Introduction

This introduction traces the psychoanalytic perspectives and themes that have emerged in Holocaust films over several generations. Since they were discovered at the end of WWII, film has figured as a primary medium for the revelation and documentation of Holocaust atrocities in different modalities including: documentaries that combine archival film footage and photographs with interviews with survivors and their descendants; fiction films that focus on the devastating aftereffects of the holocaust, plunging the viewer into the subjective experiences of the survivors and/or their progeny; or, films that involve creative combinations of both. The introduction focuses on the major psychoanalytic themes that underlie these disparate papers including: the nature and variants of survival and survivor guilt; the disruption of mourning processes and the disturbances in identity; the inscription of the repetition compulsion and identification with the aggressor in the victims; and the transformation of the spectator into a witness to Holocaust atrocities. Also discussed are the ways that concepts such as trauma, symbolization and testimony, transference and countertransference help illuminate aspects of film and the film viewing process.