La Shoah e l’esperienza dei Lager nei documentari televisivi di Liliana Cavani (1961-1965)

[Autom. eng. transl.] On November 24, 1961, as part of the television program of historical analysis Anni d'Europa, it airs on the Second program - the future RaiDue - a documentary entitled Hitler in power, directed by a young director of great perspectives: Liliana Cavani. Thus begins the television series Storia del Terzo Reich, a documentary divided into four parts for a total duration of almost four hours that reconstructs the events that led to the National Socialist domination of Europe. It is the first time that, in the brief history of Italian television, the subject of the Holocaust has been dealt with critically and, above all, that the original images of the Nazi camps are shown. The same director will reply a few years later with two other works of notable interest: Il giorno della pace (1965) and La donna nella Resistenza (1965). This essay will highlight the specificities in the narration of the Shoah and the experience of the Lager within the three documentaries mentioned that, in a television context of general rhetoric and guilty silences, represent a case study of considerable interest. As further instruments of reflection, we will use excerpts from a conversation with Liliana Cavani, whose words will be presented in parallel with the analysis of her television products.