Holocaust and Film

Zarys treści: Artykuł ma charakter dygresyjno-polemiczny, omawia wybrane, nieznane szerzej wątki z życiorysu Józefa Cyrankiewicza, obejmujące okres do lat pięćdziesiątych. Analizie i interpretacji poddano przede wszystkim następujące zagadnienia: plotki o jego kompromitującym zachowaniu podczas pobytu w Auschwitz; stosunek Cyrankiewicza do przeszłości politycznej własnego środowiska socjalistycznego, w tym do procesu PPS-WRN (m.in. uwiezionego nestora ruchu Kazimierza Pużaka); relacje z Witoldem Pileckim i Władysławem Deringiem; faktyczną działalność podczas wojny. Wskazano na przykładowe metodologiczne błędy, na których zazwyczaj opierają się oskarżenia skierowane przeciwko Cyrankiewiczowi. Ustalenia i interpretacje wynikają ze zbadania wybranej literatury naukowej i popularnej przedmiotu, wspomnień i dokumentów drukowanych oraz materiałów z Archiwum Akt Nowych i Archiwum Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej.

שתי קומדיות ישראליות, פישקה במילואים (גו'רג' עובדיה, 1971) ומבצע שטריימל (בני שוילי, 1983), הציבו במרכזן דמויות דתיות שנקראו להצטרף לכוח צבאי לצורך מאמץ מלחמתי. שני הסרטים ניצלו את הפערים הסטריאוטיפיים בין החברה הדתית לחברה הכללית בישראל לצורך הקומדיה והדרמה, ובכך היה חידוש ששבה את לב הקהל.
עיון מעמיק בסרטים חושף אמת מטרידה ביחס לייצוג החברה הדתית בהם. זהו ייצוג שנשען על סטריאוטיפים אפלים ודעות קדומות, שהודהדו לאורך ההיסטוריה ביחס לאופי הבעייתי של היהודי "הגלותי". אך ייצוג זה אינו סוף פסוק ביחס לדמויות הדתיות, ובסרטים מוצגת טרנספורמציה הדרגתית של  החיילים הדתיים עד לכדי זהות כמעט לא דתית או בכלל לא דתית. הדמות שצולחת את הטרנספורמציה הזו זוכה לגמול סמלי בכך שאופייה מוצג כחיובי יותר, והיא מסתגלת למרחב הישראלי הצבאי, תוך הערכת המפקדים לשינוי שעברה.


Two Israeli comedies – Fishke Goes to War (George Obadiah, 1971) and Operation Shtreimel (Benni Shvily, 1983) were centered around religious characters called to join a military force as part of a war effort. For the purpose of comedy and drama, both films used stereotypical differences between religious society and general society in Israel, a novelty that captured the hearts of the audience.
An in-depth examination of the films reveals a disturbing truth in relation to their representation of religious society, one that is based on sinister stereotypes and prejudice that have been echoed throughout history about the problematic nature of the "diaspora" Jew. This representation is not however the final word with regard to the religious characters, and the films portray a gradual transformation of the religious soldiers into an almost non-religious or completely non-religious identity. The character that successfully traverses this transformation is symbolically rewarded with a more positive portrayal, one adapting to the Israeli military arena and gaining the appreciation of his commanders for the change he undergoes.

This article concentrates on the life of an American Jewish serviceman and its intersection with the events of the war. Maurice Paper was a 2nd Lieutenant from Maryland. The questions I will endeavor to answer are the following: How did his exceptional face-to-face interaction with General Dwight D. Eisenhower empower him to employ his ability to speak French, German, and Yiddish while on duty? How did a young officer’s encounter with Jewish guerilla fighters from the French Resistance in France strengthen his own American Jewish identity? How did he cope with the discovery of a Nazi concentration camp in Germany? Maurice Paper used
his language skills both in his encounters with Yiddish-speaking Jews in the French Resistance and with skeletal survivors in Dachau who questioned his Jewishness. My perspective thus allows an in-depth
exploration of how World War II and the Nazi genocide of the Jews affected the GIs’ sense of Jewishness. This prism also offers a reflection on officers becoming aware of the special skills of the servicemen under their command. General Eisenhower presented such military interactions as a necessity.

This essay is aimed at providing a first overview and analysis of Lorenzo Pellizzari's network and personal relationships, unravelling several elements within Italian film criticism that have remained untapped thus far. Amongst the hundreds of private letters preserved by Pellizzari and which span across fifty years of activity, valuable details about the critic's activity and his social networks emerge. In particular, the essay focuses on the correspondence between the Milanese critic and Guido Fink, which is particularly intense between the 1960s and 1970s. An intimate epistolary relationship was born and consolidated between the two critics. The study of this mail exchange allows to gain insights into the personal and professional spheres of the two critics, including their friendship, their work in film journals (e.g. "Cinema Nuovo" and "Cinema & Cinema"), and their evaluations of films recently released in U.S. and Italian theaters. Indeed, these are years in which Fink collaborates with several Italian journals, and also works as a lecturer at Princeton University and University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA). The essay analyses 1) the private correspondence preserved by Pellizzari and Fink; 2) film criticism in the Pellizzari-Fink correspondence; and 3) film evaluations. Through that, in addition to reconstructing a part of the history of Italian film criticism, the essay will unearth a form of "by letter" criticism that exists at the margin of journals' editorial policies and is of critical relevance to film historiography.

Významné téma holokaustu nebylo dosud v české odborné filmové literatuře dostatečně reflektováno. „Historický estetismus“ je dílem, které se pokouší tuto mezeru zaplnit. Přes svůj nevelký rozsah 200 stran odborné studie a 50 stran synopsí z pojednaných filmů se jedná o velmi vyzrálé dílo, napsané pregnantně a ve všech směrech – literárním, filosofickém a filmovém – poučeně na úrovni doby, které ovšem klade na čtenáře nemalé nároky. Použitý jazyk a obsah jsou argumentačně přesné, ostré jako břitva a náročné na pochopení zejména ve své teoretické rovině.

This short essay discusses a relatively new trend in the contemporary imagination that divorces Hitler and the Germans from their genocidal crimes and re-images the Holocaust as a traumatic event without agency or perpetrators. One example in the realm of historical fiction is The Boy in the Striped Pajama by Irish novelist John Boyne. Published in 2006 to great international acclaim, Boyne’s self-declared “fable” (or morality tale) quickly became a New York Times bestseller and has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide. The novel was adapted into a historical drama film by Max Herman in 2008, a ballet by Daniel de Andrade in 2017, and an opera by Noah Max in 2023.

My interest in The Boy and its adaptations is part of a larger exploration of the affective logics and representational regimes that have shaped, and continue to shape, our understanding of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. At this early stage in my research, I see at least two factors that do not necessarily align although they reinforce each other. On the one hand, the novel and film satisfy an ardent desire especially amongst emerging generations to witness—or have a witness experience—of the Holocaust. This desire is especially urgent at a time of generational transition when the last remaining survivors are passing and “cultural memory” (Jan Assmann) becomes dominant. On the other hand, The Boy is symptomatic of the transformation of Holocaust memory into a broad and elastic culture of victimhood that erases the historical specificity of the Holocaust together with the idea of perpetration. In a way, Bruno is the ultimate embodiment of white saviorism transposed onto Holocaust fiction for children.

In the concluding part of this exploratory essay, I argue that the universalization of suffering and victimhood in The Boy chimes in interesting ways with wider national and transnational developments that favor the “pajamafication” (Gwen C. Katz) of Holocaust memory. This includes far-right attempts in the United States and elsewhere to ban anti-racist education and purge more complex Holocaust literature, such as Anne Frank’s diary or Art Spiegelman’s Maus, from school curricular.

https://literaturkritik.de/public/rezension.php?rez_id=30261

In the annals of human history, there exist countless instances where the indomitable spirit of resistance has illuminated the darkest corners of our world. Among these, the stories of Musa Dagh and Warsaw Ghetto stand as towering symbols of human resilience against oppression and tyranny. However, it is equally vital that we recognize the unwavering resistance of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh as a poignant chapter in the global narrative of defiance and survival.

La Conferenza di Wannsee è uno snodo centrale nella storia della Shoah. Il 20 gennaio 1942, 15 uomini in rappresentanza di diverse agenzie del Terzo Reich si riunirono per circa 90 minuti per decidere come meglio coordinare lo sterminio degli ebrei d’Europa. Della riunione rimane solo un verbale illuminante ma al tempo stesso pieno di eufemismi e omissioni che restituiscono solo in parte il tono della discussione. Come rappresentare questo evento in forma cinematografica? Quali opportunità e sfide presenta l’idea di una rappresentazione in cui compaiono solo i carnefici? In che modo si possono usare i film su questo evento come strumento didattico? Questo saggio risponde a queste domande attraverso l’analisi del film per la televisione Conspiracy – Soluzione Finale, coprodotto da Hbo e Bbc e andato in onda nel 2001. Traendo spunto dal lavoro dello storico Robert Rosenstone, il saggio sostiene la tesi che il film offra un apprezzabile esempio di divulgazione storica anche quando la rappresentazione non aderisce del tutto al dato storico in senso stretto. In virtù di queste qualità, e sulla base di esperienza diretta dell’autore, il saggio sostiene inoltre che il film può essere usato con profitto a fini educativi.

O artigo discute, a partir da crítica de uma obra ficcional, as dimensões discursivas da ironia na narrativa distópica do futuro, no qual a vida humana e a própria sobrevivência do planeta encontram-se ameaçadas pelo avanço inexorável do consumismo, do progresso capitalista e dos seus impactos sobre a crise climática global. Metodologicamente, o texto explora os conceitos bakhtinianos da linguagem do riso na conformação dos sentidos sociais, buscando identificar seu potencial enquanto estratégia argumentativa. A análise aponta para a eficácia discursiva da ironia para abordar o comportamento humano irremovível frente às promessas dos prazeres inesgotáveis do lazer permanente e do consumismo e o fracasso da máquina autopoiética guattariana na produção de novas subjetividades e do agenciamento coletivo para a produção de novas realidades, ambos fenômenos necessários ao enfrentamento do iminente colapso ambiental.

The article attempts to synthesize the conservative views of Szczepan Twardoch from the early period of his work and to present their sources as well as the reasons for the later, radical change. The writer was inspired by conservative thinkers during his studies, mainly in the context of the French Revolution history. Under their influence, he began to contest development direction of the European civilization. His works from this period contain themes of the end of civilization, the fall of Christianity, and the struggle to preserve the cultural status quo. He also referenced the current political situation in Poland and the writers and philosophers representing a similar line of thought, primarily Joseph de Maistre and Ernst Junger. Intellectual maturing and the related aversion to dogmatism caused him to reject conservative views.

espanolJanusz Korczak fue un destacado pedagogo y humanista del siglo XX. Sus ideas de reformar la educacion del nino inspiraron a generaciones de maestros y aun conservan su vigencia. Su principal aporte pedagogico fue introducir el principio de autonomia, a fin de que el nino fuese protagonista de sus actos y responsable de sus decisiones, y que a su vez fuese respetado como persona por sus maestros. Su vida heroica y conmovedora fue un canto a la esperanza y al amor a la infancia desamparada, y su recuerdo en el tiempo se mantendra como ejemplo de la devocion sin limite. EnglishJanusz Korczak was a prominent educator and humanist of the twentieth century. His ideas for reforming the education of children inspired generations of teachers and still remain valid. His main contribution was to introduce the pedagogical principle of autonomy, in order that the child be starring in their actions and accountable for their decisions, and in turn, he was respected as a person by their teac...

This paper explores Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) as a moment in the history of memory and commemoration of the Second World War and Nazi crimes against humanity. It compares the US and German reception of the film,, drawing primarily on news accounts and reviews by film critics.

The essay analyses the representation of polyphonic memory in two groundbreaking Hungarian documentary films, made thirty years apart: János and Gyula Gulyás’s I was at the Isonzo, too (Én is jártam Isonzónál, 1984–87) and Bálint Révész’s Granny Project (Nagyi projekt, 2017). The earlier film was made in the 1980s, under the state-socialist system, when doing memory work of both World Wars was limited, if not forbidden. The second film was made recently, in 2017. They differ from each other in many ways, but instinctively they chose the same solution for representing and working out traumas: through transnational dialogue. They focus on traumatic experiences of the past, changing national, so-called monologic memory into a broad perspective, putting Aleida Assmann’s (2005) theory of dialogic memory into practice.1

W kwietniu 2017 r. czeska Izba Poselska przyjęła nowelizację ustawy o świętach państwowych, w której 9 marca – rocznica masowego mordu więźniów terezińskiego obozu rodzinnego w Auschwitz-Birkenau w 1944 r. – została zakwali fikowana jako ważny dzień. W ten symboliczny sposób czescy posłowie chcą zamknąć długi okres, gdy owo przerażające wydarzenie, uznane za największe popełnione jednorazowo morderstwo czechosłowackich obywateli podczas drugiej wojny światowej, odsuwane było na margines czeskiej świadomości historycznej. Posłowie jednocześnie dodali do czeskiego kalendarza, jako wspomnienie „drugiego oporu” 18 czerwca, rocznicę „bohaterskiej” walki zabójców Reinharda Heydricha przeciwko Waffen SS i Gestapo, i jednocześnie oficjalnie potępili ludobójczą przemoc; ludobójstwem nazwali również prześladowanie Ormian w imperium osmańskim podczas pierwszej wojny światowej.

Currently in use at over a dozen museums worldwide, pre-recorded interviews with individual Holocaust survivors incorporate specialized display technology and natural language processing in order to generate interactive conversations between survivors and visitors. The video recordings are prepared to answer well over 1,000 possible questions visitors might ask of them. Given that these AIs are known as narrow (non-generative) AIs-they are designed and trained to complete one specific task; they take a large amount of data and turn it into actionable information by interpreting a question and providing the best answer to that question. As a result, the answers given always convey the integrity of the survivor's personal responses to the questions she/was asked during the week-long interview period. Members of the public who "visit with" individual survivor AIs are able to interact with eyewitnesses to history to learn from those who actually experienced the Shoah. Visitors participate in a highly-personalized, inquiry-based educational interaction. This study analyzes how effective these interviews with these non-generative AIs can be. I describe here the memorable moments of interrogative persistence, miscues, and serendipity that make this project so innovative and worthy. In particular, this paper offers my findings as a result of conducting an observational study of sixteen individuals, including myself, conducting interviews with the interactive AI of Holocaust survivor and fashion designer Renée Firestone. Given that the interaction is driven by asking questions, in the course of my study, I paid particular attention to how successfully Renée Firestone's AI understood a given question; the quality of the answer that was chosen from her repository in order to respond to the given the question; and that ways in which the Q and A, the give and take of the interaction, inspired and/or stymied a given participant's time with Renée.

Trilingual brochure of a Holocaust films retrospective organized by Dr. Navras J. Aafreedi as a Fellow of the Centre for Communication and Development Studies, Pune under its youth outreach programme called Open Space. The 14-day event took place at five different venues in Lucknow (a major centre of Muslim scholarship) in 2009 and happened to be the first ever Holocaust films retrospective in South Asia. Besides the synopses of 24 of the 46 films screened during the retrospective, the brochure contains the only Urdu poem ever written on the Holocaust. It was written by Anwar Nadeem (1937-2017). An article on that poem can be read here: https://isgap.org/flashpoint/the-only-urdu-poem-on-the-holocaust-and-its-author/ A detailed report on the event appeared in the Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies and can be read here: http://www.mei.org.in/jijs/aafreedi11