The man who watched more than 400 Holocaust movies

• Published date: 02 October 2021
• Author: ANDREW LAPIN/JTA
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

As a lecturer on Holocaust film for Yad Vashem's international school, Brownstein has both a personal and professional interest in viewing and cataloguing so many depictions of Jewish suffering.

"Dealing with Holocaust education is akin to dealing with oncology, in that you have to set aside your personal feelings," he says. "You can't be drawn in."

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Now, Brownstein has published "Holocaust Cinema Complete", a comprehensive book-length guide to the ever-expanding cinema of the Shoah. The book, which went on sale in September, contains statistics on the content of the films, essays on their methods, descriptions and capsule reviews and information for educators looking to use Holocaust films in their curriculums. Documentaries are not included, but made-for-TV movies and miniseries under three hours in length are.

Brownstein says he has seen "every film that is available to be seen" (excluding unreleased outliers such as Jerry Lewis' "The Day The Clown Cried"). In the book, he gives his unvarnished opinions on the giants of the genre, including "Schindler's List," "Life is Beautiful" and "Jojo Rabbit" — and fans of those movies may not like what he has to say.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Brownstein hasn't always focused on such dour subject matter. Prior to moving to Israel in 2003, he worked as a producer for Jewish comedy legend David Zucker ("Airplane!") and "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker (Stone is Jewish), even appearing in an uncredited cameo in the trio's 1998 comedy "BASEketball," before founding his own video transcription company. He says he has no familial connection to the Holocaust, and first became interested in the subject after reading Leon Uris' novel "QB VII."

Brownstein spoke to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about his years watching Holocaust reenactments, what qualifies as a "Holocaust movie" in his book and how the public, and educators, should approach the genre. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

JTA: How did you become drawn to catalogue these films?

Brownstein: I started collecting movies when I was in my twenties. In Los Angeles, I had over 1,000 movies on VHS, and I knew VHS wasn't going to exist anymore. So I started over on digital, but the whole time, I kept a database, and in the database I had created I would separate Jewish and Holocaust films from others. So I was always attuned to it.

After I moved to Israel, I had a cousin who was...