Language:
English
Year of publication:
2012
Titel der Quelle:
Leo Baeck Institute Year Book
Angaben zur Quelle:
57 (2012) 295-312
Keywords:
Thalberg, Beate.
;
Monheim, Gert; Röttger, Stefan.
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in motion pictures
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jewish property
;
Motion pictures
;
Jews in motion pictures
;
Motion pictures
Abstract:
"Die Akte Joel" is a documentary film produced in 2001 for Austrian television, directed by Beate Thalberg. "Mariannes Heimkehr" is a documentary produced in Germany in 2003, written and directed by Gert Monheim and Stefan Röttger. Both films deal with Nazi Aryanization and attempts at postwar restitution of Jewish property. "Die Akte Joel" tells the story of Karl Amson Joel, who founded a successful business in Nuremberg, and of Josef Neckermann, who bought this business in 1938 for a reduced price following Aryanization. The heroine of "Mariannes Heimkehr", the only survivor of the Winter family, tries to reclaim her family's property that had been appropriated or simply stolen by neighbors and by the Nazi state in 1941, when the Winters were deported. Focuses on the film presentation of objects that were taken from their Jewish owners. Notes that the films refrain from presenting original objects, and at best, in "Mariannes Heimkehr", their substitutes are shown. They also do not focus on nostalgic memories, as Verhoeven's documentary "Menschliches Versagen" (2008) and some other films did, but rather emphasize the structural and institutional process of Aryanization and restitution; thus, the objects are not auratically charged in the films. Criticizes some shortcomings of both documentaries: the conciliatory ending of the first film and the failure of the authors of the second one to empathize fully with Marianne Winter, a victim of Aryanization and of the antisemitic backlash to her postwar attempts at reclaiming her property.
DOI:
10.1093/leobaeck/ybs014
URL:
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