ABSTRACT
Documentary film covering the period beginning with the Nazi rise to power, from the end of the war until today, is the most reliable technological tool for bringing the Holocaust into our consciousness. It has shaped the iconography of the Holocaust for those who were not present to witness it and did not have any way of knowing what the results of human evil looked like on the faces and bodies of the survivors. Using its universal language, documentary film has served as an intermediary between the viewer and the survivor, as well as between the historical truth as captured by the eye of the lens, even before the smoke had evaporated from the furnaces, and the deniers. Documentary film has revealed, described, and exposed the inhumane face of humanity. This chapter will cover the most important documentary films created, stopping at different points in time to explore the cinematic choices made by directors at the specific times, places, and environments in which the films were recorded. The work will address the students to certain experiential stages of documentary Holocaust film, which make it possible to explain the unexplainable.
