Night and Fog (1956)

The history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death contained inside.

Director:

Alain Resnais

Writer:

Jean Cayrol (commentary)

Stars:

Michel Bouquet, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Uncredited cast:
Michel Bouquet	...	Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Reinhard Heydrich	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Heinrich Himmler	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)
Julius Streicher	...	Himself (archive footage) (uncredited)

Storyline

One of the most vivid depictions of the horrors of Nazi Concentration Camps. Filmed in 1955 at several concentration camps in Poland, the film combines new color and black and white footage with black and white newsreels, footage shot by the victorious allies, and stills, to tell the story not only of the camps, but to portray the horror of man's brutal inhumanity.

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Plot Keywords:

reference to hermann goering | nazi | concentration camp | jew | europe | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Short | History | War

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

France

Language:

French

Release Date:

January 1956 (France)

Also Known As:

Night and Fog

Filming Locations:

Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Oswiecim, Malopolskie, Poland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Argos Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

32 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the first documentaries to openly deal with the Holocaust.

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Goofs

A few shots of the concentration camps are combinations of different concentration camps and sometimes do not show the locations suggested.

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Quotes

Récitant/Narrator: A concentration camp is built like a stadium, a grand hotel. You need contractors, estimates, competitive offers and no doubt friends in high places.

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Alternate Versions

Before its original release, there was a still of a French gendarme (policeman) watching a roundup at Pithiviers. He is easily recognizable by the characteristic French "kepi." Wanting to deny complicity, French censors insisted this shot not be allowed, so for its original release, the image was altered so that a wooden beam covered the gendarme and his kepi. In 1997 or 98, the original version of the film was re-released in France, finally revealing the gendarme. The original American release of the film did not translate all the dialogue for the subtitles, in particular leaving out one of the two references to Jews: "Annette, from Bordeaux." Subsequent releases restored the original text: "Annette, a Jew from Bordeaux."

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Connections

Featured in Wir wollten die Republik verändern - Der Liberale Gerhart Baum (2012)

User Reviews

Short-documentary about concentration camps with horrifying and hair-raising images

This incredible documentary concerns on the Nazi horrors, as we see rampage,murders,massacres against the prisoners.Thus,when the incoming transports ,mostly Jews, SS soldiers made instant decisions,those who were fit to labors were sent into the camp,others including the children ,were dispatched immediately to the gas chambers. The picture is told by a voice in off whose narrator is the prestigious French actor Michael Bouquet. The documentary contains archive footage with the protagonists of the tragedy, as appears Adolf Hitler, Reinhard Heydrich,Heinrich Himmler, Julius Streicher, among others. It packs sensible and relaxed musical score fitting to horrible frames composed by Eisler and conducted by Georges Delerue. The film is perfectly edited and directed by Alain Resnais who takes WWII shots adding recent images of concentration camps and specially from Auschwitz.

The short-documentary is based on real events by means of photographs and stock-footage. As appears work camps are transformed into extermination centers to implement the policy of genocide thought at the Wannsee Conference .All four camps,Sobibor, Chelmo, Blezek and Treblinka in the Lublin district of Poland were under the command of SS Odilo Globocnick and of course Himmler, the architect of final solution.There was some minor industrial activity linked to the war effort but the main work was the execution of inmates.Millions of prisoners died in the concentration camps through mistreatment, disease, starvation, and overwork, or were executed as unfit for labor. More than three million Jews died in them, usually in gas chambers, although many were killed in mass shootings and by other means.

Prisoners were often transported in inhumane conditions by rail freight cars, in which many died before reaching their destination. The prisoners were confined to the rail cars, often for days or weeks, without food or water. Many died of dehydration in the intense heat of summer or froze to death in winter. Concentration camps also existed in Germany itself, and while they were not specifically designed for systematic extermination, many of their prisoners perished because of harsh conditions or were executed.Victims were brought to the camp in unventilated transports, and all but a handful were gassed after arrival,the gas chambers could accommodate hundred prisoners at one time using Zyclon B which was a crystallized prussic acid which dropped into death chamber ,most of their corpses were burned in open pits. The documentary reflects astonishing images of the exterminations camps. These camps differed from the rest, since not all of them were also concentration camps. Although none of the categories is independent, and each camp could be classified as a mixture of several of the above, and all camps had some of the elements of an extermination camp, systematic extermination of new-arrivals occurred in very specific camps. Of these, four were extermination camps, where all new-arrivals were simply killed – the "Aktion Reinhard" camps (Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec), together with Chelmno. Two others (Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek) were combined concentration and extermination camps. Others were at times classified as "minor extermination camps".