Claude Lanzmann's Shoah Project

Undergraduate / Graduate

Claude Lanzmann's Shoah (1985) is a 9 ½ hour film comprised of Holocaust testimonies - by survivors, perpetrators, and bystanders. It represents the streamlining of 150 hours of film footage collected over the course of nearly a decade all over the world. In this class, we will explore the film and the discourses that have grown up around it, such as the nature of Holocaust representation, the ontology of Holocaust testimonies, and the limits of translation in understanding the history of the Holocaust. We will work with the outtakes from the film at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to better understand the narrative Lanzmann constructed not only through what he chose to include in the final cut, but also what he chose to exclude. As we analyze Lanzmann's magnum opus, we will also explore associated films - by Lanzmann and by others - that grew out of Shoah and that shed further light on it. A final "Outtakes" project will give students the opportunity to suggest their own version of the film, with materials from the archive.