New Books in Genocide Studies

Olga Gershenson, “The Phantom Holocaust: Soviet Cinema and Jewish Catastrophe” (Rutgers UP, 2013)


Listen Later

Fifty years of Holocaust screenplays and films -largely unknown, killed by censors, and buried in dusty archives – come to life in Olga Gershenson‘s The Phantom Holocaust: Soviet Cinema and Jewish Catastrophe (Rutgers University Press, 2013). As she ventures across three continents to uncover the stories behind these films, we follow her adventures, eager to learn what happened, why, when – and what comes next. This page-turning exploration begins with the first-ever films made about the Nazi threat to Jewish life in the 1930s – artistically successful movies released to crowded theaters in the USSR, Europe, and the US. The power of film being what it is, some 1930s viewers learned the lesson of Nazi hatred and fled to safety when Germany invaded the USSR in 1941.

Immediately after the war, Soviet filmmakers again broke new ground when in 1945 they portrayed the Holocaust in “The Unvanquished.” The war just over, Soviet censors, Gershenson discovered, had no set policy and hardly knew how Stalin wanted them to respond. But the respected filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein supported the film, a movie featuring Jewish victims filmed on site in Kiev; it became one of the few Soviet movies that identified the Holocaust with Jews. Thereafter, the Holocaust would be a universal problem sans Jews that occurred anywhere but in the USSR.

Among the stories that Gershenson relates, she raises the curtain on “Ordinary Fascism,” a blockbuster when it was released in the USSR in 1966.  The three-hour black-and-white documentary montage, narrated by its famous director Mikhail Romm, apparently drew 20 million Soviets to cinemas before it was withdrawn. Gershenson describes Ordinary Fascism as “a real breakthrough,” “stunning,” and an explosion.” Romm’s irreverent, casual commentary to Nazi newsreels, footage, photos, and art explored the psychology of Nazism – and, viewers recognized, made Soviets reflect on themselves. Why did Soviet censors refuse to permit a book on the subject to be released? Censors explained that a film would be seen once and forgotten. A book, on the other hand, would start people thinking!

As Gershenson explains: “Half of all Holocaust victims…were killed on Soviet soil, mostly in swift machine-gun executions. And yet, watching popular Holocaust movies…the impression is that Holocaust victims were mainly Polish and German Jews killed in concentration camps.”  Her stories explain why Soviet filmmakers almost never shared the Soviet Holocaust experience on the screen.

Gershenson’s book has a partner website. Here you can find video clips of featured films, with subtitles.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in Genocide StudiesBy Marshall Poe

  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3
  • 4.3

4.3

32 ratings


More shows like New Books in Genocide Studies

View all
The Political Scene | The New Yorker by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

3,987 Listeners

More or Less by BBC Radio 4

More or Less

879 Listeners

New Books in Philosophy by New Books Network

New Books in Philosophy

112 Listeners

History Extra podcast by Immediate Media

History Extra podcast

3,192 Listeners

New Books in History by Marshall Poe

New Books in History

212 Listeners

New Books in Military History by Marshall Poe

New Books in Military History

161 Listeners

New Books in Economics by Marshall Poe

New Books in Economics

26 Listeners

New Books in Religion by New Books Network

New Books in Religion

28 Listeners

New Books in Psychoanalysis by Marshall Poe

New Books in Psychoanalysis

186 Listeners

New Books in African American Studies by New Books Network

New Books in African American Studies

163 Listeners

New Books in Environmental Studies by Marshall Poe

New Books in Environmental Studies

23 Listeners

New Books in Native American Studies by Marshall Poe

New Books in Native American Studies

103 Listeners

New Books in Intellectual History by New Books Network

New Books in Intellectual History

60 Listeners

The Dig by Daniel Denvir

The Dig

1,578 Listeners

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs by Secrets & Spies

Secrets and Spies Podcast: Espionage | Global Issues | Current Affairs

268 Listeners

The Atlantic Interview by The Atlantic

The Atlantic Interview

2,126 Listeners

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk by Goalhanger

WW2 Pod: We Have Ways of Making You Talk

1,367 Listeners

Time To Say Goodbye by Time To Say Goodbye

Time To Say Goodbye

412 Listeners

In Moscow's Shadows by Mark Galeotti

In Moscow's Shadows

363 Listeners

For Heaven's Sake by Shalom Hartman Institute

For Heaven's Sake

449 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

14,680 Listeners

Gone Medieval by History Hit

Gone Medieval

1,840 Listeners

On the Nose by Jewish Currents

On the Nose

232 Listeners

School of War by Nebulous Media

School of War

453 Listeners

Past Present Future by David Runciman

Past Present Future

323 Listeners