UNCOVERING THE HOLOCAUST

Nuit et Brouillard (Night and Fog, 1955) by Alain Resnais augmented the impact of the Holocaust on many societies. This book examines its representation of the Holocaust and offers solid case studies on the reception of this famous film in different contexts and countries (Britain, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and the USA). Nuit et Brouillard lends itself to a comparative history because it was the first film on the Holocaust with such an impact, because it played a crucial role in the dissemination and appropriation of images of the past, because discussions about it helped to define or find identity and to shape memory, and because even today it continues to unsettle viewers. This volume seeks to provide insight into the way politicians, cultural critics and the general public assimilated the Holocaust and continue to debate questions of cultural memory. Scholars and students interested in the Holocaust, in film, literature, memory, Jewish history and cultural politics will find these case studies highly instructive.

January 2006
208 pages

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Ewout van der Knaap is Assistant Professor of German Literature and Culture at Utrecht University. He has published monographs on German and international poetry, and co-edited several other books.

'Anyone interested in Night and Fog or more generally in representations of the Holocaust in film will find this book worthwhile.'
– Richard Raskin, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television

'This important collection is eye-opening and shows just how powerful Night and Fog has been in shaping both our inner and outer landscapes of Holocaust memory.'
– James E. Young, University of Massachusetts Amherst, author of Writing and Re-writing the Holocaust

‘At long last a scholarly approach to Night and Fog that grapples seriously with the national ideologies of its public reception. Crucial reading for any scholar interested in developing a truly universalistic aesthetics of Holocaust film reception.’
– Terri Ginsberg, author of Holocaust Film: The Political Aesthetics of Ideology

'The articles in these books are brilliant studies, providing fascinating details and insightful observations on the political and social reception of Night and Fog. The excellent analyses illuminate the artistic influences of the film and chart the cultural processes that made Resnais' classic documentary a major force in the formation of the collective memory of the Holocaust.'
– Ilan Asivar, Tel Aviv University, author of Screening the Holocaust: Cinema's Images of the Unimaginable

‘An important and often touching book about how the memory of the Holocaust was focused by a path-breaking film. It is an essential contribution to better understanding of strategies of historical representation in film and the impact of Night and Fog in particular Western societies.’
– Peter Romijn, Netherlands Institute for War Documentation

'A tremendous contribution to Holocaust memory and the enduring mystery and paradox of how an atrocity can become the subject of both testimony and art. Uncovering the Holocaust brings new, much deserved light to the cinematic Big Bang that was Night and Fog.'
– Thane Rosenbaum, author of The Golems of Gotham, Second Hand Smoke and Elijah Visible

‘This is a strong, historically and critically astute, and altogether timely project ... It promises to offer a new dimension to scholarship on the film and a useful slant on the place of the film in debates about memory, forgetting and the Holocaust over the last fifty years.'
– Emma Wilson, Cambridge University, author of Alain Resnais