German Memory and the Holocaust

Narrating the war is common in German film, narrating the Holocaust is far less so. More often than not, major provocations have come from outside Germany—from France, Italy, Israel, and the United States. For this reason, and still today, new films from Germany about the Holocaust, especially those made by Germans, call for attention and examination. This issue analyzes films such as Harun Farocki’s Respite (2007), Jochen Alexander Freydank’s Toyland (2007), Ludin’s Two or Three Things I Know about Him, and Robert Thalheim’s And Along Come Tourists (2007), all of which are German attempts to think German narratives together with those of the victims. The need for such films certainly persists. Without them, only the most convenient and most conventional stories would get told.