This volume offers keen insights into how specific films influenced the Americanization of the Holocaust and how the medium per se helped seed that event into the public consciousness.

In addition to an in-depth study on films produced for both theatrical release and TV since 1937 -- including The Great Dictator, Cabaret, Julia, and the miniseries Holocaust -- Doneson provides a sweeping analysis of Schindler's List and the debate over the merit of Steven Spielberg's vision of the Holocaust. She also examines more thoroughly made-for-television movies, such as Escape from Sobibor, Playing for Time, and War and Rememberence. A special chapter on The Diary of Anne Frank discusses the evolution of that singularly European work into a universal symbol.

Paying special attention to the tumultuous 1960s in America, Doneson assesses the effect of the era on Holocaust films made during that time. She also discusses how these films helped integrate the Holocaust into the fabric of American society, transforming it into a metaphor for modern suffering. Finally she explores cinema in relation to the Americanization of the Jewish image -- and of Jewish history itself.