Polish Film and the Holocaust - Politics and Memory (Electronic book text)

During World War II Poland lost more than six million people, including about three million Polish Jews who perished in the ghettos and extermination camps built by Nazi Germany in occupied Polish territories. This book is the first to address the representation of the Holocaust in Polish film and does so through a detailed treatment of several films, which the author frames in relation to the political, ideological, and cultural contexts of the times in which they were created. Following the chronological development of Polish Holocaust films, the book begins with two early classics: Wanda JakubowskaOCOs The Last Stage (1948) and Aleksander FordOCOs Border Street (1949), and next explores the Polish School period, represented by Andrzej WajdaOCOs A Generation (1955) and Andrzej MunkOCOs The Passenger (1963). Between 1965 and 1980 there was an OC organized silenceOCO regarding sensitive Polish-Jewish relations resulting in only a few relevant films until the return of democracy in 1989 when an increasing number were made, among them Krzysztof KieslowskiOCOs Decalogue 8 (1988), Andrzej WajdaOCOs Korczak (1990), Jan Jakub KolskiOCOs Keep Away from the Window (2000), and Roman PolanskiOCOsaThe Pianista(2002). An important contribution to film studies, this book has wider relevance in addressing the issue of PolandOCOs national memory."