Contesting Silences: Traces of the Holocaust and Vergangenheitsbewältigung in West German Cinema, 1949-1969

Heimatfilm played an important role in reconstructing a new identity for citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany, however, representations of the Jewish experience were non-existent. This research interrogates the alleged silences around the Holocaust in West German cinema through the fifties and sixties, by analysing films that have been previously overlooked or disregarded as ‘Holocaust films,’ and in doing so, challenge preconceived ideas about what Vergangenheitsbewältigung means.