Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries

VHH Conference organized by DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and Justus Liebig University Giessen

Why do we move the Allies’ film images from the archives, make them move on screen, and make them move us?

Film teams of the British, American, and Soviet armies extensively recorded the after­math of Nazi crimes in liberated camps and territories. Since the end of World War II, these scattered records have been used in museum exhibitions and television and cinema documentaries. The fact that this footage was meant to serve as evidence in Nazi crime trials, to inform the Allied public, and to shame and denazify German viewers is not always apparent when images from it are employed as a surrogate for images the perpetrators themselves rarely left behind.

The conference invites film archivists, curators, and filmmakers from Germany, the US, the UK, Israel, France, and Denmark to describe their approaches to employing this histo­rical footage in their work, including filmic means of contextualizing archival footage and combining it with other kinds of sources and the educational and emotional effects of different presentation strategies.

Clips selected by the speakers from their documentaries will be accessible in advance to all conference participants via a Vimeo account. They will not all be shown during the conference in order to maximize the time for discussion.

The conference is jointly hosted by the DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum and the Justus Liebig University Giessen and organized within the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 project “Visual History of the Holocaust. Rethinking Curation in the Digital Age”.

COVID-19 protective measures:

At the conference, the “2G” rule applies: participants need to be fully vaccinated or recently recovered. Rapid antigen tests will be provided for free (and are expected to be used each day before attending). In addition, it is mandatory to wear an FFP2 mask (speakers are exempted while speaking).

Registration:

Attendance is free of charge, but places are limited. For participation, please register by sending an email to: vhh-conference@dff.film

Through registration, participants agree to comply with the conference’s COVID-19 protective measures.

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Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries – Welcome

Monday, 09.05.2022, 09:15

Ellen Harrington: Welcome greetings at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries".

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Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries – Introduction

Monday, 09.05.2022, 09:30

Ulrike Weckel: Introduction to the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries".

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Letter of Serge Viallet

Monday, 09.05.2022, 10:00

Ulrike Koppermann reads a letter of Serge Viallet at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 1: "Using Liberation Footage in Television Documentaries" 1/3).

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Documentary Television in Germany

Monday, 09.05.2022, 10:25

Wulf Kansteiner: Presentation at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 1: "Using Liberation Footage in Television Documentaries" 2/3).

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Die Rastatter Prozesse (SWR, 2021)

Monday, 09.05.2022, 11:20

Judith Voelker and Vanessa Christoffers-Trinks: Presentation at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 1: "Using Liberation Footage in Television Documentaries" 3/3).

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Thirty Years On: Considering Liberation Exhibits at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Monday, 09.05.2022, 14:00

Raye Farr, Leslie Swift and Lindsay Zarwell: Presentation at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 2: "Presenting Liberation Footage in Holocaust Exhibitions" 1/4).

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The Use of Liberation Footage in the Permanent Exhibition of the Holocaust History Museum at Yad Vashem

Monday, 09.05.2022, 14:40

Mimi Ash: Presentation at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 2: "Presenting Liberation Footage in Holocaust Exhibitions" 3/4).

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The Dachau Concentration Camp – Notes on a New Introductory Film

Monday, 09.05.2022, 15:00

Clemens von Wedemeyer and Maya Schweizer: Presentation at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 2: "Presenting Liberation Footage in Holocaust Exhibitions" 4/4).

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Archives in the Age of the Algorithm: New Possibilities (and Old Challenges)

Monday, 09.05.2022, 17:00

Michael Loebenstein: Presentation at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 3: "Archives in the Age of the Algorithm: New Possibilities for the Use of Liberation Footage Through Digital Curation" 1/4).

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IWM Film Collection – Discoverability and Use of Holocaust Footage

Monday, 09.05.2022, 17:30

Fiona Kelly: Presentation at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 3: "Archives in the Age of the Algorithm: New Possibilities for the Use of Liberation Footage Through Digital Curation" 2/4).

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Manual Annotation

Monday, 09.05.2022, 18:00

Fabian Schmidt: Presentation at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 3: "Archives in the Age of the Algorithm: New Possibilities for the Use of Liberation Footage Through Digital Curation" 3/4).

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Automated Film Analysis Pipeline

Monday, 09.05.2022, 18:30

Daniel Helm: Presentation at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 3: "Archives in the Age of the Algorithm: New Possibilities for the Use of Liberation Footage Through Digital Curation" 4/4).

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Love it was not (2020)

Tuesday, 10.05.2022, 09:00

Maya Sarfaty: Presentation at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 4: "Historical Footage in Documentary Films" 1/4).

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Winter Journey (2019)

Tuesday, 10.05.2022, 09:50

Anders Østergaard: Q&A (with Ulrike Weckel) at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 4: "Historical Footage in Documentary Films" 2/4).

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Wer war Hitler (2017)

Tuesday, 10.05.2022, 11:10

Hermann Pölking-Eiken and Linn Sackarnd: Presentation at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries" (Panel 4: "Historical Footage in Documentary Films" 3/4).

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Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries – Final Discussion

Tuesday, 10.05.2022, 14:30

Final Discussion at the conference "Moving Images from the Archives. Historical Footage of Nazi Crimes in Documentaries". With Ulrike Weckel, Gertrud Koch, Cilly Kugelmann, Tanja Cummings, Michael Loebenstein and Wulf Kansteiner.