Lviv’s Cinemas During World War II

Abstract

The article discusses the functioning of cinemas in Lviv during World War II, with a focus on the years 1941-1944. The Nazi authorities introduced a division of Lviv cinemas into those for Germans, Poles, and Ukrainians. These three cinema categories therefore attracted different audiences (in terms of nationality), towards which the occupying authorities pursued separate repertoire policies. The article will analyse the nationality-oriented film policies of the Nazi authorities towards these three groups and their film preferences. The period of Soviet occupation (1939-1941) will also be addressed, albeit not in detail. By taking it into account, it will be possible to highlight some differences in the approach of the Soviet and German occupiers to film policy in Lviv. This research would not have been effective without the use of quantitative methods to compare large sets of repertoire data. There is an error in the paper edition of the journal in the table on page 119. The attached PDF file contains a table with the correct data.

Keywords

• German occupation
• Soviet occupation
• cinema of the Third Reich
• cinema during World War II
• cinema in Generalgouvernement