Dissecting studios’ response to Nazis

In tonight’s AMC documentary “Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust,” director Daniel Anker evenhandedly examines the American film and television industry’s response to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Using extended film clips and interviews with filmmakers and scholars, Anker skillfully addresses the question of what, for a community whose raison d’etre is creating entertainment, is the appropriate reaction to such horrific events.

Seven decades of Hollywood productions, extending from 1938’s “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” to 2002’s “The Pianist,” illustrate the complex and often restrained approach the studios have taken in dealing with Hitler and the Holocaust.

Initially the studios were skittish about dealing with the Nazis, because Germany represented a large overseas market for their films. In the 1930s, the studio heads, mostly Jews themselves, capitulated to pressure from the German government to dismiss Jews working for them in Germany. Films like MGM’s “The Mortal Storm” in 1940 used code in attacking fascism in a story explicitly about the Nazis’ rise to power, referring to “non-Aryans” without anyone uttering the word “Jews.”

Despite a 1945 tour of the newly liberated concentration camps by 13 studio moguls at the invitation of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Hollywood was largely silent following the war. Survivors who immigrated to the U.S. were not eager to relive their experiences, and no one was asking to hear their stories.

Only two years after the war, the films “Crossfire” and “Gentleman’s Agreement” addressed anti-Semitism but failed to mention the atrocities in Europe. Feature films eased cautiously into Holocaust narratives. George Stevens’ adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank” ends before the family is sent to the camps.

Interestingly, some of the biggest breakthroughs came on television. A young female survivor was reunited with a brother she had not seen in a decade on the show “This Is Your Life.” A live production of Abby Mann’s courtroom drama, “Judgment at Nuremburg,” aired on television before being made into a film starring Spencer Tracy as an American judge, with what would be a recurring feature of Holocaust stories: non-Jewish characters as the leads. The weekly highlights from the real-life trial of Adolf Eichmann were also broadcast, bringing the emotional testimony from camp survivors into living rooms.

“Imaginary Witness” hits its stride when it begins to address more recent efforts by Hollywood to tell the stories. NBC’s 1978 miniseries “Holocaust” came under fire from some as being in bad taste. Anker cites Elie Wiesel’s response in the New York Times: “It’s not just about bearing witness, but how you bear witness.” The series is referred to as a “soap opera” and disparaged for “commercializing” the atrocities. . Nonetheless, the program’s heavy viewership triggered a surge in dramas and documentaries on the subject.

The documentary builds toward Steven Spielberg’s 1993 drama, “Schindler’s List.” Anker includes the criticism of the film, namely that Oskar Schindler, the story’s hero, was essentially a German Nazi profiteer, with the Jewish survivors as mere supporting players. Spielberg speaks candidly about the artistic choices he made, putting aside color, because it would make the images too beautiful, and not using any crane shot. Neal Gabler, author of “An Empire of Their Own,” a history of Jews in Hollywood, says that “it’s the reticence of a director not known for his reticence that makes it so effective.”

Soon no survivors will remain, and that increases what some see as the responsibility of American filmmakers.

Anker seems to suggest that while it is important “how you bear witness,” it is equally valuable that the stories be told, period. In an environment in which the perceived faults of a film or series can be debated, as with “Holocaust” and “Schindler’s List,” their flaws are outweighed by the fact that they bring the stories to a younger audience.

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‘Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust’

Where: AMC

When: 9 tonight

Ratings: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14).

Gene Hackman...Narrator

Producer and director Daniel

Anker. Producer Ellin Baumel.