The purpose of this thesis is to provide an insight into the Holocaust as a significant motif in film industry. I intend to follow the beginnings of its use in European and American movie productions and simultaneously review the main issues that arose from this phenomena, which are questioning the justification of showing the horrors of the Holocaust for the purposes of popular culture. The theoretical part of this thesis will firstly include the explanation of the two main terms, the Holocaust and representation in the general aspect. Secondly, I am going to provide a more detailed context of questioning the legitimacy of some movie representations of the crimes committed by the Nazi party during the Second World War. The second part of this thesis will be constructed from my analysis of the five films that represent the Holocaust and the largest concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau at the same time. I plan to present the repeating motifs found in each of the movies and going forward, to interpret them and also link them with the bases found in the first part of my thesis. The goal of this thesis is therefore to investigate the ways in which the Holocaust is represented in selected films and compare my findings with the most common types of representing the persecution and exterminations of the people that were deemed unwanted by the Nazis on film. After completing my research I can confirm that the selected films coincide with some of the bases presented in the theoretical part of my thesis. Each of the chosen movies in its own way deals with the horrors of the Holocaust by using and representing the most common motifs, which originate from the historical recordings, proofs and testimonies of the victims.
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