On the Critique of the History of Interpretation and Reception of the Second Theresienstadt Film from the Perspective of Cultural History

In recourse to the still unwritten history of production, reception, interpretation and discourse of the so-called second Terezín film, the history of production and reception are reconstructed and analysed in their historical contexts as a local event of the SS leadership in Prague and the camp command in Terezín. The history of its creation and production is linked to the historical events that occurred mainly in the period of 23.6.1944 (first visit of a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross) and 5.5.1945 (handover of responsibility for the camp to the ICRC). The reports of the delegates (Rossel and Henningsen) as well as the photographs taken by Rossel form – according to the thesis of the essay – the basis for the screenplay and the individual scenes structured episodically in the film. In the production layer of the principals, the film reflects this visitation as a unique documentary. In this work, the screenwriter and director, Kurt Gerron, succeeds in negating this first production layer through specific aesthetic stylistic means and in implementing a diametrically opposed own time and own story in the film. Here, the first scene of the film, in which a concert performance of Mendelson Bartholdy’s Elijah oratorio is shown, is of particular importance.