Nuit et brouillard is primarily a film about the memory of the Holocaust than about the Holocaust itself

During World War II, France woefully surrendered itself to the Nazi Regime. This new government, led by Henri-Philippe Pétain, was soon to implement Hitler’s anti-Semitic laws and, consequently, France became involved in an event recognised worldwide as the ‘systematic mass murder of European Jewry by the Nazis’ – the Holocaust. Following the end of the war, Charles de Gaulle hastily recovered France’s collective identity and repressed the reality of the nation’s collaboration out of shame. The result? A ‘crisis of consciousness’, in which French society was incapable of facing its shared responsibility. Resnais’s documentary, Nuit et brouillard, offered an even plane, where France was able to recover its memory of the Holocaust. In the forthcoming discussion, there will be detailed consideration as to whether the memory of said genocide is the fundamental theme of Nuit et brouillard, with close reference to the film’s imagery, text, and musical composition.

Shot in 1955, ten years following the camp’s liberation, Resnais’s film begins with post-war colour images of Auschwitz, capturing what remains of the barren land. As the camera progressively moves through the barbed wire fence, the present day moment is established and one sees ‘une drôle d’herbe’ surrounding the edges. The inclusion of overgrown flora can be argued as a metaphor for the surface and deep memories of the Holocaust; the camps are undoubtedly overrun with victims’ remembrances of the actual events, which took place. Pastoral pictures of Auschwitz in present day are then powerfully juxtaposed with genuine black-and-white footage of the camp during its days in action. This juxtaposition clarifies the effects time has on human memory. At present day, Auschwitz is seen against a pleasant