This podcast episode details the many narratives portrayed throughout film and literature during and following the Holocaust. These narratives can influence public opinion which can in turn influence perceptions of events. Film and literature become means of expressing different visions of the past and contribute to shaping collective history. They were both used as political propaganda and means of conveying the truth decades after the war in the case of certain European countries. These European countries’ coming to terms with the past and their reckoning with the complicity of their political officials and population in the atrocities committed during the Second World War was delayed by political forces’ efforts to control collective memory of the war in the name of restoring national unity and countrywide reconciliation. Memories of the past were articulated through fictionalized movies, documentary films, poems, autobiographies and history books.

To download a full transcript, visit humanrightspodcast.sandbox.library.columbia.edu.