Film Documentation of the Destruction of Lidice: Political and Ethical Dimensions of the Use of War Footage
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | The Moving Image |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Mass media, audiovision |
| Keywords | World War II; non-fiction film; documentary film; compilation film |
| Description | Archival film footage from World War II has been used for a countless times as direct evidence or as the basis for historical compilation films or documentary film essays. In this text I deal with the immediate postwar usage of film footage shot by the Nazis in connection with destruction of the Czech village of Lidice after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. On the background of contemporary debates about the role of the documentary after the World War II and the correspondence between filmmakers, ministry officials and the Society for the Reconstruction of Lidice I point out film's involvement in the post-war trials of Nazi criminals (Nuremberg, and with K.H. Frank in Prague) as well as ministry officials effort to use direct documentation of the events in Lidice as a symbol of the Czech suffering in times of Nazi occupation in a compilation film. |
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