Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust

The 2004 documentary film "Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust," explains a lot about why the United States was so reluctant to enter World War II. The disturbing fact is that anti-Semitism, isolationism , and fascist leanings were so strong in America that Hollywood producers and directors were reluctant to make anti-Nazi films because they would be branded un-American. Even one of Hollywood's strongest warnings against the evils of Hitler, "Mortal Storm" starring big box office draws James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan, managed to tackle anti-Semitism without ever using the word "Jew." Nevertheless, Germany banned all MGM films after its release.

According to this film, pre-World War II Hollywood avoided confronting Nazism in part because of powerful forces in Congress and in business (Joseph P. Kennedy among them) who touted isolationism as the best tactic for America. It really was not until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and truly created a "World War" that the United States was compelled to enter. It is also interesting to noted that the most effective anti-Hitler film of the pre-war years was Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator," a film made possible only because of Chaplin's great wealth and personal determination. Chaplin was chided by many for the film and branded a typical Hollywood Jew, even though he was not Jewish!

At one point, one of the film's commentators says of the Holocaust, "We had information and we had information early; we did not act on that information." We know now that Polish gentile Jan Karski was one of those who risked their lives to bring that information to the West. His sacrifices were futile in the face of a stubborn refusal of many Americans to believe or to care. In many ways, "Imaginary Witness" is almost as guilty of omitting mention of Poland and Polish resistance as Hollywood was in its omissions. Nevertheless, this is an eye-opening documentary, containing testimony from many who lived through the war. I found the pre-war sections more enlightening than the post-war segments simply because I saw the post-war era firsthand. The documentary also gave me a list of films to see, some of which I never knew existed. Among them, "Heroes for Sale" (1937), "Black Legion" (1937), "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" (1939), "I Married a Nazi" (1940), "To Be or Not to Be" (1942), "None Shall Escape" (1944), "Crossfire" (1947), "Gentlemen's Agreement" (1947), "The Search" (1948), "Singing in the Dark" (1956), and "The Pawnbroker" (1964). It will be interesting to see how Poland is represented, if at all, in these movies about the Holocaust.

With this documentary, it was very interesting to see how things gradually changed over the course of history in Hollywood! It was kinda distressing that Hollywood took so long to come around to seeing the Nazi regime for what it truly was, and even though I feel we've come a long way since then, it's still sad to think about! As for the content of this documentary, it's interesting to see the perspective of numerous different scholars and creatives (Steven Spielberg and Sidney Lumet being among them) and how they all approach the way Hollywood has depicted the Holocaust. Overall, it's can be a bit distressing but it nonetheless, to me at least, is a very important film to watch.

A great review of what Hollywood needed to do -and whatnot- to expose Nazi Germany's intentions... It is a well-documented film with great interviews and original footage to prove that cinema can be used for either wrong or right purposes... This one, it is for the right mission: illustrate how coward was US witnessing what Hitler was doing against the Judaism... Nevermore, please! And even though some raw footage is missing when US troops discovered the death camps, the narration accomplished the feelings of those who watched back then... Hopefully Michael Moore sees this documentary to make him to shift their style of film documenting, where serious stuff can be covered straight forward, without all the comic gimmicks he used to abuse them on his films...

An outstanding account of the atrocities that happened in Germany, and Hollywood's dealing with in in light of the makeup of Hollywood, the acceptable mores of the times, the House Un-American witch hunt, and other factors.

It was interesting that television led the way in presenting the Holocaust with a guest on "This is Your Life" being the first instance. After a weak Anne Frank movie, TV returns with Judgement at Nuremberg on "Playhouse 90" in 1959. The fact that one of the sponsors was The American Gas Company muted the effort.

But, Hollywood soon began to get it right. It was after The Holocaust, an 8 hour miniseries was aired and survivors began telling their stories.

How Hollywood handled this tragic part of history is an interesting story and part of a body of knowledge that will help in viewing these films.

This documentary goes over the history of the Holocaust on film from 1940 up through today (2004). What I found most interesting is how they actually started with the presentation of Nazis on film, and not the Holocaust in particular. The point being that aside from "Great Dictator" and "Mortal Storm", many films of the war era were not at all critical of the Nazi regime... in fact, they were almost pleasant.

What I next found interesting was the reluctance to use he word "Jew" in a movie. Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who died in the Holocaust. Yet, apparently, the first film version of Frank's story goes out of the way not to mention why her family is being persecuted because they felt that non-Jews would not be able to identify with the events.

Interestingly, Steven Spielberg says that not many films have been made about the Holocaust. I would say that all depends on how you define "not many". There have been hundreds, starting with a slow trickle (5) in the 1940s and up to dozens a year since the 1970s...