1. TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST THROUGH FILM
Eleanor Andrews
University of Wolverhampton

2. 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

3. Using 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

4. Facts and Figures To date 400+ films on the Holocaust
40% are feature films
60% are cinema and television documentaries

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

6. The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974)

7. Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)

8. Propaganda
Triumph of the Will
Leni Riefenstahl, 1935

9. Propaganda
Jud Süß (Jew Süss) Veit Harlan, 1940 Der ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew) Fritz Hippler, 1940

10. 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

11. 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

12. Shoah Claude Lanzmann 1985
Survivor
Bystander
Perpetrator

13. Night and Fog Alain Resnais, 1955

14. The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) George Stevens

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

16. Hitlerjunge Salomon Europa Europa (1990) dir. Agnieszka Holland

17. Schindler’s List (1993) Steven Spielberg

18. 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

19. Triumph of the Spirit (1989) Robert M. Young

20. Bent (1997) Sean Mathias

21. The Grey Zone (2001) Tim Blake Nelson

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

23. Life is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni, 1997)

24. 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?

25. 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?

26. 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?

27. 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?