Holocaust Denial

[Rev. Rye]

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) were the only two films up until the 1970s to even hint at the Holocaust. Perhaps because at that point it was just an awful current event that all knew of but no one wanted depicted.

There were some others. The Pawnbroker was an excellent film.

As I mentioned before, there were quite a few films dealing with the Holocaust before the 1970s. And there were even more films dealing with the Holocaust as a crucial plot point coming out of Hollywood than those two. Do I really have to show that re-upload of The Stranger, which dealt with the camps, and showed footage shot during the liberation and filmed the whole movie while the bodies were barely cold?






And, of course, even a couple other Hollywood films pre-1970 made reference to it, even in passing, like The Caine Mutiny, where, amidst his Reason You Suck Speech to the main cast, Jose Ferrer briefly mentions that the Nazis made (or were making, since it was set during the war) Jews into bars of soap (which actually happened, but on a much smaller scale than previously supposed):






And then there's also a scene in Cast a Giant Shadow where Kirk Douglas helps to liberate Dachau. And, naturally, the reason there weren't more was, as CD AND I have said, the subject matter was just too disturbing.

Also, Rommel was forced to kill himself because he was implicated in the July 20 plot to kill Hitler in 1944. It was a choice between dying an honorable death and being disgraced in the eyes of the German people, partly due to his popularity and partly because of his VERY complicated relationship with Hitler. Whether or not he was actually involved (or even knew about it) is really up in the air, but it seems he was a bit less enamored of Hitler and his policies than many others in the Wehrmacht. And thanks to this, he is one of the only famous figures of the Nazi era who still commands a degree of respect in Germany.