Ruth Beckermann's Journey to Czernowitz: Displacement and Postmemory in Die papierene Brücke

Die papierene Brücke (1987, The Paper Bridge) by Ruth Beckermann is a path-breaking documentary that has retained its relevance for twenty-first-century audiences. The second one of the filmmaker's "Vienna films," which were produced over a span of eighteen years, Die papierene Brücke examines post-Shoah Jewish memory in a unique, subjective representational mode. This article explores themes and strategies employed by Beckermann to communicate traumatic memory, displacement, and postmemory. Striking images, interviews, and an intimate, distinctly Viennese voiceover conjure up impressions of pre-Shoah Jewish life and reveal cultural and personal links between Beckermann's native Vienna and her father's city of origin, Czernowitz.