Marginalising the marginal in holocaust films : fictional representations of jewish policeman

This paper explores the issue of how Jewish victims who occupied so-called \u27privileged\u27 positions during the Holocaust are represented in fictional films. Such figures, particularly Jewish policemen in the ghettos, may be seen to inhabit the \u27marginal\u27 in two ways, both in terms of the unprecedented ethical dilemmas they faced, and the relative lack of attention such figures have received. Taking Primo Levi\u27s paradigmatic essay on the \u27grey zone\u27 as a point of departure, this paper analyses how Jewish policemen are represented in mainstream, \u27Hollywood\u27 fictional films, namely Steven Spielberg\u27s Schindler\u27s List, in order to reveal that the narrative concerns of such works preclude any serious engagement with themes of moral ambiguity and \u27compromise\u27. Attention will also be given to a more recent trend in the genre of Holocaust film that directly confronts these issues, nonetheless such films may themselves be viewed as marginalised due to their subject matter