ABSTRACT

The central metonymic image of the Holocaust for popular memory and film studies alike is that of Auschwitz Birkenau the single place where the largest number of Jews were killed. Before analysing these films and the theoretical issues they raise as to their capacity to witness and their status as testimony, they need first to be understood in the context of the changing historiography and popular memory of the series of historical events we describe as the Holocaust. While Soviet Jewish victims have been included in the total figure from the moment it was first arrived at in the Nuremberg Tribunal. Soviet cameramen often tried to avoid showing clear signs that the dead were Jewishoften tried to avoid showing clear signs that the dead were Jewish. One way of finding a positive answer to this question, would be to re-establish a strong authorship, following the path taken by David Shneer's recent book about Soviet wartime still photographers.