The Pawnbroker follows the life of Mr. Nazerman, a Nazi concentration camp survivor. Because of this, he obviously has very strong feelings towards ethnic groups other than his own. His experiences have led to certain prejudices and the racism shown towards him in the past translates to his racism towards others in the present day. In his Harlem pawnshop, he encounters people of various cultural backgrounds and often refers to them as “scum” and “rejects”. Once in a position of oppression, in his pawnshop he is in power and can exert that power over the people who come in to try to sell anything for money that they need to survive. He can offer his clients payment much less for their items than what they’re worth and people will accept these unfair offers because they have no other choice. It is obvious that they are desperate and would do anything for the needed the money to survive, just as Nazerman probably would have done anything needed to survive in the German concentration camp.
The quick flashbacks show how emotionally damaging Sol Nazerman’s time in the concentration camps really was. It just about killed him- both literally and figuratively. The “ghetto” of the concentration camp led him to live a bitter and unfulfilling life in his current ghetto of East Harlem and the Bronx. Things that he sees near his place of work and where he lives causes him to have flashbacks to his life in Europe. He simply can’t escape the oppression and violence occurred in his past life. When he walks past the gated park area where someone is getting beat up, he has flashbacks to brutality in the concentration camp where he lost everything that was important to him. I think that it is important to note that everyone just walks by this fight and no one even takes notice. It seems routine, or not worth any notice and certainly no one tries to stop it. Even though Mr. Nazerman does take note of this and seems somewhat disturbed, punctuated by quick flashbacks, he also just continues on his business as usual. Another poignant scene that demonstrates the power of the flashback to connect the past and the present is the scene with Mr. Nazerman and the prostitute in the pawnshop. During this encounter, Nazerman experiences great distress from the recollection of being forced to witness his wife’s forced prostitution in the concentration camp. Ironically, the thing that killed his spirit in Germany is the same thing that basically fuels his livelihood in New York. The short, quick flashbacks cause the viewer to feel the distress and the panic experienced by Mr. Nazerman.
