How does The Pawnbroker portray the effects of surviving a concentration camp?

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Sidney Lumet in a tuxedo holds his Honorary Academy Award and smiles backstage at the 77th Annual Academy Awards, with a gold Oscar statue in the background. — Sidney Lumet American director Sidney Lumet after receiving an Academy Award for lifetime achievement, 2005.

In the 1965 film directed by Sidney Lumet, The Pawnbroker portrays the profound psychological trauma of a Holocaust survivor through the character of Sol Nazerman, played by Rod Steiger.1

The film depicts the long-term effects of surviving a concentration camp as a state of emotional death. Having lost his wife and children to Nazi atrocities, Nazerman—a former German university professor—becomes deeply cynical and introverted. His survival is characterized by a deliberate detachment from humanity; he actively shuts out attempts at friendship and rejects any displays of love or affection from those around him.1

Lumet utilizes cinematography and flashbacks to Nazi atrocities to externalize Nazerman’s internal suffering, illustrating how the horrors of the past continue to haunt his present existence in New York City. By focusing on this profound isolation, the film explores the devastating, lingering impact of trauma on the human spirit.1