Revisiting the Vel d’Hiv Roundup through the Camera Lens

Abstract

The visual void surrounding the 1942 Vel d’Hiv roundup has become an obsession in France rather than a point of departure for reflection on narrative and visual silence in the face of the Holocaust. This study highlights the shifting paradigms around which French television has constructed narratives about the Vel d’Hiv roundup. Whereas scholars have analyzed the politics behind its commemorations in the context of broader debates on national identity and anti-Semitism, this article rethinks this event in terms of postwar televised mythologies, de/constructions, representations and national discourses.