The First Italian Cinematic Representation of the Nazi Extermination Camps and Italian Antisemitism in L’ebreo errante by Goffredo Alessandrini

This thesis examines the first representation of the Holocaust in Italian cinema. L’ebreo errante by Goffredo Alessandrini is, in fact, the first Italian film to address the theme of extermination camps for Jews, and it is also the first film in which the majority of the plot unfolds within a Nazi camp. Significantly, the depiction of this camp, reconstructed for the screen, was shaped by the creative input of a survivor of Mauthausen, Aldo Bizzarri. L’ebreo errante is thus a significant historical document, but also a problematic one, lacking the historical awareness, understanding, and sensitivity that we have come to expect of representations of the Holocaust. I argue that L’ebreo errante demonstrates how media can distort historical interpretation. Alessandrini’s film is significant and deserves analysis because it emerged in a historical context in which Italy was reluctant to confront its complicity in the Holocaust. L’ebreo errante may therefore be understood to have raised Italian awareness about the Nazi genocide, but it did so at a cost. As I show, Alessandrini’s film perpetuates clichéd and even anti-Semitic narratives, illustrating how visual images can shape collective memory and perpetuate partial or problematic interpretations of history. Through a process of remediation, L’ebreo errante mixes a realistic depiction of the Holocaust with cinematic and cultural clichés rooted in popular and genre traditions. The lasting influence of cinema’s iconographic history on Alessandrini’s film, I argue, has continued to influence subsequent representations of the extermination camps and thus to shape our cultural memory of the Holocaust.