Date of Award
2000
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. History Dept.
Advisor(s)
(unknown)
Abstract
When examining the image of the Jew in American Holocaust films, one is truly determining how American Jews view themselves. These films' presentation of Jews exposes not only how Jewish Americans wished to see themselves but also how much Gentile Americans wanted to see of Jewish culture. An exploration of America's Holocaust films from the late 1930s to the early 1990s reveals an increasing concentration of Jews as the main victims of the event. The degree to which this specificity is emphasized exhibits how much the American public accepted Jews and their plight. At the same time, the prevalence of Jewishness in Holocaust films reveals the comfort that American Jews feel in publicly expressing their ethnicity. The manner in which this comfort progresses can be determined by analyzing how these films both present the Jew and define what it means to be Jewish.
Keywords
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) in motion pictures, Jews -- United States -- Identity -- Case studies
Recommended Citation
Daniels, Jeff, "American Holocaust Films: A Case Study in Jewish American Identity (1937-1993)" (2000). Honors Theses. Paper 68.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/68
Copyright
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