The Last Days (1998)

Five Jewish Hungarians, now U.S. citizens, tell their stories: before March, 1944, when Nazis began to exterminate Hungarian Jews, months in concentration camps, and visiting childhood ... See full summary »

Director:

James Moll

Stars:

Bill Basch, Martin Basch, Randolph Braham

Won 1 Oscar. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Bill Basch	...	Himself - Holocaust Survivor
Martin Basch	...	Himself - Son
Randolph Braham	...	Himself - Historian and Holocaust Survivor (as Dr. Randolph Braham)
Alice Lok Cahana	...	Herself - Holocaust Survivor
Michael Cahana	...	Himself - Son
Warren Dunn	...	Himself - US Army, Dachau
Bernard Firestone	...	Himself - Husband
Renee Firestone	...	Herself - Holocaust Survivor (as Renée Firestone)
Dario Gabbai	...	Himself - Sonderkommando, Birkenau
Tom Lantos	...	Himself - Holocaust Survivor
Katsugo Miho	...	Himself - US Army, Dachau
Hans Münch	...	Himself - Nazi Doctor, Auschwitz (as Dr. Hans Münch)
Paul Parks	...	Himself - US Army, Dachau (as Dr. Paul Parks)
Irene Zisblatt	...	Herself - Holocaust Survivor
Robin Zisblatt	...	Herself - Daughter

Storyline

Five Jewish Hungarians, now U.S. citizens, tell their stories: before March, 1944, when Nazis began to exterminate Hungarian Jews, months in concentration camps, and visiting childhood homes more than 50 years later. An historian, a Sonderkommando, a doctor who experimented on Auschwitz prisoners, and US soldiers who were part of the liberation in April, 1945, also comment. Most telling are details: Renée packing her bathing suit, Irene swallowing the diamonds her mother gave her to buy bread, Alice's memorial for her sister Klara, Bill escaping police by jumping into a line of Jews going to Buchenwald, and Tom told by a US soldier to have "all the damn bananas and oranges you can eat."

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Plot Keywords:

u.s. soldier | jew | hungarian | auschwitz | doctor | 

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Genres:

Documentary | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for graphic images and descriptions of Holocaust atrocities

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Hungarian

Release Date:

15 July 1999 (Australia)

Also Known As:

Az utolsó napok

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$20,492 (USA) (5 February 1999)

Gross:

$419,762 (USA) (23 April 1999)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ken Lipper/June Beallor production, Shoah Foundation, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[first lines]
Bill Basch: There is one thing that has troubled me and has troubled the world, that the Germans dedicated man-power and trains and trucks and energy toward the destruction of the Jews to the last day. Had they stopped 6 months before the end of the war and dedicated that energy towards strengthening themselves, they may have carried on the war in London, but it was more important to them to kill the Jew than in winning the war.

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Connections

Referenced in Survivors of the Shoah: Visual History Foundation (2004)

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Soundtracks

"Ado-Noï Ado-Noï"
Written by Nambourg, Léon Algazi
Soloist: Adolphe Attia

User Reviews

Finally, an impressive Holocaust documentary.

i saw this film on the independent film channel today, since i was off. I basically prepared myself for the typical sob story holocaust testimonies made simply to draw out the sympathy of our generation. this film goes beyond any expectations or boundaries a typical viewer like myself would imply. the film is based on the hungarian-jewish victims of the major death camps in late ww2 europe. the stories of each of the 5 main survivors progress from being forced to wear the star of david in the early days of the hungarian nazi occupation to being forced onto cattle trains going to aushwitz and bergen-belzen death camps to being pushed into gas chambers and crematoriums and finally pushed to mass extermination with hitler's desperate final solution in 1945, realizing that he would indeed lose his war. the survivors revisit the camps and specific sites where they were held along side loved ones, recounting horrific tales of suffering which could only be truly understood by those who survived them. the scene which impacted me the most was one where a jewish woman returns to the aushwitz latrines, which are still visible. she tells the tale of her and her friend singing a hebrew song of praise and how the other jews in the latrine, despite language or culture joined her in the song.

i recommend this film to any human. since this is an unrealistic request, i would recommend it to anyone with a remote interest in ww2 or the holocaust. i've seen numerous films, read numerous books, and done extensive research and this film is w/o a doubt the closest you can get to any sympathetical understanding of the holocaust.