Chapter 1 The Holocaust: A Cinematic Cataclysm? Chapter 2 Picturing the Holocaust in the Past Chapter 3 The Biopic: Personalizing Perpetrators, Victims, and Resisters Chapter 4 Condemned Couples Chapter 5 Serious Humor: Laughter as Lamentation Chapter 6 The Children Are Watching: Holocaust Films for Youngsters Chapter 7 Relevant Remembrances: Themes in Recent Holocaust Movies Chapter 8 Projecting the Holocaust into the 21st Century
Lawrence Baron teaches history at San Diego State University, and is the author of The Eclectic Anarchism of Erich Muehsam, co-editor of Embracing the Other: Philosophical, Psychological, and Historical Perspectives on Altruism, and Martin Buber and the Human Sciences and served as historian for The Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe.
Some authors provide sound scholarship, others supply detailed
analysis, but few combine these accomplishments with prose that
bridges the gap from the academic to the general reader. Historian
Lawrence Baron has done just that while dealing with the
often-controversial area of cinematic representations of the
Holocaust. Because World War II genocide remains so dark a subject,
it is easiest to see the era in high contrast black and white. This
author points to the complexities of history, filmmaking, and
cultural perceptions by contextualizing his work within classic
films of the Shoah (from 1945-1979) while identifying trends and
shifts in how stories of the Holocaust are now brought to the
screen in the twenty-first century. Few previous works study more
than the obvious contemporary movies, Schindler's List (1993) or
Life is Beautiful (1997). This author looks at a wide range of
films, including X-Men as 'Holocaust pop metaphor' indicating that
the shadow of past atrocities pervades our culture. Baron
meticulously developed a database of films to discern changes in
filmic Holocaust narratives.
*Deborah Carmichael, Oklahoma State University*
Offers rich, detailed, and thoughtful analysis of international
holocaust film by an author who has been teaching classes on Jewish
History and the Holocaust for many years. . . . This is an
important book on an important topic and should be in all film
collections.
*Communication Booknotes Quarterly*
Combining scrupulous research and keen insight with prior film
criticism and artistic, social, and historical information, Baron
(history, San Diego State Univ.) renders this somber and difficult
subject most accessible. The study is distinguished by the various
schools of thought on how Holocaust subjects should or should not
be treated on film. The author avoids repeating and recycling
ideas, instead juxtaposing new findings and insights with
established views, thereby delivering well-rounded and informative
coverage of a dynamic subject with myriad facets and repercussions.
. . . An excellent resource for those interested in film or in
political science, history, or psychology. Summing Up: Essential.
Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and
professionals..
*CHOICE*
Baron's study provides an excellent overview of recent movies
dealing with the Holocaust. While broadening the common notion of
'Holocaust cinema,' Baron's cultural historicist approach casts
light onto the increasingly larger role visual media play in the
process of raising public awareness of historic events. Teachers
and students of cultural, intellectual and film history will find
the volume particularly helpful due to its format of individual
film reviews, its nearly comprehensive filmography and its
extensive bibliographical information.
*H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online*
A valuable addition to the extant scholarship on Holocaust cinema.
. . . Baron's accessible and stimulating book fills in some
significant gaps in studies of Holocaust feature films and is a
useful reference for specialists as well as those with a more
general interest in the subject.
*German Studies Review, Vol. 30, No. 3 (2007)*
Combining scrupulous research and keen insight with prior film
criticism and artistic, social, and historical information, Baron
(history, San Diego State Univ.) renders this somber and difficult
subject most accessible. The study is distinguished by the various
schools of thought on how Holocaust subjects should or should not
be treated on film. The author avoids repeating and recycling
ideas, instead juxtaposing new findings and insights with
established views, thereby delivering well-rounded and informative
coverage of a dynamic subject with myriad facets and
repercussions...An excellent resource for those interested in film
or in political science, history, or psychology. . . . Essential.
Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and
professionals.
*CHOICE*
[...] I wish to recommend this book without reservation to anyone
even remotely interested in the subject. For me, it serves as
reality check in my memory, and delineates what "bearing witness"
means. To the reader, it may provide invaluable insights on what
can be done to explain the inexplicable.
*Journal of Popular Film and Television*
Some authors provide sound scholarship, others supply detailed
analysis, but few combine these accomplishments with prose that
bridges the gap from the academic to the general reader. Historian
Lawrence Baron has done just that while dealing with the
often-contorversial area of cinematic representations of the
Holocaust.
*Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal*
Baron's well-researched, heavily annotated but still quite readable
volume offers statistical analyses to indicate trends and genres
which are then exemplified by detailed synopses and analyses of
selected films within each category and decade, complete with
reactions from critics, box office receipts, and awards
bestowed.
*Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal Of Jewish Studies*
Well-researched... quite readable
*Richard Libowitz, Intellectual Heritage Program, Temple
University*
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