comcast.net.