When some movie theaters darken their lights this holiday season, it will be to make way for the largest number of films on a particularly dark subject released within weeks of one another in many years. No fewer than four films with Holocaust-related themes will confront moviegoers over the next few weeks, joining another three that have already been released this year. The question is whether there’s a reason for this cinematic anomaly, or if it is merely a coincidence.

Of course, the subject is always worthy of exploration, serving as a microcosm for all that is good and evil in the human experience. And films on the Holocaust are certainly not new to the horizon; many have been extremely successful with critics and audiences. Of the others, almost every one has been worthy of review.

I just find it interesting, without anything nefarious or inappropriate in mind, that seven films on the subject, each of which has been, and will be, well worth seeing, will have made their way to American movie screens in a single year -- a feat I can’t remember happening in a very long time, if ever. Is it because we face such serious times? Was there something particularly ominous happening a couple of years back when most (if not all) of these films got the green light? Will this many films showing at one time risk coloring the memory or history of the events? Will audiences once again respond?

Click here for more.