Nach dem Krieg war vor dem Krieg. Fred Zinnemanns Film „The Search“ (1948) und sein nicht realisiertes Folgeprojekt in Israel

In his film The Search (1948), the Jewish-American director Fred Zinnemann told the stories of children who survived concentration camps and of their lives in DP camps in postwar Germany. The film is a noteworthy historical document in a number of respects: Alongside its documentation of the children’s situation, this cinematic depiction contains points of reference to Zinnemann’s own life experiences. A planned follow-up project, Sabra, whose script was researched and developed in Israel and which was intended to dramatize a narrative of humanity amid the chaos of the war, proved unmanageable in the face of the events which had taken place. Although the notes on the project of which we are in possession indicate a promising approach to the topic, the film’s realization was unfeasible in the context of contemporary film funding and distribution practices in Hollywood.