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The Institute for Cultural Studies of the Humboldt University of Berlin will present the film programme “Whichever Stone You Lift...” – Filmic Remembrance of the Holocaust from 18 November - 5 December. 28 fiction films, documentaries and short films from numerous countries offer a wide as well as eclectic examination of filmic interpretations of the Holocaust. An international symposium will complete the film programme from 3 - 5 December.

Paul Celan’s poem “Welchen der Steine du hebst” (Whichever Stone You Lift, 1955), which lends its title to the film programme, indicates the difficulties of approaching the idea of the Holocaust. “Lifting stones” does not only imply the baring of “billions of memories” (Nelly Sachs) but also the removal of layers essential to those in need of protection, as Celan writes. Thus, when dealing both artistically and academically with the Holocaust, boundaries are quickly reached – boundaries of empathy, understanding, presentation and taste. In spite of this, filmmakers from around the world have tried to address this topic for over 60 years in very different ways. Not only do they contribute to the way we approach and understand our past or form our collective memory, they also influence the way in which the wider audience thinks about and imagines historical events. The truth of this is even more pervasive in an age where the stories of the disappearing generation of survivors are mainly conveyed by media such as literature and film.

Unlike mainstream productions about the Holocaust, most of the selected films assume a critical stance to the iconographic paradigms (e.g. barbed wire fences, railway cars, prison clothes) as well as raising the question of the limits and possibilities of remembrance and memory. A central aim of the organizers is to show how the way films portray the mass murders committed by the National Socialists has changed over the course of the centuries, for example in relation to the perspective of either victims or perpetrators. Every film also holds up a mirror, and thus encapsulates the preoccupations of its own time. Ground-breaking and award-winning productions like “Nuit et Brouillard” (1955) by Alain Resnais are just as much part of the programme as experimental approaches – for instance, “Respite” (2007) by Harun Farocki or undeservedly forgotten films such as Thomas Brasch’s “The Passenger – Welcome to Germany” (1988/89). There will be an introduction before every film; some of the filmmakers will also be participating.

The programme closes with an international symposium held between 3 - 5 December at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Among other topics it will examine the “blank spaces” of filmic remembrance, for example the absence of notable productions on the persecution of the Sinti and Roma.