The Holocaust and the Moving Image: Representations in Film and Television Since 1933

by Toby Haggith, Joanna Newman

Overview

Based on an event held at the Imperial War Museum in London, this book is a unique blend of voices and perspectives, including archivists, curators, filmmakers, and Holocaust survivors. Tracing the Holocaust, each section of the book is dedicated to a different category of the moving image: film as witness; film as propaganda; documentary in film and television; and feature films. Each section examines specific films in the broad context of the history of the Holocaust and how they have contributed to a wider understanding of the tragedy.

Accesible and stimulating, this book is an excellent introduction to the subject, discussing such titles as The Eternal Jew (1940) and Night and Fog (1956) and such subjects as the use of film and video in war crimes trials. The book also encourages the reader to move beyond Schindler's List (1993) and Life is Beautiful (1997) to other classics of the genre.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781904764519
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	10/26/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Toby Haggith is head of the Public Services Section, Film & Video Archive at the Imperial War Museum.

Joanna Newman is director of education at the London Jewish Cultural Center

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgements	viii
	Notes on Contributors	xi
	Preface	xxi
	Introduction	1
Section 1	Film as Witness
1	Film and the Making of the Imperial War Museum's Holocaust Exhibition	19
2	Preparing the Video Displays for the Imperial War Museum's Holocaust Exhibition	26
3	Filming the Liberation of Bergen-Belsen	33
4	Separate Intentions: The Allied Screening of Concentration Camp Documentaries in Defeated Germany in 1945-46: Death Mills and Memory of the Camps	50
5	A Witness to Atrocity: Film as Evidence in International War Crimes Tribunals	65
Section 2	Film as Propaganda
6	Veit Harlan's Jud Suss	76
7	Fritz Hippler's The Eternal Jew	85
8	Film Documents of Theresienstadt	93
9	Terezin: The Town Hitler Gave to the Jews	102
10	The Ministry of Information and Anti-Fascist Short Films of the Second World War	106
11	Fighting the Government With its Own Propaganda: The Struggle for Racial Equality in the USA During the Second World War	116
Section 3	The Holocaust Documentary in Film and Television
12	Nuit et Brouillard: A Turning Point in the History and Memory of the Holocaust	127
13	Baggage and Responsibility - The World At War and the Holocaust	140
14	The Nazis: A Warning From History	146
15	Kitty - Return to Auschwitz	154
16	Some Reflections on Claude Lanzmann's Approach to the Examination of the Holocaust	161
17	But is it Documentary?	168
18	Silence: The Role of the Animators	173
19	Oswiecim/Auschwitz: The Shooting Goes On...	175
20	Seeing and Hearing for Ourselves: The Spectacle of Reality in the Holocaust Documentary	182
Section 4	The Holocaust in Feature Films
21	An Overview of Hollywood Cinema's Treatment of the Holocaust	193
22	Escape From Sobibor: A Film Made for Television Depicting the Mass Escape from Sobibor Extermination Camp	198
23	The Holocaust, Film and Education	203
24	Young People's Viewing of Holocaust Films in Different Cultural Contexts	211
25	Living with the Long Journey: Alfred Radok's Daleka Cesta	217
26	Double Memory: The Holocaust in Polish Film	225
27	For the Few, Not the Many: Delusion and Denial in Italian Holocaust Films	236
28	The Survivors' Right to Reply	243
Section 5	Legacy and Other Genocides
29	Human Rights: Does Anyone Care?	259
30	Journey Into Darkness	265
31	If the Walls Could Speak (Les Voix de la Muette)	271
32	Exploring the Common Threads of Genocide: The Crimes Against Humanity Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum	280
	Filmography	288
	Bibliography	296
	Index	308

Editorial Reviews

An invaluable resource.

H-German - Sabine Hake

An invaluable resource.

— Sabine Hake

H-German