Teaching Holocaust Literature and Film to History Students: Teaching The Pawnbroker (1961/1965)

Abstract

In this essay, I explore the ways that I use Holocaust literature and film when teaching history students, through a case study of my classroom use of Edward Lewis Wallant’s 1961 novel, The Pawnbroker, which formed the basis for Sidney Lumet’s 1965 film of the same name. Wallant’s novel and Lumet’s film feature in my teaching of the history of representation of the Holocaust in the post-war world alongside other films—Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah (1985) and Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful (1998)—Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1986 & 1991), Binjamin Wilkomirski’s Fragments (1996), as well as a host of other post-war representations including memorials, museums, fine art, historical texts, and Holocaust trials.