Antisemitism In Film Comedy In Nazi Germany

Download or read book Antisemitism in Film Comedy in Nazi Germany written by Valerie Weinstein and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today many Germans remain nostalgic about "classic" film comedies created during the 1930s, viewing them as a part of the Nazi era that was not tainted with antisemitism. In Antisemitism in Film Comedy in Nazi Germany, Valerie Weinstein scrutinizes these comic productions and demonstrates that film comedy, despite its innocent appearance, was a critical component in the effort to separate "Jews" from "Germans" physically, economically, and artistically. Weinstein highlights how the German propaganda ministry used directives, pre- and post-production censorship, financial incentives, and influence over film critics and their judgments to replace Jewish "wit" with a slower, simpler, and more direct German "humor" that affirmed values that the Nazis associated with the Aryan race. Through contextualized analyses of historical documents and individual films, Weinstein reveals how humor, coded hints and traces, absences, and substitutes in Third Reich film comedy helped spectators imagine an abstract "Jewishness" and a "German" identity and community free from the former. As resurgent populist nationalism and overt racism continue to grow around the world today, Weinstein's study helps us rethink racism and prejudice in popular culture and reconceptualize the relationships between film humor, national identity, and race.

Download or read book Rethinking Jewishness in Weimar Cinema written by Barbara Hales and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2020-11-01 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The burgeoning film industry in the Weimar Republic was, among other things, a major site of German-Jewish experience, one that provided a sphere for Jewish “outsiders” to shape mainstream culture. The chapters collected in this volume deploy new historical, theoretical, and methodological approaches to understanding the significant involvement of German Jews in Weimar cinema. Reflecting upon different conceptions of Jewishness – as religion, ethnicity, social role, cultural code, or text – these studies offer a wide-ranging exploration of an often overlooked aspect of German film history.

Download or read book Antisemitism in Film Comedy in Nazi Germany written by Valerie Weinstein and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How party propagandists worked behind the scenes to create unspoken racist messages in the German culture—even in the most lighthearted of movies. Today many Germans look back fondly on 1930s film comedies, viewing them as a part of the Nazi era that was not tainted with antisemitism. Here, Valerie Weinstein scrutinizes these comic productions and demonstrates that film comedy, despite its innocent appearance, was a critical component in the effort to separate “Jews” from “Germans” physically, economically, and artistically. Weinstein highlights how the German propaganda ministry used directives, pre- and post-production censorship, financial incentives, and influence over film critics and their judgments to replace Jewish “wit” with a slower, simpler, and more direct German “humor” that affirmed values that the Nazis associated with the Aryan race. Through contextualized analyses of historical documents and individual films, Weinstein reveals how humor, coded hints and traces, absences, and substitutes in Third Reich film comedy helped spectators imagine an abstract “Jewishness” and a “German” identity and community free from the former. As resurgent populist nationalism and overt racism continue to grow around the world today, Weinstein’s study helps us rethink racism and prejudice in popular culture and reconceptualize the relationships between film, humor, national identity, and race.

Download or read book Continuity and Crisis in German Cinema, 1928-1936 written by Barbara Hales and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2016 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New essays examining the differences and commonalities between late Weimar-era and early Nazi-era German cinema against a backdrop of the crises of that time.

Download or read book Nazi Films in America, 1933-1942 written by Harry Waldman and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-08-05 with total page 748 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From 1933 until America's entry into World War II in 1941, nearly 500 Nazi films were shown in American theaters, accounting for nearly half of all foreign language film imports during the period. These poorly disguised propaganda films were produced by Germany's top studios and featured prominent pro-German and Nazi actors, directors and technicians. The films were replete with overt and covert anti-Jewish imagery and themes, but in spite of this obvious intent to use the medium to justify Nazi ascendancy, viewers and film critics from such prominent publications as the New York Times, Variety, the Washington Post and the Chicago Times consistently overlooked the films' anti-Semitic message, dubbing them harmless entertainment. This is the complete history of German films shown in America from the founding of the Nazi government to America's involvement in the war. Summaries, descriptions and discussions of these almost 500 films serve to examine the major filmmakers and distributors who kept the German film industry alive during the rule of Hitler and the Third Reich. Special emphasis is placed on films directly commissioned by Joseph Goebbels, head of the German Ministry for the Enlightenment of the People and Propaganda and the man directly responsible for ensuring that the anti-Semitic ideology of the new regime was reflected in all films produced after January 30, 1933. Rarely seen photographs and illustrations complete an in-depth study of the Nazi use of this global medium.

Download or read book East German Film and the Holocaust written by Elizabeth Ward and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2021-04-01 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: East Germany’s ruling party never officially acknowledged responsibility for the crimes committed in Germany’s name during the Third Reich. Instead, it cast communists as both victims of and victors over National Socialist oppression while marginalizing discussions of Jewish suffering. Yet for the 1977 Academy Awards, the Ministry of Culture submitted Jakob der Lügner – a film focused exclusively on Jewish victimhood that would become the only East German film to ever be officially nominated. By combining close analyses of key films with extensive archival research, this book explores how GDR filmmakers depicted Jews and the Holocaust in a country where memories of Nazi persecution were highly prescribed, tightly controlled and invariably political.

Download or read book Hitler and Film written by Bill Niven and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exposé of Hitler’s relationship with film and his influence on the film industry A presence in Third Reich cinema, Adolf Hitler also personally financed, ordered, and censored films and newsreels and engaged in complex relationships with their stars and directors. Here, Bill Niven offers a powerful argument for reconsidering Hitler’s fascination with film as a means to further the Nazi agenda. In this first English-language work to fully explore Hitler’s influence on and relationship with film in Nazi Germany, the author calls on a broad array of archival sources. Arguing that Hitler was as central to the Nazi film industry as Goebbels, Niven also explores Hitler’s representation in Third Reich cinema, personally and through films focusing on historical figures with whom he was associated, and how Hitler’s vision for the medium went far beyond “straight propaganda.” He aimed to raise documentary film to a powerful art form rivaling architecture in its ability to reach the masses.