Early Holocaust cinema: Jews under the sign of the cross

Analyses four early Holocaust films: 'Vernichtungslager Majdanek - Cmentarzysko Europy' (1944), 'Death mills' (1945), 'Osventsim' (1945), and Daleka cesta (1948). Shows that both documentary and fiction films used the Christian cross as symbol of the suffering and death of the Holocaust victims. These films 'de-judaized' the Holocaust victims and their suffering through universal symbols accepted by the gentile society. Thus early Holocaust films ignored a truth that the Jews and the Roma and Sinti peoples suffered a unique fate amongst the countless Nazi victims.