by Elizabeth Ward
In: Documenting Socialism. New Perspectives on East German Documentary Film edited by Seán Allan and Sebastian Heiduschke
Berghahn Books
2023
Jewish persecution was a present theme in DEFA’s documentary films throughout the studio’s existence. In contrast to the presentation of the Holocaust in DEFA’s feature films, however, the presentation of Jewish persecution in East German documentary films was highly politicised through explicit political attacks on the Federal Republic. Nowhere is this more evident than Joachim Hellwig’s Ein Tagebuch für Anne Frank (1958).
Citing the considerable attention drawn by the publication of The Diary of a Young Girl, the subsequent stage adaptation and the upcoming Hollywood film, Hellwig proposed a documentary about Anne Frank which, in contrast to existing screen and stage works, would depict her murder as neither merely ‘regrettable or pitiable’ (Hellwig, undated), but rather would focus on the political causes of, and the individuals behind, her murder. DEFA’s Studio for Newsreels and Documentary Films enthusiastically welcomed Hellwig’s idea, describing it as a ‘very useful’ way to guide the propaganda of the Western countries around Anne Frank in the right direction’ by drawing ‘the only historically true conclusion’ from the material, namely that ‘the murderers of Anne Frank are alive, they hold high offices in West Germany and are preparing new and even greater murderous acts’ (DEFA, 1957).
The first part of this chapter explores the hitherto undiscussed production history of Ein Tagebuch für Anne Frank and the hopes the studio harboured for the film. In so doing, I will reveal the decisions behind the selection and framing of the material, and the ways in which the film was subsequently marketed at home and abroad. The second part of this chapter then focuses in more detail on the images themselves. Production files reveal an unknown detail about the historical footage used in Hellwig’s film: it is unused material taken from Alain Resnais’ seminal Holocaust documentary, Nuit et Brouillard (1956). By analysing the historical footage included in the film, I will thus consider whether the images selected create opportunities for audiences to view the material beyond its tight political framing or whether the film’s instrumentalization of the National Socialist past for the sake of the Cold War present ultimately overwhelms any such alternative viewing experiences.
Elizabeth Ward 