Films

This helpful media studies resource for teachers helps students learn about the Holocaust through the lens of cinema. It provides a structured approach to film integration by featuring the film categorisations (e.g. Holocaust-centred, tangential) and includes recommendations from Holocaust film expert Professor Rich Brownstein.

​Educators can purchase Brownstein's extensive film analysis, which includes an educational guide and a selection of recommended documentaries, to contextualise difficult historical content, facilitate critical media literacy, and select age-appropriate, historically accurate viewing material for Social Studies, History, and Media Studies curricula.

Professor Rich Brownstein, categorises Holocaust films along two key dimensions (and within each, provides further sub-categorisation based on ethnicity/role and time period):

A.  Holocaust-centred films

Jewish

  • During the Holocaust: Victim

  • After the Holocaust: Survivor

Gentile

  • During the Holocaust: Righteous Gentile

  • After the Holocaust: Perpetrator

B. Tangential Holocaust films

These are not expressly focused on the genocide of European Jews by the  Nazis, but touch on the plight of Jews during World War II.

During the Holocaust (key themes) / After the Holocaust (key themes)

Jewish

Victim (During the Holocaust)

  • Death, concentration and transit camps, ghettos, occupied cities, various types of resistance

  • Ending: usually death

Survivor (After the Holocaust)

  • Exaggerates historical pathology of survivors and their children. Never 'normal', almost always haunted and dysfunctional

  • Almost never: seeks retribution or revenge

  • Ending: usually sad and with no death

Gentile

Righteous Gentile (During the Holocaust)

  • Three sub-groups: civilian, church, Nazi

  • Usually overstates the helpfulness of gentiles

  • Ending: usually happy with lives saved

Perpetrator (After the Holocaust)

  • Almost always: hiding, haunted, skillful

  • Almost never: remorseful, contrite, succeeds

  • Usually identified by a distraught survivor

  • Ending: almost always killed, never by people associated with the Holocaust

  • Tells the vital stories of Jewish people who settled in New Zealand and celebrates their enduring contributions to wider society.


    Go to Jewish Lives

  • Acts as the representative body for regional Jewish communities and congregations spanning from Auckland to Dunedin.

    Go to NZJC

  • Preserves and protects historical records, documents, and community histories tracking the legacy of Jewish life across New Zealand.


    Go to NZ Jewish Archives

Australian websites

  • Maintains a supportive network for Holocaust survivors and their descendants, while actively preserving their testimonies for future generations. You can read testimonies and watch videos of Holocaust survivors.

    Go to AAJHSD

  • Dedicated to commemorating the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, offering a vital digital repository of survivor testimonies and historical records through its Eyewitness Project.


    Go to MHM

  • Provides world-class Holocaust education, documents regional survivor narratives, and challenges visitors to confront contemporary human rights issues. The Centre holds over 2,500 testimonies from Holocaust survivors interviewed in Australia.

    Go to SJM

  • Combats antisemitism, racism, and defamation of Jewish people, while actively promoting cross-cultural respect and religious understanding across the Australian community.


    Go to The ADC

  • Delivers targeted educational programmes across Australasia that empower individuals to take a stand against bullying, racism, and discrimination. Inspired by the stories of rescue and courage displayed by non-Jews who saved or helped Jews during the Holocaust.


    Go to CtoC

  • Drives local educational initiatives and creates resource frameworks designed to counter antisemitism and intolerance.

    Go to HIWA

  • Conducts academic research and develops educational materials focused on the structural breakdown of democratic societies.


    Go to AIHGS

  • Combats modern digital extremism, cyber-racism, and online antisemitism through rigorous tracking, tech advocacy, and public reporting.


    GO to OHPI

International websites

  • Yad Vashem is Israel’s official Holocaust remembrance authority and the largest memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. Serves as the global pioneer in Holocaust education, research, documentation, and the commemoration of the Righteous Among the Nations.

    Go to Yad Vashem

  • The first Holocaust Museum in the world - and the first of its kind founded by Holocaust survivors.  Since its establishment in 1949, the Museum has focused on the story of the Holocaust during World War II, emphasising the bravery, spiritual triumph and ability of Holocaust survivors (and resistance fighters) to rebuild their lives in a new country.


    Go to GFHM

  • Secures material compensation, property restitution, and vital social welfare funding for Holocaust survivors across the globe.


    Go to Claims Conference

  • Unites governments and experts worldwide to strengthen, advance, and promote global Holocaust education, remembrance, and research.


    Go to IHRA

  • Organises transformative educational journeys from all over the world to Poland and Israel, bridging historical sites of destruction with the resilience of modern life. A walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau as a tribute to victims of the Holocaust, takes place every Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day).


    Go to MOTL

  • Displays a comprehensive, thousand-year narrative of Polish Jewish life, culture, and ultimate post-war renewal.  Includes a life-size recreation of a street from the Warsaw Ghetto.


    Go to POLIN

  • Global human rights organisation which applies the lessons of the Holocaust to actively confront contemporary antisemitism, hate speech, and human rights violations.


    Go to Wiesenthal Center

  • Promotes global Holocaust remembrance and education while mobilising international support to counter Holocaust denial and prevent future genocides worldwide.


    Go to UN Holocaust Prgm

  • Maintains a dedicated free digital archive of essays, architectural breakdowns, and primary scientific data specifically structured to refute Holocaust denial.


    Go to Holocaust History

  • Secures the permanence of Holocaust memory through vast archival collections, interactive exhibitions, and global genocide prevention efforts. Very teacher and student-friendly, with good summaries and lesson ideas.


    Go to USHMM

  • Houses the world's most expansive video archive of survivor and witness testimonies, bringing historical voices directly into modern classrooms.


    Go to USC Shoah

  • Education arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center , the MOT engages visitors with immersive, hands-on exhibits that challenge personal biases and explore the dynamics of racism in daily life.


    Go to MOT

  • Fosters intercultural relations and counters Holocaust denial by translating educational texts and promoting human rights across the Muslim world.


    Go to Aladin

  • Preserves 20th-century Jewish memory through a vast, web-based database of 1,200 survivor interviews and 22,000 family photographs used to create international traveling educational exhibitions.


    Go to Centropa

  • Preserves, studies, and celebrates the rich history, language, and vibrant pre-war culture of Eastern European Jewry.


    Go to Yivo