The enormity of the events of the Holocaust raises a number of issues. What words and images can show what happened? Who has the right to tell the stories and what obligation is the storyteller under both to the dead and also to the survivors? What ways can be used to tell the story of these events?

One point to bear in mind is the ways in which films operate. We expect them to tell us a story and to conclude that story, tying up all of the loose threads which have been wound together in the narrative. Films are very good at showing 'what' happened, but often not at 'why' things happened. With such a complex issue as the Holocaust, we do need to know 'why' these things happened. What are the seeds which were sown through anti-semitism which grew into the Holocaust? Why, suddenly in 1942, did the Nazi's attitude change from one of repression to outright industrialised murder? Can film possibly deal with issues such as these whilst 'entertaining' an audience? One critic very sarcastically wrote an imaginary memo to Disney Studios to suggest how they could adapt the idea of "Life is Beautiful" to make a "humorous" film about the struggle for human rights.

Finally, how can any medium come to terms with the very enormity of 6 milion people being killed because of their race?