Documenting the Shoah

Documenting the Shoah Night and Fog 1956 dir. Alain Resnais Landmark documentary about the Shoah – Holocaust One of the most admired Shot 10 years after the end of WWII Poses a relevant issue – moral & esthetic: How to make a film about the concentration camps? How to achieve a ‘distance’ so that the viewer can analyze? How to confront human monstrousness? Built on a pattern of related oppositions present/past color/black & white tranquility/horror natural environment/buildings footage shot for the film/archival material Impact of Night and Fog 30 minutes long Brilliant use of a simple device – frequent shifts of color Narrator – Poet Jean Cayrol , camp survivor wrote & read commentary powerful & quietly reflective Use of newsreel materials – horror builds up carefully Final moments built to leave viewers with question: “Who is responsible?” The documentary does not offer material/historical analysis Is not expository Produces a powerful emotional impact Searing indictment of Nazi regime Goes beyond the Shoah to tackle ethnic destruction Documentaries on the Holocaust • Memory of the Camps 1985 Compiled from footage filmed by Allied forces in 1945 Raw footage, horrific Ironic narration by British actor Trevor Howard magnifies • One Survivor Remembers 1985 Oscar-winning documentary co-produced by Holocaust Museum Interviews survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein • Shoah 1985 Directed by Claude Lanzmann – No archival footage at all 9 hours of interviews • The Last Days (1998) Five Jewish Hungarians, now U.S. citizens, tell their story. Directed James Moll, co-produced by Shoah Foundation • Inheritance (2008) A survivor of Plaszow concentration camp, featured in Schindler’s List (1994) meets the daughter of camp’s commander Relies on direct cinema techniques • Multiply by Six Million 2007 Documentary short by photographer Ewy Eisen Still photographs & narration by survivors Other documentaries related to this topic • The Memory of Justice (1976) dir. Marcel Ophuls about the Nuremberg Trials after WWII • The Specialist (1999) about the trial of Martin Eichmann in Jerusalem • Blind Spot – Hitler’s Secretary (2002) • The Goebbels Experiment (2005) • A Film Unfinished (2010) about a Nazi propaganda film shot in Warsaw • The Decent One (2014) about Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler