Language:
English
Year of publication:
1987
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
2,1 (1987) 149-160
Keywords:
Frank, Anne,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Personal narratives
;
Motion pictures
;
Jews in motion pictures
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
Abstract:
During the 1950s, "The Diary of Anne Frank", produced as a play and a film, was one of the few American dramatic attempts to deal with the Holocaust. The adaptation of the work by Lillian Hellman removed its specifically Jewish context and universalized it. The tense atmosphere of the McCarthy hearings and the involvement of Jews in civil rights activities led to increased fear of antisemitism (which was, in fact, declining). Meyer Levin, who was prevented from producing a more "Jewish" version of the diary, charged that Hellman and other "Stalinist" intellectuals deliberately removed elements, such as Anne's comments on the reasons for antisemitism, from the play. It is more probable that the changes were made in order to ensure that non-Jewish audiences identified with the characters, obscuring the fact that the Jews were persecuted because they were Jews.
Note:
On universalization of the Holocaust in the play and in the film.
,
Appeared also in "Anne Frank; Reflections on Her Life and Legacy" (2000).
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
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