In April/May 1945 Allied camera teams filmed footage of the German concentration camps, including of the corpses of dead detainees and of the malnourished, ill-treated survivors. The main aim was to produce a documentary of Nazi atrocities to show to the German people in order to weaken any pro-Nazi sentiment that might remain. A secondary aim was as evidence that the atrocities occurred. This film was never made and the footage was archived. In 2014 the footage and narration from the original script were used to create a documentary on the German concentration camps, as seen from the perspective of liberating Allied soldiers. This is that film.
An incredibly confronting film, highly effective in its graphic depiction of the utter brutality and large-scale murderousness of the concentration camps. It's quite shocking to see hundreds of dead bodies being manhandled into mass graves and the state of the corpses indicating the level of starvation and mistreatment the victims suffered. Quite emotional too, as you think that at one stage they were a living human being, only for someone to abuse them to death.
I'm not very squeamish but it was difficult for me to watch at times.
There is a repetitiveness to these scenes but that is effective in conveying the scale of the genocide and brutality. The scale is also demonstrated through showing the distribution of all the camps in Europe and then going to some of the larger ones. The means vary by each camp and these differences are examined too. There's also mention of some of the lesser-known atrocities that the Nazis committed.
The version I watched had a short intro before the film itself, a "making of" detailing the history of the footage and why it was shot. It also had an outro which was very interesting and explained some of the features of the film, especially its narration, which may have seemed odd to modern audiences. There is also an interview with a survivor of one of the camps, putting a modern face to the tragedy.
An astonishing, vitally necessary documentary.
An incredibly confronting film, highly effective in its graphic depiction of the utter brutality and large-scale murderousness of the concentration camps. It's quite shocking to see hundreds of dead bodies being manhandled into mass graves and the state of the corpses indicating the level of starvation and mistreatment the victims suffered. Quite emotional too, as you think that at one stage they were a living human being, only for someone to abuse them to death.
I'm not very squeamish but it was difficult for me to watch at times.
There is a repetitiveness to these scenes but that is effective in conveying the scale of the genocide and brutality. The scale is also demonstrated through showing the distribution of all the camps in Europe and then going to some of the larger ones. The means vary by each camp and these differences are examined too. There's also mention of some of the lesser-known atrocities that the Nazis committed.
The version I watched had a short intro before the film itself, a "making of" detailing the history of the footage and why it was shot. It also had an outro which was very interesting and explained some of the features of the film, especially its narration, which may have seemed odd to modern audiences. There is also an interview with a survivor of one of the camps, putting a modern face to the tragedy.
An astonishing, vitally necessary documentary.