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“I realised that the first Holocaust pictures I saw, as one who grew up here [in Israel], were of naked women.” - filmmaker Ari Libsker
Pocketbooks called ‘Stalags' - lurid novelettes of leather-clad SS women abusing prison camp detainees - were one of the few forms of pornography available in the ultra-conservative Israel of the 1960s. Originally believed to be translated from English, these works were actually created by Israelis who, in the aftermath of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, found themselves accused of producing anti-Semitic pornography.
Ari Libsker's documentary is the first time any of these authors and publishers have spoken on screen about the controversy surrounding their work. Though publication of Stalags ceased decades ago, Libsker posits that the combination of the Holocaust and pornography in canonic Holocaust literature remains widespread in Israel even today.
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D/S Ari Libsker P Barak Heymann, Ari Libsker WS Cinephil L Hebrew w/English subtitles TD betaSP/2007/62mins