Allegations of anti-Semitism?


Has any film critic or scholar ever accused this film of anti-Semitic tendencies? The main evil character, Dr. Katz, has an obviously Jewish name within the context of postwar Germany.

Ordinarily, having a villain with a Jewish last name is isn't an indicator of anti-Semitic sentiment, but Fassbinder is infamous for the anti-Semitism controversy that swirled around "Der Mull, die Stadt und der Tod", and he just as easily could have named the villain "Dr. Schmidt" or "Dr. Muller."

I also wonder whether it, in some way, was an effort by him to avoid controversy by having a non-Jewish German doctor abuse and addict Jewish Holocaust survivors (the Treibels, the elderly couple).

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I don't know whether such allegations exist. A minor character made a shockingly anti-Semitic comment in Fox and His Friends but I think it in no way represents Fassbinder's point of view.

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Funny, I thought she, the doctor,might be a Nazi war criminal.

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Funny, I thought she, the doctor,might be a Nazi war criminal.
I wondered this too given she gets away with murders and fits quietly into modern German society.
I give my respect to those who have earned it; to everyone else, I'm civil.

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