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

"Czardas Princess Overture"
Composed by Emmerich Kálmán

User Reviews

The Most Heart Wrenching Eye Opening Movie Ever Made

I had the opportunity to see "The Last Days" on HBO one night and I will never be the same again. My Family is German, in fact my grandparents were born in Germany, and I have always heard the horrible stories of the concentration camps and How my family was so ashamed to be German. I have seen many pictures and movies concerning the holocaust but nothing could have prepared me for the images shown in this movie. The videos taken of the concentration camp prisoners was so unbelievable. When the first survivor began talking I felt tears begin to rush down my face. The way the Nazi's treated these people was so unbelievable and horrible. Towards the end of the film we see the deceased prisoners of the camps being thrown into large pits of fire to destroy their bodies. At this point in the movie I literally began to gag from the horror of how these people was treated. This movie is life changing- I don't think I will ever be able to read a book about World War II or the holocaust with out feeling my own heartbreak. In my opinion the most touching moment is when we hear the story of how a woman keeps the diamonds her mother gave her secret from the Nazis, and how she still has them and what she has done with them. Another moment that broke my heart is the story of a woman who wears a bathing suit that her father gave her under her clothes to the concentration camp and how she was scared to take it off because she feared she would forget all the good times that she had had before the war. I hope everyone sees this movie so they can understand what hate does, and so that nothing like this ever happens again.