There was a time of history where the entire world was watching an unthinkable tragedy take place, the Holocaust. The film industry exploded with the creation of Holocaust films. From Germany to America, before, during, and after WWII, films portraying the Holocaust took center stage. Interestingly enough, America was not directly effected by the events taking place in Europe. There are accusations towards America asking why did we not help? "How is it possible for a influential country to just sit back and watch a genocide take place?"(CITE) How is it possible for a country who was not directly affected by the Holocaust create many influential films depicted the Holocaust, such as The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), Schindler 's List (1993), and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)? This is where the Americanization of the Holocaust begins. These films are recognized in Europe as being highly influential as well. This welcomes the question as to whether Americanization in film leads to misinterpretations of the true historical account of the Holocaust. Film professor, Ilan Avisar …show more content…
Directed by George Stevens, the film came out only twelve years after The Diary of Anne Frank the book was first published. The film is adapted from the real journal entries of Anne Frank, a thirteen year old Jew hiding in a secret room with her family in Nazi-invaded Holland. The journal entries are filled with stories about her parents, her time in the "Secret Annex", and honest, daily thoughts of a thirteen year old girl. The book first came out in 1947, only two years after WWII was over. After the first publishing in Holland, The Diary’s impact moved to America. "The Diary of Anne Frank evolved from a particularly European work written by a young Jew hiding from Nazis in Holland to a more Americanized, universal symbol." (Book, Doneson) EXPLAIN
The Holocaust was one of the most devastating events to happen to us a world. On an ordinary day 1,000 people would be plucked from their everyday lives in ghettos. Over 30,000 Jewish people were arrested on Kristallnacht and taken to concentration camps. According to one source, “Over eleven million people were killed and about six million of them happened to be Jews” (“11 Facts”). Producing movies based around the Holocaust is a very controversial topic. There is the ever prominent argument on wheatear or not Holocaust based films can help us understand the different aspects of its reality.
Schindler's list premiered mere months after the inauguration of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, leading to a capitalising success on the American peoples cultural focus on historical voyeurism. The critical reception of Schindler's List is a intellectual discussion on the moral nature of a film through the ability to dramatize what was deemed impossible; critically selectively received with a social conscious, and a division on Spielberg's stylistic representation of the subject matter. The scholarship on Schindler's List only reaches one shared thesis that of its transitional nature in his cinematic career into a more self-styled seriousness with arching the blockbuster with sober artistic work (Grainge, Jancovich, & Monteith, 2012). Critical reception of Spielberg's work comments on the true nature of its testimony in memorial to the Holocaust with appropriate restraint or typical emotional manipulation, combined with arguments of the nature of film is artistic or entertaining. Temporal and spatial variations don't seem to affect the critics review, it appears to be more the view of Spielberg as an auteur and also their comfort in exploring such a sensitive historical memory. Deconstruction of the reception will discuss the stylistic nature of the film with a controversial documented cinematography, alongside Schindler's List's place among other works in regards to the subject of the Holocaust and Spielberg's handling of the digestible.
The Holocaust impacted Americans in a number of ways. On one note the Holocaust instilled a number of fears into American’s minds. One being that Americans feared Nazis infiltration (American and the Holocaust: Exploring US Responses) The Nazis and their ability to invade was unprecedented during this time period and their main targets were Jews and non- Aryans thus, Americans feared that by raising immigration quotas and allowing an abundant amount of Jewish refugees into America it would set off Nazis and they would attack America at its heart. Along with fears of infiltration there were financial fears that Americans were facing which lead to the govt. being against reforming the quotas, due to the depression that Americans were dealing with. America’s original solution to settling these fears was the concept of isolationism, so they could focus on domestic issues (Holocaust memorial museum). One of the general issues that arose during the Holocaust was that the subject matter addressed during the Holocaust as far as U.S laws went was an unprecedented event that w...
[2] Manipulated history used in an inappropriate manner is one of the ways in which the Nazis were able to convince so many people to follow their evil and tyrannical beliefs. This is not something that we as Americans can have happen. History in the cinema should be a carefully monitored area, so as to prevent fictional accounts to be passed as the truth. If we allow our screenwriters and directors to have free reign in the movies, they could theoretically conjure up any scenario that they pleased and pass it off as an actual event. This can not be so. If history is to be conveyed through film, it should be of the highest accuracy. Many people rely on what they see as fact so that if all movies decided to create a “history” that never happened, a large percentage of the American population would fall victim to their chicanery.
Anne’s thoughts and perspectives of stuff she encountered with, or the struggles she endured weren’t shown in depth in the film. Her curiosity and wonders of countless stuff weren’t shown to the best of ability. Anne was a young girl figuring out many new things in life, in the film however her thoughts aren’t really elaborated. Making the film less interesting, considering the book is a diary full of her encounters of war and the disruptive life that she constantly envisaged throughout her life. She says, “What does that matter? I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart. (20 June, 1942). This quote accentuates the way she wants to write stuff, in the film however she doesn’t
Reading, Anna. "Young People's Viewing Of Holocaust Films In Different Cultural Contexts." Holocaust And The Moving Image (2005): 210-216. RAMBI. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.
Last semester my documentary production professor told my classmates and I to avoid making films that were too much like Holocaust or civil rights films. This really struck me as an almost cold statement, however this semester in both this class and the film and Holocaust class that I took I began to understand what he meant. After reading much of Aaron Kerner’s book I saw even more, it wasn’t a statement on the subject matter but the filmic techniques that have been overused in the genres. The most burnt out are the tropes within each film; like the crafty jew trope, the jew as a victim, or as a hero, and the usage of naziploitation. These are all found in films revolving around the Holocaust and the film Europa Europa (Agnieska Holland, 1990)
There were many aspects in World War two, but the Holocaust is likely the most famous to date. A particular interest is shown for the Holocaust simply because of the unbelievable amount of inhumanity that was exhibited. Although saddening, the attention that has been focused on uncovering the truths of this terrifying event is necessary. Truly understanding how awful the Holocaust was helps to ensure that something similar will never happen again. The book Night and the movie Schindler’s List are two recollections of the Holocaust written from two, very different, perspectives.
The play version of The Diary Of Anne Frank is a play about a young girl and her family hiding from the Nazi’s in fear of being taken to a concentration camp during World War 2. In this play, Anne must adjust to life and growing up in hiding while living with seven other people. While the play is still very popular and enjoyed, there is also a more recent version of this story that is told through a movie to share this story in a more modern way and to appeal to more. In this movie, the audience watches Anne go through the struggles of adjusting to life in hiding and living with a large group of people. Although the play and the movie versions of The Diary Of Anne Frank do have some differences in storytelling and dialogue, both stories have the same conflicts, setting, characters, and life lessons.
Anne Frank was a thirteen year old Jewish girl who was forced into hiding in 1942. Her family and another family, the Van Daans, hid in the back of her father, Otto Frank's office building in what they called the "Secret Annex" for the next two years, until they were discovered by a Nazi group called the Gestapo and arrested. It was during her time in the Secret Annex that Anne wrote in a diary that she had named Kitty, telling it of her experiences in the the annex, reported the position of the war and its most memorible events, and shared her personal feelings on the situation. The diary became an outlet throug...
The Diary of Anne Frank is a true story based in Germany. In July 1942 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands Anne, Mr.Frank, Mrs.Frank, Margo, Peter, Miep, Mr.Van Daan, and Mrs.Van Daan were sent to an annex above Mr.Frank's business to hide. They were very scared and fearful for their from the Nazis. They are Jewish, and the Nazis wanted to kill Jews. There are many different similarities and differences.
The Anne Frank House is based on the story that was taken from Anne’s diary. The history said when she got a small note book as her birthday present from her father, she used it as a diary to write over her feeling since Nazi ran the government in Germany. Frank family one of around thousand families who left from German because of the economic crisis and they are a German Jew. After Nazi came to Amsterdam, where Frank’s family lived for about 7 years, they lived in the secret apartment behind the books shelf. However, they were finally caught by the Nazi’s because someone had told the secret place. Otto Frank was the only family member who saved. Frank, her mother and her sister, Mo were sent to a concentrate compound. In the compound, Frank and her sister were seperated with their mother. Both of them died because of
How can someone fully understand a tragedy such as the Holocaust? Many say the event ineffable to anyone who wasn’t there to begin with, but people are still striving to achieve complete or near complete comprehension. In order to do this people have used multiple media like books and recordings but the one that gives “the greatest illusion of authenticity” is movies. The purpose of Holocaust-filmmaking is to help people get a grasp on what it felt like to be in the middle of such a horrific thing as the Holocaust. If this isn’t done, then the true emotions won’t influence the audience who won’t find a way to preserve the history of the Holocaust and memories that took place in those awful times will be lost forever. Many films of the Holocaust
In June 1942 Anne received a diary for her 13th birthday. She began to write down her thoughts and experiences in the form of letters to an imaginary friend. One month later the Franks went into hiding in the office building. For the next two years the Frank family shared cramped quarters with four other Jewish people. In the ending the people she lived with were the ones that published her diary.
On June 12, 1929, at 7:30 AM, a baby girl was born in Frankfort, Germany. No one realized that this infant, who was Jewish, was destined to become one of the worlds most famous victims of World War II. Her name was Anne Frank. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank and B.M. Mooyaart, was actually the real diary of Anne Frank. Anne was a girl who lived with her family during the time while the Nazis took power over Germany. Because they were Jewish, Otto, Edith, Margot, and Anne Frank immigrated to Holland in 1933. Hitler invaded Holland on May 10, 1940, a month before Anne?s eleventh birthday. In July 1942, Anne's family went into hiding in the Prinsengracht building. Anne and her family called it the 'Secret Annex'. Life there was not easy at all. They had to wake up at 6:45 every morning. Nobody could go outside, nor turn on lights at night. Anne mostly spent her time reading books, writing stories, and of course, making daily entries in her diary. She only kept her diary while hiding from the Nazis. This diary told the story of the excitement and horror in this young girl's life during the Holocaust. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl reveals the life of a young innocent girl who is forced into hiding from the Nazis because of her religion, Judaism. This book is very informing and enlightening. It introduces a time period of discrimination, unfair judgment, and power-crazed individuals, and with this, it shows the effect on the defenseless.