Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust

Hollywood's erratic response to the devastation of the Holocaust is the focus of Daniel Anker's documentary, narrated by Gene Hackman, which brings together a wealth of remarkable film clips and interviews with the filmmakers who tried to address the subject. Anker illustrates how Hollywood virtually ignored the topic until America entered World War II (only Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator dared address anti-Semitic Nazi policies), but the documentary footage of the liberated concentration camps would create a shocked reaction that would long resonate, although it was not until 1958's The Diary of Anne Frank that a Hollywood studio tackled the issue. Imaginary Witness looks at several films and miniseries, singling out The Pawnbroker (1965), TV's Holocaust (1978), and Schindler's List (1993) as important releases in Holocaust cinema history, but curiously downplays the significance of 1961's Judgment at Nuremberg, makes no mention of Orson Welles' 1946 The Stranger (which incorporated footage of the Nazi atrocities into its tale of a war criminal in hiding), and doesn't acknowledge the slew of European films that boldly addressed the subject during the many years Hollywood chose to be silent. But these are minor faults, and Imaginary Witness overall presents a mature and intelligent treatment of a painful subject. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)