Film and television as the media of the social visualisation of the holocaust:: The German first broadcast of the US American television series Holocaust in 1979

The term memory culture (Erinnerungskultur) denotes a process in which the past is consciously envisioned in order to (re-)construct historical occurrences according to current requirements and semantic frames of reference. This case study seeks to interpret the first broadcasting of the US American TV series Holocaust in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1979 as a social event. The study focuses on the motives and intentions of persons involved in adapting the series to the national semantic frame. Working at the West German broadcasting corporation (WDR) and the federal center for political education (Bundeszentrale fur politische Bildung), they regarded the broadcasting of the series as an opportunity for adding weight to the perspective of Jewish Holocaust victims in West German memory culture. This paper seeks to show how the first broadcasting of Holocaust was functionalised according to memory culture by analysing the WDR's adaptation and supporting didactic program as well as the didactic perspective which emerges in press coverage.