TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST THROUGH FILM

Eleanor AndrewsEleanor Andrews

University of Wolverhampton University of Wolverhampton

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Teaching about the Holocaust

• Advance knowledge about this unprecedented destruction

• Preserve the memory of those who suffered• Encourage educators and students to reflect

upon the moral and spiritual questions raised by the events of the Holocaust and as they apply in today’s world

ITF website

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Using FilmUsing Film

Film gives us plenitude without specificity. Its descriptive offerings are at once visually rich and verbally impoverished. […] literary narrative can be precise, but always within a narrow scope’

Chatman 1990: 39-40, Original italics

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Facts and FiguresFacts and Figures

• To date 400+ films on the Holocaust

• 40% are feature films

• 60% are cinema and television documentaries

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The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Vittorio De Sica, 1970)

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The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974)

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Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)

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Propaganda

• Triumph of the Will • Leni Riefenstahl, 1935

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Propaganda

Jud Süß (Jew Süss) Veit Harlan, 1940

Der ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew) Fritz Hippler, 1940

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Holocaust Films - Problems

On the surface, realism is a reasonable requirement for art that deals with history, especially with an event as extreme as the Holocaust. The imperative never to forget, made more urgent by the growing problems of Holocaust denial and Holocaust minimization, requires that alterations to Holocaust art be carefully scrutinized to ensure that they do not propagate injurious ideas

Gefen Bar-on, 2005: 180

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Holocaust Films - Problems

If the purpose of Holocaust witness is dynamic transmission – the passing on of the testimony in a way that invests its receivers with the moral obligation to convey their knowledge to others – then the narrative must remain open to constant elaboration, adaptation, and re-articulation in ways that will recommend it to new generations of listeners

Millicent Marcus, 2002: 269

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ShoahShoah Claude Lanzmann Claude Lanzmann 19851985

•Survivor•Bystander •Perpetrator

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Night and Fog Alain Resnais, 1955

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The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) George Stevens

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Nackt unter Wölfen - Naked Among Wolves (1963) dir. Frank Beyer

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Hitlerjunge Salomon Europa Europa (1990) dir. Agnieszka Holland

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Schindler’s List (1993) Steven Spielberg

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Schindler’s List (1993) Steven Spielberg It can’t quite match the searing authenticity of a true documentary like Shoah or Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog, and it can’t completely win us over with its artistry, as Louis Malle does in the lower-key Au Revoir les Enfants. But what it can do, it does superlatively well. [...] As a contribution to popular culture, it can only do good. Holocaust denial may or may not be a major problem in future, but Holocaust ignorance, Holocaust forgetfulness, and Holocaust indifference are bound to be, and Schindler’s List is likely to do as much as any single work can to dispel them.

John Gross (1994) The New York Review of Books

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Triumph of the Spirit (1989) Robert M. Young

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Bent (1997) Sean Mathias

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The Grey Zone (2001) Tim Blake Nelson

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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Mark Herman (2008).

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Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni, 1997)

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Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni, 1997)

What are the main themes of Life is Beautiful? How are the family / women / the Nazis represented in La vita è bella? How does Benigni succeed in dealing comically with such a serious subject?

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Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni, 1997)

How does he point out the fallacies of the anti-Semitic regime? Examine the function of the character Dr. Lessing. What is the purpose of the voice-over?

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Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni, 1997)

How are the real horrors of the camp understood by the audience? Comment on Benigni’s use of language in the film. Comment on the use of patterns and repetitions in this film. How do the jokes work?

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Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni, 1997)Where is the turning point of the film? How do we see this? How does the first half of the film differ visually from the second half? Examine the relationship between Guido and Giosuè. How is life in the concentration camp portrayed? Is the tone of the film pessimistic or optimistic and why do you think this?

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