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Salina Dickie
Professor Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1103
18 November 2014
The American Film Industry and the Holocaust
When first entering this class, I have always been interested in the interaction with the
Holocaust and film. One of the things that truly fascinates me is that the majority of the
American public receive information about the Holocaust through film. Many Americans are
more concerned with the survival aspects of life, rather than learning new information about
history. That means, if people dont look into inquiring about the Holocaust themselves, then
they receive information about the Holocaust through movies like Inglorious Bastards, The
Schindlers List, and Saving Private Ryan. Many can agree that these are fantastic movies, but
they are more about a good story rather than depicting the Holocaust accurately. I wanted to look
into this more, I wanted to see how American Holocaust has impacted the film industry, and how
accurately these movies really are. Initially, I wanted to discuss the satirical pieces because The
Great Dictator is one of my favorite Holocaust movies, but Charlie Chaplin was the only
director to have the audacity to ever release a film making fun of the Holocaust and more
specifically Adolf Hitler. I realized this after some research, and really didnt spend my whole
research process looking at this film. There is so much more in the film industry than that movie.
My first step of this process was to look at Holocaust Dramas in a new perspective.
When I say new perspective, I meant reading about Holocaust film. When it comes to
reading about movies, the furthest I have ever gone was looking at reviews or summaries of
films. I wanted to look into the Drama and Comedy, very different genres with one dominating

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the other. Since the Holocaust was such a brutal event, it is so hard to make a tasteful comedy
about it. Hollywood has done it before, some more popular than others (Kerner 79). People deal
with tragedy differently, and to deny humor in this time is to deny humanity (Kerner 80). The
two biggest comedies about the Holocaust is The Great Dictator and Life is Beautiful. The Great
Dictator is written and directed by Charlie Chaplin, who also starred in the film and funded it
himself. The movie is about a fictional country named Tomania, who has a political empire that
outcast and discriminate against Jews. Chaplin and Hitler have been considered foes and both
publically have disapproved of each other, but also had a lot in common. Many said they looked
similar, and they even had really similar birthdays. Chaplin plays both the Dictator and the Jew
being discriminated in this movie. (Kerner 83) Chaplin executes both personas perfectly, and this

Charlie Chaplin playing Hynkel as the dictator of Tomania, dancing with the world in his hands. Symbolizing
Hitlers insane belief of his power. His power was something seen as playful and lighthearted that gives an artistic
interpretation of a dictators insanity.

movie is true art. When researching this movie more, I definitely see how Chaplin paid close
attention to every detail, and this makes me respect Chaplin even more. Chaplin faced a lot of

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backlash for this movie, but he didnt really care, he knew he needed to prove a point, and he
made history. The picture I provided is such an important scene, Chaplin danced with this globe
as a fake dictator, and Chaplin symbolizes the power of the dictator and how he views the world
as some toy. He literally has the world in his hands, and this effortless ballet provides a power
that is hard to conceptualize without this tribute to the relationship of the dictator to his empire.
This scene is one of my favorite moments of cinematic history, I find is so amazing that a man
like Chaplin had the abilit to make something so terrible, like Hitlers hunger for power, seem so
beautiful. The best part of this scene is a kind of foreshadowing of history, in the end of the
scene Hynkel, the dictator, has the globe in his hands, and with his overwhelming strength he
casued the globe to burst. This shocks me, a film produced during the peak of the War in 1941
was able to predict the surprising and unexpected end of World War II. I know that there is so
much more that I can learn from just this one movie, but this is only one of many comedies about
the Holocaust. Roberto Benigni wrote and directed Life is Beautiful, which has a similar slapstick
comedy to The Great Dictator, but is a story more about the everyday struggle of a Jew living in
Italy with his new family. Even though this movie has a lighthearted feel, it does describe the
struggle of a family separated at a work camp. The main character, Guido, gets separated from
his wife Dora, and he is forced to take care of his five year old son, Gioseu. Guido keeps his son
alive by convincing him that the death camp is a game and the winner gets a tank in the end.
Guido tries his hardest to maintain his positivity, and tries to keep in contact with Dora. This
story is more about the Jewish struggle, and is less about proving something politically. (Kerner
96-100). After watching Life is Beautiful, I realized this was much more than a comedy, and
there is so much to learn. Guido was a good man, he had a loving family and did nothing wrong.
Even though I laughed throughout this movie I still felt a melancholy theme in the end. These

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directors were able to make films so entertaining, but yet they still had a direct impact on the
American public. I really admire that quality in a filmmaker, the ability to entertain while
making a difference is almost impossible, and Chaplin and Benigni are really 20th century artists.
Holocaust comedy is a subject rarely visited in comparison the Holocaust drama.
Holocaust drama has started even before the end of World War II. Many movies around
this time were filmed in secret due to the pressure of Hollywood during this time. Germany
communicated with Hollywood and their filmmakers, asking for support and threatened to ban
films created by the network who created an anti-German film. Through time, Americans
eventually become open to Holocaust film, but it really doesnt start to become popular until
1978 with the production of a miniseries entitled Holocaust (Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and
the Holocaust). I am really surprised it took America this long to get used to watching the terrors
of the Holocaust. Especially since the Civil Rights Movement constantly referenced Hitler and
the Nazi party. The big reason for this is after the Civil Rights Movement, many survivors started
coming out and talking about their story. Then, after the Holocaust miniseries, the Holocaust
became a common movie theme in Hollywood. Many pieces prove to be extremely theatrical.
Movies like The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Inglorious Bastards provide a more entertaining
story rather than an accurate depiction of the Holocaust. Inglorious Bastards was written and
directed by Quentin Tarantino, and is about Nazi hunting, something that rarely happened in
World War II (Bangert, Gordon, and Saxton 100). After watching this movie, you want it to be
real, the movie is justice. According to many film experts, this film is a knock off from many
Nazi hunter movies. This movie is a fantasy, and many experts believe this fantasy pleases
Americans through violence. The death of major Nazis and Hitler prove happiness might come
through the wrongdoing of others (Kerner 77). This movie proves that people like to live in

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fantasy, we would rather hear a catchy story than hear the truth. I have learned through this
reading that me liking this movie more than any other movie is natural, why wouldnt anyone
like seeing the end to the Nazi party through a Jewish rebel army? Tarantino restricts all power
to the Jews, and this definitely puts a new and interesting light on a grim fantasy, Jews werent
given any power. These Jews took their power back, and this movie definitely paves way for
more creative story telling in the 21st century. Dramatic Holocaust films can also be considered
extremely accurate and influential. Schindlers List was directed by Steven Spielberg and is a
true story about Oskar Schindler, a German who saved many Jews through rare bravery. This
film proves popularity with the battle between good and evil, and this provides a safe haven
for audiences, while maintaining historical accuracy and protagonist identification (McCrisken
and Pepper 52). This movie proves how America is changing how we feel about the Holocaust,
we are proving that we are becoming to prefer tolerance and liberalism. The racial acceptance in
this film also introduces change in Holocaust film, the integration of Blacks, Whites, and Jews
becomes a triumph of racial difference (McCrisken and Pepper 60). This movie, in my opinion,
revolutionized the way modern Americans view the Holocaust, Spielberg worked incredibly hard
to make this film, and I have really understood its importance in historic film. While drama and
comedy are a big part of Holocaust film, there is a bigger element involved, telling the story,
truly like it really is.
In the early 1970s, many Holocaust survivors came out of shadows of their typical lives
and started telling their story (Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust). This platform
provides a first person point-of-view that is objective and true. Archiving stories through
documentaries provides a real-life perspective, while producing a story that cant be explained
through pictures or words on a page (Kerner 187). The most influential archives Concentration

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Camps liberation. These videos were the first form of a Holocaust documentary, the Warner
Brothers filmed the liberation and showed it to many filmmakers to possibly make a film. These
videos were shown to be too graphic and disturbing for the American public, and were put away
to not be viewed many years later (Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust).
Testimony is later introduced through the Shoah Foundation in 1994, the Shoah Foundation was
created by Spielberg after directing Schindlers List. The Shoah Foundation dedicated their time
to finding as many Holocaust survivors as possible, and documenting their stories so they can be
accessed after all these people die. Most stories are over two-and-one-half hours about life
during the War and how they survived (Kerner 196). Testimony has never been documented like
this before, and thanks to the Shoah Foundation we have these stories frozen in time. Film is
really important to pop culture, and film really tells our nations stories. Documentaries do this in
the truest way. I think if one wanted to learn about the Holocaust, documentaries would be their
best outlet. One documentary entitled Shoah is over nine-and-one-half hours long. Claude
Lanzmann spent 11 years documenting over 350 hours in over 14 countries. This documentary is
so different, because he combines multiple genres to create a compelling narrative. (Kerner 204).
This man dedicated a good portion of his life trying to tell a story, and Shoah is deemed to be the
most important Holocaust documentary. Film and documentaries in particular have become a
portal for knowledge on the Holocaust, without integration of pop culture and the Holocaust I
dont believe it would be a subject that people today would be comfortable talking about. I really
admire people like this, people like Chaplin, Spielberg, and Lanzmann who really prove that
Hollywood can shape the way we think about history, and these men have changed the world.
They have paved the way for discussion and comfort in talking about tragic times in our history.

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This inquiry experience has definitely been the most eye opening. Through this research I
have really understood how important it is for Americans to document the Holocaust. We
constantly try to understand the world around us and film is an expression of Hollywoods
inquiry. Some movies have failed miserably, and some have been described as some of the best
movies of all time. Without the introduction of the Holocaust through film, America would
probably have not been as open and interested in the Holocaust. I really have a respect for
Hollywood, I think sometimes all they want to do is make money. Sometimes, rare moments
happen when a movie really just wants to help Americans escape for a while. Through film we
have been able to capture fantastic and unbelievable moments that our future may never get to
see without film. I think that film has been a huge part of understanding the Holocaust, even
though some of the information is not completely true. With an unexpected medium, like film,
we are able to make the story of the Holocaust three-dimensional. Without expression through
film, I think our world would be more closed off to the unknown. The world would be a lot less
open without things like film and media to introduce us to tragic abnormalities.

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Works Cited
Bangert, Axel, Gordon Robert , and Libby Saxton . Holocaust Intersections. London, UK:
Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing, 2013. Print.

The Great Dictator. The Criterion Collection. Amazon. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Dictator-Criterion-Collection/dp/B004NWPY7A>.

Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust. Dir. Daniel Anker. Perf. Gene Hackman . 6
May 2004. Hulu. Web. 18 Nov. 2014. <http://www.hulu.com/watch/532445>.

Kerner , Aaron. Film and the Holocaust. New York, NY: The Continuum International
Publishing Group, 2011. Print.

McCrisken , Trevor, and Andrew Pepper . American History and Contemporary Hollywood
Film. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005. Print.