Memory and Translation in Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah

This collection represents a decade-long collaboration among an interdisciplinary group of scholars engaging with issues at the intersection of memory and translation in Claude Lanzmann’s foundational film Shoah.The Polish-language testimonies of Holocaust witnesses recorded by Lanzmann have circulated only in mediated form, with live interpretation into French and subtitling shaped by technical constraints. The book provides a full transcript of the Polish testimonies alongside their English translations and explanatory notes that offer readers an enhanced understanding of the film’s testimonial content. Supported by extensive critical commentary, the volume explores translation in the context of memory as a cultural and ethical practice. The chapters consider memory work among the group of non-Jewish witnesses as well as aspects of the translation processes involved in the creation and transmission of testimony. By examining both the film’s original production and contemporary scholarly commentaries, the book engages with key questions concerning the politics of multilingual memory, the translation of trauma, and the complexities of rendering testimony across linguistic, cultural, class, and national boundaries.Expanding scholarship on Shoah and underscoring the value of linguistic and cultural engagement in historical research, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars in translation studies, memory studies, Holocaust studies, and film studies.