Semiotic Simplification of the Holocaust: Pedagogical Prospects and Cognitive Constraints in Young Ecuadorian Audiences

Abstract

Historical cinema can operate as a powerful mediator of collective memory, but its pedagogical use requires careful distinction between aesthetic fiction, historical knowledge, and classroom mediation. Drawing on Eco’s interpretive semiotics, this study analyzes how The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas organizes a child-centered and affectively accessible representation of the Holocaust and examines how this representation is interpreted by young Ecuadorian viewers. The article does not evaluate the film as if it were a documentary or as if fiction were obliged to provide a complete historiographical account. Rather, it asks under what pedagogical conditions this fictional work may function as an introductory cultural artifact for critical historical inquiry. The study adopts a qualitative, exploratory-descriptive design that triangulates semiotic film analysis, a historiographical baseline, and reception micro-analysis based on two focus groups with young Ecuadorian viewers (n = 20). The findings identify a semiotic trade-off: the film’s symbolic condensation and narrative ellipsis foster empathy and moral engagement, while leaving the systemic, bureaucratic, and industrial dimensions of the Final Solution largely dependent on prior knowledge or pedagogical contextualization. The study concludes that the film may be useful as a pedagogical threshold, provided that educators explicitly frame its fictional status, supplement it with historiographical sources, and transform emotional resonance into historically grounded interpretation.