Narratives of Judgement: Representations of “Privileged” Jews in Holocaust Documentaries
Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi’s highly influential essay, “The Grey Zone”, explores the taboo issue of “privileged” Jews, those prisoners who were forced to cooperate with their Nazi captors in order to prolong their lives or the lives of their families. Levi argues that moral evaluations of privile...
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Presses universitaires de Rennes
2014-02-01
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| Series: | Revue LISA |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/5652 |
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| author | Adam Brown |
| author_facet | Adam Brown |
| author_sort | Adam Brown |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi’s highly influential essay, “The Grey Zone”, explores the taboo issue of “privileged” Jews, those prisoners who were forced to cooperate with their Nazi captors in order to prolong their lives or the lives of their families. Levi argues that moral evaluations of privileged Jews should be suspended; however, judgements of these liminal figures have permeated representations of victims’ experiences. Taking Levi’s reflections on the “grey zone” as a point of departure, I analyse the ways in which a number of Holocaust documentary narratives construct problematic judgements of privileged Jews; nonetheless, it will be shown that some films engage with the issue in a nuanced manner. While Levi singles out the medium of film as particularly predisposed to simplistic judgements, I argue that documentary film has considerable potential to offer a complex representation of the extreme ethical dilemmas that privileged Jews faced. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-b382ae5f503c4287b34a8e67a98fa5d2 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1762-6153 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2014-02-01 |
| publisher | Presses universitaires de Rennes |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Revue LISA |
| spelling | doaj-art-b382ae5f503c4287b34a8e67a98fa5d22025-01-06T09:02:42ZengPresses universitaires de RennesRevue LISA1762-61532014-02-0112110.4000/lisa.5652Narratives of Judgement: Representations of “Privileged” Jews in Holocaust DocumentariesAdam BrownAuschwitz survivor Primo Levi’s highly influential essay, “The Grey Zone”, explores the taboo issue of “privileged” Jews, those prisoners who were forced to cooperate with their Nazi captors in order to prolong their lives or the lives of their families. Levi argues that moral evaluations of privileged Jews should be suspended; however, judgements of these liminal figures have permeated representations of victims’ experiences. Taking Levi’s reflections on the “grey zone” as a point of departure, I analyse the ways in which a number of Holocaust documentary narratives construct problematic judgements of privileged Jews; nonetheless, it will be shown that some films engage with the issue in a nuanced manner. While Levi singles out the medium of film as particularly predisposed to simplistic judgements, I argue that documentary film has considerable potential to offer a complex representation of the extreme ethical dilemmas that privileged Jews faced.https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/5652Holocaustdocumentarygrey zonemoral judgementLevi Primoprivileged Jews |
| spellingShingle | Adam Brown Narratives of Judgement: Representations of “Privileged” Jews in Holocaust Documentaries Revue LISA Holocaust documentary grey zone moral judgement Levi Primo privileged Jews |
| title | Narratives of Judgement: Representations of “Privileged” Jews in Holocaust Documentaries |
| title_full | Narratives of Judgement: Representations of “Privileged” Jews in Holocaust Documentaries |
| title_fullStr | Narratives of Judgement: Representations of “Privileged” Jews in Holocaust Documentaries |
| title_full_unstemmed | Narratives of Judgement: Representations of “Privileged” Jews in Holocaust Documentaries |
| title_short | Narratives of Judgement: Representations of “Privileged” Jews in Holocaust Documentaries |
| title_sort | narratives of judgement representations of privileged jews in holocaust documentaries |
| topic | Holocaust documentary grey zone moral judgement Levi Primo privileged Jews |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/lisa/5652 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT adambrown narrativesofjudgementrepresentationsofprivilegedjewsinholocaustdocumentaries |