The Posthumous Life of the Nazi Propaganda: Postwar Films on the Warsaw Ghetto
Abstract
Nazi archival footage realized in the Warsaw Ghetto has become a staple element of postwar documentary films. The early films relied heavily on editing and voice over commentary in order to lay bare the propagandist angle of the generic material. However, with the passage of time filmmakers started to perceive the fruits of German documentary work as problematic. The article analyzes three films: Jerzy Bossak’s Requiem for 500 000 ( 1962), Jolanta Dylewska’s The Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising According to Marek Edelman (1993) and 972 Days of the Warsaw Ghetto (2001) trying to pinpoint the ways of undoing the „evil eye” of the Nazi footage by palimpsest re-editing, individual testimony and recent digital manipulation of found footage. Furthermore, it postulates a quest for an ethics of seeing pertaining to the specificity of the material.
Keywords:
Nazi propaganda, Warsaw Ghetto, ethics of seeingReferences
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Authors
Tomasz Łysakkwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
independent researcher Poland
Absolwent anglistyki i polonistyki (Kolegium MISH UW), absolwent Szkoły Nauk Społecznych IFiS PAN, publikował m.in. w „American Studies”, „Kwartalniku Filmowym”, „Literaturze na Świecie”, „Obiegu”, „Polonistyce”, „Tekstach Drugich”. Członek Association for Jewish Studies, stypendysta Fundacji na rzecz Nauki Polskiej.
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Copyright (c) 2006 Tadeusz Łysak
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