The Representation of Nazism and the Holocaust in Spanish Series of the 21st Century. Television Fiction as a Mediator in the Construction of Historical Narratives

Television plays a central role in the creation of historical representations, considering the vast reach of its audience and its capacity to generate and reinforce hegemonic meanings. Television fiction, therefore, influences the way we perceive and understand past times. This article analyzes the representations of National Socialism and the Holocaust in television series of Spanish fiction of the 21st century. To this end, a work sample is selected with all the works that refer to these historical events. For the study, a qualitative analysis of systematized content is carried out through an ad hoc analytical instrument that is applied to each fiction. The results present a construction of international media memory through national keys that link, through mechanisms of representation, the Jewish genocide and Nazism to recent Spanish history with Spanish territorial and political characters and brands. These serial productions make Spanish thematic routes through re-territorialization and appropriation of the historical event. This strategy moves away from the debate of the Holocaust, but widens the representation of the historical fact by incorporating thematic routes into Spanish memory systems.