“SHOAH”: film (dir. Claude Lanzmann, 1985) (online link to film accessible here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXweT1BgQMk
Deadline: November 23
Step 1: Watch the designated segment from Claude Landzman’s 1985 documentary “Shoah.” Watch it again.
Then watch it again. (The entire documentary is over 9 hours long! But you only need to watch a small portion
of this)
Step 2: In essay form, analyze the segment and evaluate the way it (1) recounts events associated with the
Holocaust and World War II (2) implicates racial/ethnic and economic policies of Nazi Europe and how the
individuals interviewed experienced those policies (as spectators? As participants? As a witnesses? And reflect
upon (3) how the policies of Nazi Europe specifically impacted individuals such as these.
Consider the following questions:

  1. Who was interviewed in the segment(s) you watched and what do their testimonies contribute to the study of
    the period?
  2. What are the methods the director uses to reconstruct the history of the period?
  3. How, if at all, has this text changed your understanding of the Holocaust (Shoah), if at all?
  4. What is the importance of this documentary film as tool for learning?
  5. Why is important that we encounter the testimony of a person, such as this one, who lived through the
    period?
  6. How does this film and its subject relate to our class “Shaping of the Modern World?
  7. What can we learn about other cultures and histories from this text?

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