Shoah (1985)

Claude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.

Director:

Claude Lanzmann

Writer:

Claude Lanzmann

Stars:

Simon Srebnik, Michael Podchlebnik, Motke Zaïdl

14 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Simon Srebnik	...	Himself
Michael Podchlebnik	...	Himself (as Michaël Podchlebnik)
Motke Zaïdl	...	Himself
Hanna Zaïdl	...	Herself
Jan Piwonski	...	Himself
Itzhak Dugin	...	Himself
Richard Glazar	...	Himself (as Richard Glazer)
Paula Biren	...	Herself
Helena Pietyra	...	Herself (as Pana Pietyra)
Pan Filipowicz	...	Himself
Pan Falborski	...	Himself
Abraham Bomba	...	Himself
Czeslaw Borowi	...	Himself
Henrik Gawkowski	...	Himself
Rudolf Vrba	...	Himself

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

holocaust | genocide | nazi | jew | poland | 

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Genres:

Documentary | History | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France UK

Language:

German Hebrew Polish Yiddish French

Release Date:

November 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Шоа

Filming Locations:

Ruhrgebiet, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$2,874 (USA) (10 December 2010)

Gross:

$15,642 (USA) (31 December 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Historia, Les Films Aleph

Technical Specs

Runtime:

566 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (some scenes) Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

While the film is exceptionally long and deals with an historical subject, no archive footage of World War II or concentration or death camps was used. Some of the unused interviews and footage would be later used by Claude Lanzmann to make several shorter documentaries.

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Goofs

Srebnik and Podchlebnik were not the only Jewish survivors of the Chelmno Extermination Camp. Today we know at least 9 by name, but not all survived WWII and/or gave testimonies. Lanzmann probably didn't know then.

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Quotes

Franz Suchomel: If you lie enough, you believe your own lies.

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Connections

Referenced in Ancient Evil 2: Guardian of the Underworld (2005)

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Soundtracks

Mandolinen um Mitternacht
Performed by Peter Alexander (uncredited)

User Reviews

Be prepared for a long haul

It's nine and a half hours of travelogue footage and interviews with terribly ordinary middle-aged and senior citizens about events that happened a half-century ago.

Except that the sites visited are the scenes of the systematic mass murder of roughly 11 million men, women and children, including some 6 million Jews, and the ordinary grandparents are the survivors and perpetrators of some of the most horrendous atrocities that mankind has committed upon each other.

It is a terribly draining movie, hypnotic and disorienting, both in it's length and in the blandness, the matter-of-fact descriptions of things that would make a normal person scream in horror. And that is what is so amazingly important and meaningful about this film; that these were ordinary, average people. These were, and are, normal folks like you and me, and anybody, regardless of background, moral upbringing, and standards of decency can be caught up in circumstances beyond their power or experience, and can do the most depraved or heroic things imaginable. It is shocking, insightful, and a very,very important film that forces us to confront our own humanity and decide what that, in fact means.

But it's nine and a half hours long. Be prepared to be drained and leave with your head buzzing.