The Holocaust on Film and TV
This study deals with changes in the representations of the Holocaust on film and TV 1948-1993. It includes documentaries as well as fiction films produced for screen or TV. The documentaries were produced in France while all other films included are produced in the U.S. The films are The Search (screen, 1948), Nuit et brouillard (documentary, 1955), The Diary of Anne Frank (screen, 1959), The Pawnbroker (screen, 1965), Holocaust (TV, 1978), Playing for Time (TV, 1980), Sophie´s Choice (screen, 1982), Shoah (documentary, 1985) and Schindler´s List (screen, 1993).
The theoretical and methodological frameworks are drawn from ”New Film History” and hermeneutics. Using these methods the study observes the filmmaterial in a wider historical context including aesthetic, technological, social and, to a certain degree, also economical aspects. The hermeneutic method connects wider perspectives to a more textcentered analysis in which neoformalism and documentary modes are used to recognize similarities and shifts in the representations. The primary focus in this part of the analysis is defining the methods used to create authenticity and identification in the representations and the ways in which they function in different contexts and genres.
The study shows that all included representations of the Holocaust are highly influenced by their production context and that authenticity is a primary focus to generate identification in the process of reception. It is concluded that the methods used to achieve this function inbetween genres. Thus contextualisation, historisation and comparative studies are of great importance in order to recognize wider perspectives as well as closer understanding.