MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO SEMINAR SERIES, THE: 2001 TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL: HITLER'S HOLOCAUST {LONG VERSION}
Summary
One in a series of seminars presented in New York by The Paley Center for Media (known at the time as The Museum of Television & Radio) as part of its PALEYDOCFEST 2001 Television Documentary Festival. This seminar examines two episodes of the six-part miniseries "Hitler's Holocaust," a documentary on the Holocaust featuring never-before-seen footage, some of which was secretly shot by those in concentration camps.
Host Ron Simon (television curator, The Paley Center for Media) offers opening remarks before bringing executive producer Guido Knopp to the stage. Knopp introduces the production's first episode, "Invasion," which is screened in its entirety.
After the screening, Simon moderates the following panelists: producer/director/writer Maurice Philip Remy; New York University Holocaust studies professor David Engel; History Channel executive producer Beth Dietrich; and Holocaust survivor and film subject Samuel Pisar.
The panelists touch on such topics as: the process of assembling more than 200 minutes of Holocaust footage which had never been made public; how new information for Holocaust research became available through Eastern European archive openings in Moscow and Poland; why Joseph Goebbels's diaries and Heinrich Himmler's daily records proved invaluable to the project; the reaction from Germans when the miniseries aired there; producers' surprise when the show became a "national phenomenon" to German youths; how the History Channel became involved in the project's American airing; ways that the program's structure follows the trend of current Holocaust studies; what led to the show's portrayal of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union as the turning point in Hitler's strategy to annihilate the Jews; and Pisar's difficulty in watching the completed production.
Questions from the audience then lead to a discussion of the following topics among others: whether the series addresses the plight of Gypsies, gays, Jehovah's Witnesses, and the mentally retarded; if "too much information" on the Holocaust dilutes the production's power and overwhelms viewers; the ethics of providing anonymity for some interviewees to avoid their prosecution as war criminals; the filmmakers' response to listening to stories about atrocities; the difficult process of tracking down witnesses; if outtakes of the miniseries will be released; differences between the American and German versions of the miniseries; if contemporary Germans are dealing with their past in a healthier manner than contemporary Austrians; and whether the production gives a spotlight to the Nazis' "dangerous viewpoints."
Following the discussion, the third episode of the series, "Ghetto," is screened in its entirety.
(The "Invasion and "Ghetto" episodes of "Hitler's Holocaust" are not included on this tape but are part of the Museum's collection and available for separate viewing. See T:64337 and T:64338, respectively for summaries.)
Details
- NETWORK: Paley
- DATE: May 17, 2001 6:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 2:22:09
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 109105
- GENRE: Seminars
- SUBJECT HEADING: N/A
- SERIES RUN: N/A
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Ron Simon … Host, Moderator
- Beth Dietrich … Panelist
- David Engel … Panelist
- Samuel Pisar … Panelist
- Maurice Philip Remy … Panelist
- Guido Knopp … Guest
- Joseph Goebbels
- Heinrich Himmler
- Adolf Hitler