Hanja Dämon

Research Fellow (04/2025 – 08/2025)

Early Holocaust Feature Films in Austrian Cinemas in the Post-war Period. Film Policy, Screening Framework and Reception

The project examines how the first Holocaust-themed feature films were received in Austria. Where and in which contexts were they shown, and how did cinema owners, politicians and the contemporary press react to them? A central case study is The Last Stage (OT: Ostatni etap) about the Auschwitz extermination camp by the Polish director and Auschwitz survivor Wanda Jakubowska. It was shown in 1948 in Salzburg as part of a festival and later also in Vienna. Reactions to Allied documentary films about concentration and extermination camps have already received attention. In this project the focus will be on discussions on early post-war feature films dealing with this topic.

Hanja Dämon obtained her PhD from King’s College London. Her research on film policies in post-war Germany was funded by the European Research Council-sponsored project “Beyond Enemy Lines. Literature and Film in the British and US Zones of Occupation”. Recent publications include a contribution to the Yearbook of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies (2023) focusing on music and exile.

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