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| Simon Srebnik | ... | ||
| Michael Podchlebnik | ... |
Himself
(as Michaël Podchlebnik)
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Motke Zaïdl | ... |
Himself
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Hanna Zaïdl | ... |
Herself
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Jan Piwonski | ... |
Himself
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Itzhak Dugin | ... |
Himself
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Richard Glazar | ... |
Himself
(as Richard Glazer)
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Paula Biren | ... |
Herself
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Helena Pietyra | ... |
Herself
(as Pana Pietyra)
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Pan Filipowicz | ... |
Himself
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Pan Falborski | ... |
Himself
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Abraham Bomba | ... |
Himself
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Czeslaw Borowi | ... |
Himself
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| Henrik Gawkowski | ... | ||
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Rudolf Vrba | ... |
Himself
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Claude Lanzmann directed this 9 1/2 hour documentary of the Holocaust without using a single frame of archive footage. He interviews survivors, witnesses, and ex-Nazis (whom he had to film secretly since they only agreed to be interviewed by audio). His style of interviewing by asking for the most minute details is effective at adding up these details to give a horrifying portrait of the events of Nazi genocide. He also shows, or rather lets some of his subjects themselves show, that the anti-Semitism that caused 6 million Jews to die in the Holocaust is still alive and well in many people who still live in Germany, Poland, and elsewhere. Written by Gene Volovich <volovich@netcom.com>
In contrast to most movies on the subject, this holocaust documentary contains no grisly wartime footage. Instead it presents a wide range of perspectives on the time mostly from those who were there when it happened: concentration camp survivors, neighbors of Jews who were deported, and even several important Nazi functionaries. The visual backdrop to the interviews with witnesses consists largely of images from the interviews coupled with footage of the mostly abandoned sites where atrocities occurred. The overall effect is devastating.