Workshop : Films and Archives of WWII and the Holocaust.

When : Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 8:45am–4:00pm
Where : At the Holocaust Memorial Center
28123 Orchard Lake Rd, Farmington Hills, MI 48334
What: 5 SCECHs
Lunch and materials included at no cost to teachers
$20 SCECH application fee for teachers

 

PROGRAM (PDF)

 

SCHEDULE

8:45am–9:15am > Registration & breakfast
Coffee, tea and breakfast snacks will be provided.

9:15am–9:45am > “Using Historical Film to Teach History”
An introductory lecture by historian and documentary film director Christian Delage.

9:45am–11:15am > “A First in History: Film as Evidence in the Nuremberg Trials”
Christian Delage’s lecture will focus on the double role that film played in the Nuremberg trials. When the Allied forces of World War II formed an international tribunal to prosecute Nazi war crimes, they introduced two major innovations to court procedure. The prosecution projected film footage and newsreels shot by British, Soviet, and American soldiers as they discovered Nazi camps. These images, presented as human testimony and material evidence, were instrumental in naming and prosecuting war crimes. At the same time, the Nuremberg tribunal was filmed so that the memory of “the greatest trial in history” would remain strong in future generations.

11:15am–12:00pm > Lunch Break
Lunch boxes and beverages will be provided.

12:00pm–1:15pm > Guided Learning Experience Using Film as an Exhibit
Led by curator Christian Delage.

1:30pm–3:45pm > “Collecting Archives of the Holocaust: from the CDJC to the Mémorial de la Shoah”
A lecture by Jacques Fredj, who will go in depth with the historical context of Vichy France, as well as introduce the Mémorial de la Shoah’s mission since the creation of the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation CDJC in 1943.

3:45pm–4:00pm > Closing Remarks
A summary of the day and collection of the SCECHs for the Michigan Department of Education.

• Christian Delage is a historian, filmmaker, and curator. He is currently Professor at the University of Paris 8 and the director of the Institute for the History of the Present Time (National Center for Scientific Research). He is also a regular Visiting Professor at the Cardozo Law School (New York City). Since the mid-1990s he has worked on the history of the Holocaust, the filmed record of the liberation of the Nazi camps, and the Nuremberg trials. In 2006, his book “La Vérité par l’image: De Nuremberg au procès Milosevic” was published in France, and in 2007 his documentary “Nuremberg: The Nazis Facing Their Crimes” premiered at Lincoln Center. He also served as a policy advisor on the filming of the Khmer Rouge trials, and produced “Cameras in the Courtroom,” a documentary discussing the issues of filming trials. Delage has shaped the permanent exhibition of the Compiegne’s Internment and Deportation Memorial. His last film, “From Hollywood to Nuremberg: John Ford, Samuel Fuller, George Stevens,” has just won an award from the SCAM (the French Documentary Filmmakers Association). In 2014, Delage published, at Penn Press, “Caught on Camera: Film in the Courtroom from the Nuremberg Trials to the Trials of the Khmer Rouge.” He recently wrote a piece in the collective book, “Getting the Picture: The Visual Culture of the News,” edited by Jason Hill and Vanessa R. Schwartz, published at Bloomsbury in February 2015.

 

• Jacques Fredj holds an advanced degree in History from the University of Paris, France. In 1992, he was appointed as new Director of the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation. He became Executive Director of Mémorial de la Shoah at its inauguration in 2005. Fredj is also responsible for the creation of the Mémorial de la Shoah in Drancy, a new building which was inaugurated in September 2012; he is the curator of the permanent exhibition for this new space, located accross the street from the Cité de la Muette, former internment and deportation camp for the Jews of France. Fredj is the curator of numerous exhibitions and the author of publications in France related to the history of the Holocaust. The prestigious publishing house Gallimard recently published his important study: “History of the Jews of France, From the Middle Ages to the Holocaust.” Fredj also wrote “Drancy, an Internment Camp at the Gates of Paris,” which was published in French and in English by the Edition Privat in 2015.

This workshop is organized in conjunction with the presentation of “Filming the Camps, from Hollywood to Nuremberg: John Ford, Samuel Fuller, George Stevens” at the Holocaust Memorial Center, an exhibition curated by historian and film director Christian Delage, designed, created, and distributed by the Mémorial de la Shoah (Paris, France), and made possible through the generous support of SNCF.

Photo : © Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California, Coll. Christa Fuller