Abstract
This chapter highlights an important diversification process set in place by European Holocaust cinema between the 1970s and the late 1990s. The films released during this time frame foreground taboo issues such as rape and sexual violence on women, or invisible categories of victims marked by their non-Jewish “otherness”. However, the most emblematic change in Holocaust films released during this period is the depiction of women as figures in crisis, depressed and suicidal—thus acknowledging the limitations and fragility of those women who succumbed to despair or selfishness. Reversing the prototype of the “beautiful soul”, these alternative portrayals reflect the complexity of women’s experiences, while breaking with the Holocaust canon that favours narratives which tend to conform to patterns of expected gendered behaviours.
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Lewis, I. (2017). Newcomers to Holocaust Cinema: Women in Crisis, Second Generation, Sexual Abuse and Other Victims of Persecution. In: Women in European Holocaust Films. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65061-6_11
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