Planet Auschwitz
280 pages, 6 x 9
15 b&w images
Paperback
Release Date:15 May 2020
ISBN:9781978801608
Hardcover
Release Date:15 May 2020
ISBN:9781978801615
Planet Auschwitz
Holocaust Representation in Science Fiction and Horror Film and Television
Rutgers University Press
Planet Auschwitz explores the diverse ways in which the Holocaust influences and shapes science fiction and horror film and television by focusing on notable contributions from the last fifty years. The supernatural and extraterrestrial are rich and complex spaces with which to examine important Holocaust themes - trauma, guilt, grief, ideological fervor and perversion, industrialized killing, and the dangerous afterlife of Nazism after World War II. Planet Auschwitz explores why the Holocaust continues to set the standard for horror in the modern era and asks if the Holocaust is imaginable here on Earth, at least by those who perpetrated it, why not in a galaxy far, far away? The pervasive use of Holocaust imagery and plotlines in horror and science fiction reflects both our preoccupation with its enduring trauma and our persistent need to “work through” its many legacies.
Planet Auschwitz website (https://planetauschwitz.com)
Planet Auschwitz website (https://planetauschwitz.com)
A great text....original in scale and scope.
Compelling and persuasively argued ... shows the extent to which Holocaust ideas and images have crept into popular horror and science fiction film and TV.
In this deeply researched and insightful study, Crim lucidly reveals how the Nazi genocide has left an indelible and often unsettling mark on American popular culture.
The industrialized murder of the Shoah, forever associated with concentration camps during World War II, was coined with the term Planet Auschwitz as another world, but is hardly imaginable for younger generations. Brian E. Crim explains astutely how the ripple effect of the Holocaust resonates in American popular culture, especially in the genres of Science Fiction and Horror. This book studies the imagery that persists in visual media but avoids the normalization of the genocide. It keeps the study of the Holocaust alive to guarantee that the ‘torrent of testimony’ will not perish with the last witnesses.
History professor writes about life on ‘Planet Auschwitz’'
https://www.lynchburg.edu/news/2020/04/history-professor-writes-about-life-on-planet-auschwitz/?fbclid=IwAR38ua3a_14Gehg9cY2D7Xi9JzHCfSyTFaUlARdIVemESFGuIsWId20uFQ0
Planet Auschwitz: Holocaust Representation in Science Fiction and Horror Film and Television' interview with Brian Crim
https://newbooksnetwork.com/brian-crim-planet-auschwitz-holocaust-representation-in-science-fiction-and-horror-film-and-television-rutgers-up-2020/
Crim contributes to the scholarship exploring how the Holocaust has filtered down and across popular culture, leaving its trace in numerous ways. His focus is on how it has influenced and shaped science fiction and horror film and television over the past half-century but particularly over the past 20 years.
Crim offers an engaging interdisciplinary consideration of the Holocaust in horror and science fiction. Across chapters, this book engages with many primary film and television sources [and] supplies an excellent resource for identifying media imprinted by the legacy of the Holocaust.
Crim provides a valuable contribution to Holocaust scholars by having us pay attention to metaphorical representations in works of horror and science fiction.
'Planet Auschwitz ends on a strong note. The book’s deceptively simple premise –reading sf and horror for Holocaust metaphor –reveals its complex layers piece by piece as it goes on, showing how film and television reflect the enduring influence of the Holocaust in the psyche of Western society.'
His research is up-to-date and meticulous, demonstrating his long familiarity with the complexities and vicissitudes of modern German culture.
A great text....original in scale and scope.
Compelling and persuasively argued ... shows the extent to which Holocaust ideas and images have crept into popular horror and science fiction film and TV.
In this deeply researched and insightful study, Crim lucidly reveals how the Nazi genocide has left an indelible and often unsettling mark on American popular culture.
The industrialized murder of the Shoah, forever associated with concentration camps during World War II, was coined with the term Planet Auschwitz as another world, but is hardly imaginable for younger generations. Brian E. Crim explains astutely how the ripple effect of the Holocaust resonates in American popular culture, especially in the genres of Science Fiction and Horror. This book studies the imagery that persists in visual media but avoids the normalization of the genocide. It keeps the study of the Holocaust alive to guarantee that the ‘torrent of testimony’ will not perish with the last witnesses.
History professor writes about life on ‘Planet Auschwitz’'
https://www.lynchburg.edu/news/2020/04/history-professor-writes-about-life-on-planet-auschwitz/?fbclid=IwAR38ua3a_14Gehg9cY2D7Xi9JzHCfSyTFaUlARdIVemESFGuIsWId20uFQ0
Planet Auschwitz: Holocaust Representation in Science Fiction and Horror Film and Television' interview with Brian Crim
https://newbooksnetwork.com/brian-crim-planet-auschwitz-holocaust-representation-in-science-fiction-and-horror-film-and-television-rutgers-up-2020/
Crim contributes to the scholarship exploring how the Holocaust has filtered down and across popular culture, leaving its trace in numerous ways. His focus is on how it has influenced and shaped science fiction and horror film and television over the past half-century but particularly over the past 20 years.
Crim offers an engaging interdisciplinary consideration of the Holocaust in horror and science fiction. Across chapters, this book engages with many primary film and television sources [and] supplies an excellent resource for identifying media imprinted by the legacy of the Holocaust.
Crim provides a valuable contribution to Holocaust scholars by having us pay attention to metaphorical representations in works of horror and science fiction.
'Planet Auschwitz ends on a strong note. The book’s deceptively simple premise –reading sf and horror for Holocaust metaphor –reveals its complex layers piece by piece as it goes on, showing how film and television reflect the enduring influence of the Holocaust in the psyche of Western society.'
His research is up-to-date and meticulous, demonstrating his long familiarity with the complexities and vicissitudes of modern German culture.
Brian E. Crim is professor of history at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia, and author of Our Germans: Project Paperclip and the National Security State and Antisemitism in the German Military Community and the Jewish Response, 1914-1938.
Contents
List of Images
Introduction
1 From Muselmann to “Walker”: Holocaust Imagery in the Zombie Genre
2 Silent Screams: Representing Trauma and Grief in The Pawnbroker and The Leftovers
3 Nazi Monsters and the Return of History
4 The View from Hell: Demons, Antichrists and the Persistence of Evil after the Holocaust
5 “A World That Works”: Astrofascism Across Time and Space
6 “All of this has happened before”: Cyborgs, Humans, and the Question of Genocide
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Index
List of Images
Introduction
1 From Muselmann to “Walker”: Holocaust Imagery in the Zombie Genre
2 Silent Screams: Representing Trauma and Grief in The Pawnbroker and The Leftovers
3 Nazi Monsters and the Return of History
4 The View from Hell: Demons, Antichrists and the Persistence of Evil after the Holocaust
5 “A World That Works”: Astrofascism Across Time and Space
6 “All of this has happened before”: Cyborgs, Humans, and the Question of Genocide
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Index
