“Thank God we have art,” declared Frank Oz, the actor, director and puppeteer best known for performing the beloved Muppet characters Cookie Monster, Bert, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and, in another galaxy, Yoda.
It’s not the first thought you might expect to be uttered about a 1930s marionette of Adolf Hitler. But the puppet, with a selection of others made by Oz’s parents — Dutch-Jewish woodworker and puppeteerIsidore“Mike”Oznowicz和Flemish-Catholic Couturier/Costumer Frances Oznowicz - 形成了当代犹太博物馆的小而激烈的表演，名为“ Oz Is For Oznowicz”。它补充了有关木偶创作者的展览吉姆·亨森同时在8月14日之前观看。
A video message from Oz (Oznowicz remains his legal name) and a filmed interview with his father featuring several historic photographs contextualize the marionettes with the harrowing details of his parents’ refugee story — the details of which, like those of so many Holocaust family histories, areextraordinary.
1940年，在弗朗西斯（Frances）的母亲的建议下，迈克（Mike）和弗朗西斯·奥兹诺维奇（Frances Oznowicz）在逃离安特卫普（Antwerp）之前将希特勒木偶埋在后院。他们在欧洲延伸到摩洛哥的近亲和幸运休息的旅程，最终在战争结束后到英国，Oznowiczes返回了比利时，并设法恢复了木偶，而他们等待了五年的签证到美国。
The Oznowiczes and their three children — Ronald, Frank and Jenny — eventually settled in Oakland, where they became pillars of the community integral to the founding of the San Francisco Puppeteers Guild and regular performers at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland. They taught puppeteering to young Frank, who spent his summers performing at Fairyland.
1961年，他陪同父母参加了Asilomar的美国木偶音乐节，在那里他遇到了Jim和Jane Henson。奥兹（Oz）在19岁时加入了吉姆·亨森（Jim Henson）的剧团。
当生活继续前进时，希特勒木偶和他父母过去的其他人，包括夜总会音乐家和歌手，也在演出中藏在家庭阁楼上.
“I never thought in a million years that I’d be sharing them,” said Oz, who saw the old marionettes as significant personally rather than universally.
But when Contemporary curator Heidi Rabben, who knew Oz was Jewish, inquired about additional stories around the Henson collection, archivist Karen Falk mentioned that she had heard about the Hitler marionette in Oz’s home.
Oz and Rabben see the puppets as a testament to his parents’ great tenacity for survival and their courage. Nevertheless, the undeniable charge of the Hitler marionette led the museum to post a content warning outside the exhibit.
The puppet itself is a lightweight, floppy doll 20 inches in length, its wooden head and limbs carved crudely enough that chisel marks are visible. The obvious handicraft mediates its disturbing subject matter; as you look at the puppet, your attention turns from its portrayal of the genocidal dictator to its exquisite, loving detail.
Given that Hitler threatened the Oznowiczes’ survival andcausedthe loss of their home, family and friends, one might wonder at the care the couple lavished on the figurine. Mike carved semicircular recessions to inset the figure’s squinting pricked eyes, while Frances created a costume complete with box-pleated flap-breast pockets sewn with pinpoint precision. (Oz said his mother could thread a needle with one hand.)
拉本说：“这是处理难以想象的方法。”“做某事有一种紧迫感。面对这种无法克服的，那时，您能做什么，这似乎是不可避免的恐怖，直接迎接您，威胁您的生命。您在哪里可以找到代理，动力，灵感？”
Though we can’t know for sure how the marionettes were used, Oz and his siblings presume they were used satirically. Oz describes his father as rebellious, political, anti-status quo — “a total rebel.”Photo: Kurt Rogers / The Chronicle 2007
Their take on Hitler is pretty clear. Rabben points out that the Hitler marionette’s mouth “looks like it was formed by the hammering of a nail to make a tiny little circle, almost like any sound couldn’t come out of it” in contrast to the nightclub puppets with larger mouths. Over-elaborate eyelashes and ears comedically pulled taut high on the head render this Hitler silly.
但是，可惜，幽默不能击败独裁者。那种令人困扰的现实像现在流动的衣服一样笼罩着木偶。但是，这并不意味着幽默无能为力。
“我不认为有人会认为,幽默has the ability to change something so toxic and massive and structural,” said Rabben. “At the same time, despair certainly doesn’t work. What humor can do is … give you hope, resilience, relief. Does art change the world in and of itself? Perhaps not, but does it lead to ideas and expansive thinking and inspiration and energy? You can’t have that real change without those things.”
盎司走得更远。
他说：“我认为你不能没有它。”“如果我没有幽默感，我可能会为今天在美国发生的事情开枪。”
Oz is fully aware of his own limited political power — “I don’t think this exhibit’s going to change the world” — but allows for hope at least that some people “might be more cognizant of refugees, (that) they might have more sympathy” after visiting the museum’s exhibit.
“When somebody does something as minuscule as making fun of Hitler with a puppet,” he said, “it’s better than never having done it at all.”
“Oz Is for Oznowicz: A Puppet Family’s History”:Marionettes, video interview, archival photographs. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Sunday. On view through Nov. 27. $14-$16; free for children age 17 and younger.Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission St., S.F. 415-655-7800.www.thecjm.org