University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Sociology ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2-1-2012 Censorship and Holocaust Film in the Hollywood Studio System Nancy Copeland Halbgewachs Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/soc_etds Recommended Citation Halbgewachs, Nancy Copeland. "Censorship and Holocaust Film in the Hollywood Studio System." (2012). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/soc_etds/18 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Nancy Copeland Halbgewachs Candidate Department of Sociology Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. George A. Huaco , Chairperson Dr. Richard Couglin Dr. Susan Tiano Dr. James D. Stone i CENSORSHIP AND HOLOCAUST FILM IN THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIO SYSTEM BY NANCY COPELAND HALBGEWACHS B.A., Sociology, University of Kansas, 1962 M.A., Sociology, University of Kansas, 1966 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Sociology The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico December, 2011 ii DEDICATION In memory of My uncle, Leonard Preston Fox who served with General Dwight D. Eisenhower during World War II and his wife, my Aunt Bonnie, who visited us while he was overseas. My friend, Dorothy L. Miller who as a Red Cross worker was responsible for one of the camps that served those released from one of the death camps at the end of the war. To my family My husband, Ron, who made this educational project work and who is always supportive of my adventures. Our parents, Jack and Grace Copeland and Edwin and Lola Halbgewachs, who always encouraged us to value education. Our children and their families, Ronna and Chris, David and Marah, Anne and Stan, Lara and Andy, and Phillip and Beth who never cease to surprise and amaze us. Our grandchildren, Lindsey, Veronica, Samantha, GraceAnn, Florence, Ian, and the little one on the way. Each seems destined to make her or his parents‘ lives surprising and amazing in their own right. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dr. George A. Huaco served as my academic advisor and the chairperson of the dissertation committee. As an advisor, he kept an extended project moving forward and wisely knew how to handle a number of complications. As chairperson of the dissertation committee, he gave me both the support and the freedom to develop this project. Before the project began, he suggested I might want to look into the work of the Hays Commission. Dr. Richard Coughlin, Dr. Susan Tiano, and Dr. James D. Stone provided suggestions and a wealth of information that enabled me to complete the work. Richard and Susan posed interesting questions that often brought a needed focus to the work. Susan stepped in at a critical time and offered gracious recommendations and support. Being in theater, James brought a new perspective. Dr. Dodd Bogart and Dr. Beverly Burris also contributed to my understanding of the material. The Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, California, has preserved and made available the files of the Hays Commission. Jenny Romero diligently made the information in the files available for my use. Without this resource, this project would not have been possible. I will remain indebted to those who first researched the archival records and whose work I reference in the material that follows. Ron and I were so fortunate to work in a lovely facility that was conveniently closed midweek so that we could refresh ourselves on the pier at Santa Monica. Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico routinely added newly published research that was most important for this work. Clayton Ford created a working relationship within the library guidelines while we were on travel and away from the University of New Mexico. When I entered the program, the library had just completed its transition from the draws of the card catalogue to the digital system, Libros. It has been an education in its own right to participate in the changes as the system moved onto to electronic books and journals and internet databases. The University is more than its faculty. Many work to support the students and the educational process. Patti Sanchez in the Bursar‘s Office, Douglas Weintraub in the Office of Graduate Studies, and Dorothy Esquivel, Kaitlin Coalson, Dona Lewis in the Sociology Department are among those facilitating the work of both faculty and students. iv The Fenwick Library at George Mason University had a generous lending policy for friends of the library and provided historical material on the Holocaust. The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC was a source of inspiration and while we were living in Alexandria, Virginia, we were able to attend seminars on motion pictures about the Holocaust. Dr. Ray Walpow, at Western Washington University and Director of the Holocaust Museum at that university encouraged my pursuit of this research at an early stage of the research process. The Holocaust and American Indian Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico had many useful hands-on materials readily available. Without the skill and talent of Dr. Resa Levetan, Dr. Arnold Rosenblatt, Dr. Azita Moalemi, Dr. Narian Rajan, Dr. John Rhee, and Dr. John Graham, I would not have survived to complete my work. I will remain indebted to them each day of the rest of my life. My husband‘s colleague and our friend, David Teumim, not only encouraged, but extended my understanding of the overwhelming loss the Jewish people experienced as a result of Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich. At the University of Kansas, Dr. Charles K. Warriner, Dr. Marston M. McCluggage, and Dr. Norman Jacobs captured my sociological imagination and made it impossible to not return to academic work at an appropriate time. Dr. Emily Taylor, the first woman to be Dean of Women with an academic degree, imparted her love of education and knowledge of the pitfalls that women faced as they entered nontraditional career paths. She went on to create the Commissions on the Status of Women at the state level of our government. My friends: Kathleen Church, Dorothy Orrell, Joanne Parker, Hedy Sanders, and Nancy Bell, read each page and enabled me to survive the editing process. Marge Oakes and laughed about my encounters with the computer. When our older children were on campus, she was advocating for him to use a computer. I frequently found the technology challenging and amazing. Alice Arnot brought me her copy of Les Miserables so I would have something interesting to read if I needed to prepare for a language examination. Betty Diebold loaned me her copy of Balm in Gilead: Journey of a Healer, the story of Margaret Morgan-Lawrence‘s work to become the first black woman child psychologist v when race dominated our educational institutions. Betty had been at Cornell at the same time Dr. Morgan-Lawrence was a student there. Many other women who were not able to pursue their educational dreams encouraged me to pursue this work in spite of certain difficulties along the way. vi CENSORSHIP AND HOLOCAUST FILM IN THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIO SYSTEM by Nancy Copeland Halbgewachs B.A., Sociology, University of Kansas, 1962 M.A., Sociology, University of Kansas, 1966 Doctor of Philosophy ABSTRACT Following the end of World War II in 1945 to 1969, Hollywood films remained silent about the extermination camps, the sites of the murders and incineration of European Jews by Nazi Germany that came to be known as the Holocaust. The Hollywood studio system produced very few Holocaust motion pictures before 1980. This research provides evidence from the files of the Hays Commission in the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences to support the hypothesis that censorship was a major social cause of this silence. The correspondence between members of the Hays Commission, the business offices of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America in New York City, and the studios for selected motion pictures produced between 1930 and 1969 demonstrates that censorship was a major factor that prevented Hollywood from producing films and foreign films from appearing in theaters. Once the studio system collapsed and with it The Production Code Administration, films about the Holocaust and the genocide of the Jewish people suddenly appeared in the United States. The archival records of the Hays Commission in the Margaret Herrick Library demonstrate the way films about the Holocaust were delayed by the censorship organization established by the Hollywood studio system. This hypothesis fills an important gap in knowledge about holocaust films as well as offering an important case study in organizational politics and its impact on an important aspect of culture. vii Table of Contents Introduction Hollywood and the Holocaust .................................................................1 Chapter One Holocaust Film: Censorship Matters ........................................................16 I. The Holocaust on the Screen ..............................................................................16 II. Internal Censorship ............................................................................................19 III. Definitions – holocaust and Holocaust ..............................................................23