The Maimed Body and the Tortured Soul: Holocaust Survivors in American Film

This article explores how changing modalities of cinematic representation generate new forms of Holocaust awareness and response. It contends that the two phases of Holocaust response in America--the first marked by reticence, the second by a wide proliferation of public discourse--can each be associated with distinct strategies of representing survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. The first strategy draws attention to the maimed body of the victim; the second delves into the tortured psyche of the victim. This transformation can be seen by examining the technical innovations of Sidney Lumet's 1965 film, The Pawnbroker, which incorporates flashbacks to represent involuntary memory and to encourage viewer empathy with the survivor figure.