Holocaust Memo-real: Re-designing WW2 Memory through Films

More than 70 years have passed since the end of the second world war, and the challenge of preserving the memory of humanity's most horrendous trauma is becoming harder and harder with every year that passes and with each survivor's passing. Today, more than ever, cinema is filling a crucial role in keeping the memories present in contemporary culture, refreshing it, and adapting it for generations to come. Confronting society's fading recollection and the audience's loss of interest, filmmakers are creating a new form of collective consciousness through cinema in various genres and styles that go way beyond Schindler's List and other classic period dramas. In our course, we will expand the cinematic discourse about WW2 and from several viewpoints, exposing the students to a variety of movies - commercial, artistic and foreign - while delving deeper into the complexities, challenges, moral dilemmas and promise of these new, groundbreaking and sometimes provocative films.

1. Nazi Propaganda The rise of German and Nazi racist ideology through the eyes of local filmmakers. From the anti-Semitic films Jud Süß, The Rothschilds and many others to the idolization of the Fuhrer Hitler and the mobilization of the masses as portrayed in Leni Riefenstahl powerful imagery, which impacted Hollywood as well (as seen in the Wars saga and other American blockbusters).

On the other side we will examine the subversive fictional films by the critical German filmmakers of the time like Fritz Lang and his Mabuse Series and Robert Wiene and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari which we will be analyzed in the spirit of Kracauer famous book From Caligary to Hitler.

Screening: (Riefenstahl, 1935. Germany) Other films in discussion: Jud Süß (Harlan, 1940. Germany); The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Wiene, 1920. Germany); The Rothschilds (Waschneck, 1940. Gemrnay)

Reading: Kracauer, Z. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of The German Film. Princeton , 1966. p. 61-87 • Caligari p. 61-76 • Possession of Tyrants p. 77-87

Devereaux, M. "Beauty and Evil: The Case of Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of The Will". in: Aesthetics and Ethics. Ed: Jerrold Levinson. Cambridge UP. 1998. p. 227-256

2. Hitler in Films The question of representing . The moral issues regarding showing the distinct iconic image of Hitler as a human being in films. Over the years, filmmakers showed Hitler either as a villain or a caricature, almost never as a real person. Some tried to take a serious approach of investigating him by deconstructing it and

presenting him as a fragmented human being like in the German series Hiemet by Edgar Reitz or in the arthouse film Moloch by Sokurov. The Breakthrough came with the provocative period drama Downfall by that depicted Hitler as a person. A film that while being serious and thoughtful was later used as a parody, mostly by de-contextualizing the so-called scene "Hitler's outrage".

Screening: Downfall (Hirschbiegel, 2005. Germany) Other films in discussion: Moloch (Sokurov, 1999. Russia)

Reading: Brady, M. & Hughes, H. "Downfall and Beyond: Hitler Films in Germany". GFL Journal No. 3. 2006. p. 94-114

3. Hitler Parody "Hitler's outrage" scene from Downfall is used to mock used all over the world to mock a variety of issues, but parody was always part of the representation of Hitler as a historical significant figure. From Charlie Chaplin's The Big Dictator who portrayed a Hitler prototype leader to many comedies produced after his Hitler defeat and referred to him directly as an insane caricature. In the interesting case of Look Who Is Back, Hitler's character is being used as a satire about the German contemporary society.

Screening: Look who is Back (Wnendt, 2015. Germany) Other films in discussion: (Chaplin, 1940. USA); Nazty Nuisance (Trion, 1943. USA); Herr Meets Hare (Freleng, 1945. USA); Jojo Rabbit (Waititi, 2019. USA)

Reading: Sorce, G. “Hitler and Humor: Coming to Terms with the Past Through Parody”. Global Media Journal: German Edition. Vol. 5, No.2. Autumn/Winter 2015. p. 1-12

4. Concentration Camp The Holocaust is considered as the most horrendous and impactful trauma in modern history. Auschwitz and other concentration camp were Jews, political prisoners and "misfits" were being slaughters, were the culmination of the Nazi vicious atrocities and were always considered as unspeakable and indescribable. The question arises: how can cinema recreate what is impossible to recreate, an inhumane reality that cannot be re-enacted or depicted? Filmmakers from all over the world confronted these dilemmas – using different storytelling and visual and sometimes visceral tools and strategies.

Screening: Son of Saul (Nemes, 2016. Hungary) Other films in discussion: Shoah (Lanzmann, 1985); The Pianist (Polanski, 2002. USA); Auschwitz (Boll, 2011. Germany); Sobibor (Khabensky, 2018. Russia); Escape from Sobibor (Gold, 1987. USA); Schindler's List (Spielberg, 1996. USA); War and Remembrance (Wouk, 1988-89. USA)

Reading: Hirsch, J. Afterimage: Film, Trauma, and The Holocaust. Temple UP. 2003.

1. "Introduction to Film, Trauma, and The Holocaust". p. 1-20 6. "Postmodernism, The Second Generation, and Cross-Cultural Posttraumatic Cinema". p. 140-162

5. Youth in War The wars atrocities and cruelty inflicted by human adults is unfathomable to the common men but in the eyes of children they are even more impossible to comprehend. The story of and her diary serves as a pretext for numerous works of literature that provided an innocent point of view on the horrors and through it allows adult audience to try and comprehend the senseless violence of that of that time.

Screening: (Benigni, 1997. Italy) Other films in discussion: The Diary of Anne Frank (Stevens, 1959); The Tin Drum (Schlöndorff, 1979. Germany); Jojo Rabbit (Waititi, 2019. USA); The Notebook (Szasz, 2013. Hungary); The Painted Bird (Marhoul, 2019. )

Reading: Kirkham, V. "Benigni's Postmodern Storehouse of Culture". Beyond Life Is Beautiful. ed: Grace Russo Bullaro. Troubador Publishing. 2005. p. 152-176

Bullaro, G. R. "Life Is Beautiful and the Protection of Innocence: Fable, Fairy-tale or Just Excuses?". Beyond Life Is Beautiful. ed: Grace Russo Bullaro. Troubador Publishing. 2005. p. 225-247

6. “The Good German” After the war ended with the Nazis defeat, German filmmakers were left to deal with their guilt feelings and blame. In order to construct the spirit of the "New Germany" and a possible relief of the nation's broken conscious by illuminating acts of resistance and stories of heroism regarding German individuals. Local filmmakers brought to the screen the stories of Sophie Schull, , the Edelweiss Pirates group and the Rosenstrasse protests, while American Jewish filmmakers like Spielberg and Bryan Singer produced films about "Good Nazis" like Oskar Shindler and Claus von Stauffenberg. Along resistance and heroism, films like Das Boot and Mephisto delved into the dilemmas of Germans as humans failing to stand up in the wake of fear and war.

Screening: Das Boot (Petersen, 1981. Germany) Other films in discussion: Valkyrie (Singer, 2008. USA); Schindler's List (Spielberg, 1993. USA); 13 Minutes (Hirschbiegel, 2015. Germany); Last Five Days (Adlon, 1982. Germany); The White Rose (Verhoeven, 1982. Germany); Mephisto (Szabo, 1980. Hungary)

Reading: Holloway, D. Depravity at Sea: Das Boot and the Challenge of Coming to Terms with the Past. Bryn Mawr Thesis. 2011

7. Resistance While the Nazi and their collaborators spread throughout Europe and the East Asia, and established their ruthless dominance on oppressed communities, some still insisted to resist and push back. In search of heroism, storytellers and filmmakers dedicated their art to glorify those few. While soviet cinema heralded the heroism of partisans and the Red Army soldiers in real-life historical context - especially the battle of Stalingrad, Hollywood to re-imagine them – like in the case of the superheroes Steve Rogers (Captain America) who fought against the Nazis and even confronted Hitler in the comics or Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto fro the X-Men) a troubled Jewish boy from Auschwitz who grows up to be an avenging Nazis hunter. In this context we would ask if heroism is a myth and reflect on it’s driving force – the passion for the national and for personal revenge - violent and cruel but showed by the "good" side.

Screening: Come and See (Klimov, 1985. USSR) Other film in discussion: Defiance (Zwick, 2006.USA); In Darkness (Holland, 2011. Poland); In The Fog (Loznitsa, 2012. Ukraine); Captain America: The First Avenger (Johnston, 2011. USA); X-Men: First Class (Vaughn, 2011. USA); Battle of Stalingrad (Petrov, 1949. USSR); Stalingrad: Dogs, Do You Want To Live Forever? (Wisbar, 1959. West Germany); Stalingrad (Vilsmaier, 1993. Germany); Enemy at The Gates (Annaud, 2001. USA); Stalingrad (Bondarchuk, 2013. Russia).

Reading: Youngblood, D. J. "A War Remembered: Soviet Films of The Great Patriotic War". The American Historical Review Vol. 106, No. 3 (2001), pp. 839-856

8. Alternative History Can filmmakers distort the factual narrative of WW2 to the point it would be a complete fake? This is the moral question in the heart of films that are embedded in Alternative History. Can a fictional past coming to life on the big screen change the recollection of the war and maybe possibly hurt the memory of the victims? Or maybe the realization of an alternative history enables us to reflect on the "real" one, and also adopt a critical approach towards our present and future.

Screening: Hunters – first episode (Weil, 2020. USA) Other films to discuss: Inglorious Bastards (Tarantino, 2009. USA); Fatherland (Menaul, 1994. USA); Man in High Castle (Spotnitz, 2015-18. USA); Raiders of The Lost Ark (Spielberg, 1981, USA); Captain America (Pyun, 1990. USA)

Reading: Singles, K. Alternate History: Playing with Contingency and Necessity. : De Gruyter. 2013

9. Sci-Fi Like in Alternative History, science-fiction films are based on a thought experiment derived from reality. In the case of The Boys from Brazil, Dead Snow, Iron Sky and others, the stories reflect an angst of the terrifying continuous legacy of extending into the future with technological and scientifical means. Also interesting is the use of Holocaust aesthetics and archive materials in fictional space operas Flash Gordon and the NBC series V.

Screening: X-Men (Singer, 2000) Other films in discussion: Boys From Brazil (Schaffner, 1978. USA); Flash Gordon (Hodges, 1980. USA); V (Kenneth Johnson, 1984. USA); Iron Sky (Vourensola, 2012. Finland); Dead Snow (Wirkola, 2009. Norway); Kung Fury (Sandberg, 2015. Sweden).

Reading: Housel, R. Wisnewski, J. J. X-Men and Philosophy. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2009 • Kavadlo, J. "X-istential X-Men: Jews, Supermen, and the Literature of Struggle". p. 38-52 • Kirby, K. "War and Peace, Power and Faith". p. 209-222

10. Experiments Other than preserving the memory of the Nazis and their victims, filmmakers – like historians and researchers before them – are looking for ways to analyze the phenomena of Fascism through social scientific experiments. Some were brought to the screen like in the case of Milgram and Zimbardo and their participating subjects. Are we as viewers are also participating in these experiments while watching them unfold in front of us, and if so what insights would can it bring to our awareness, not only about unspeakable cruelty and submission to authority as a unique memory from the past, but as a common psychological and sociological behavioral tendency in our daily lives.

Screening: The Wave (Grasshoff, 1981. USA) Other films in discussion: The Wave (Gansel, 2008. Germany); Stanford Prison Experiment (Alvarez, 2015. USA); (Hirschbiegel, 2001. Germany); Experimenter (Almereyda, 2015. USA)

Reading: McNair, R “A Study Guide compiled for the Mill Valley Film Festival”. California Film Institute: Education. 2014