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IMDbPro

Shoah

  • 19851985
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 9h 26m
IMDb RATING
8.7/10
9.7K
YOUR RATING
Shoah (1985)
An epic documentary on the Holocaust featuring interviews with survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators in 14 countries.
Play trailer2:10
2 Videos
43 Photos
DocumentaryHistoryWar
Claude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.Claude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.Claude Lanzmann's epic documentary recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as survivors.
IMDb RATING
8.7/10
9.7K
YOUR RATING
    • Claude Lanzmann
  • Stars
    • Simon Srebnik
    • Michael Podchlebnik
    • Motke Zaïdl
    • Claude Lanzmann
  • Stars
    • Simon Srebnik
    • Michael Podchlebnik
    • Motke Zaïdl
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 58User reviews
    • 74Critic reviews
    • 99Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 2 BAFTA Awards

    Videos2

    Shoah
    Trailer 2:10
    Watch Shoah
    Official Trailer
    Trailer 1:27
    Watch Official Trailer

    Photos43

    Simon Srebnik in Shoah (1985)
    Shoah (1985)
    Shoah (1985)
    Shoah (1985)
    Itzhak Dugin and Motke Zaïdl in Shoah (1985)
    Shoah (1985)
    Joseph Oberhauser in Shoah (1985)
    Shoah (1985)
    Henrik Gawkowski in Shoah (1985)
    Simon Srebnik in Shoah (1985)
    Michael Podchlebnik in Shoah (1985)
    Simon Srebnik in Shoah (1985)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Simon Srebnik
    Simon Srebnik
    • Self
    Michael Podchlebnik
    Michael Podchlebnik
    • Self
    • (as Michaël Podchlebnik)
    Motke Zaïdl
    • Self
    Hanna Zaïdl
    • Self
    Jan Piwonski
    • Self
    Itzhak Dugin
    • Self
    Richard Glazar
    Richard Glazar
    • Self
    • (as Richard Glazer)
    Paula Biren
    Paula Biren
    • Self
    Helena Pietyra
    Helena Pietyra
    • Self
    • (as Pana Pietyra)
    Pan Filipowicz
    Pan Filipowicz
    • Self
    Pan Falborski
    Pan Falborski
    • Self
    Abraham Bomba
    • Self
    Czeslaw Borowi
    • Self
    Henrik Gawkowski
    Henrik Gawkowski
    • Self
    Rudolf Vrba
    • Self
    Inge Deutschkron
    • Self
    Franz Suchomel
    Franz Suchomel
    • Self
    Filip Müller
    Filip Müller
    • Self
      • Claude Lanzmann
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      An estimated 350 hours of footage were shot. The editing process took 5 years.
    • 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.
    • Quotes

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

    • Connections
      Edited into We Shall Not Die Now (2019)
    • Soundtracks
      Mandolinen um Mitternacht
      Performed by Peter Alexander (uncredited)

    User reviews58

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    10/10
    The grass was green in Auschwitz
    I've been learning about the Holocaust for at least twenty years now. I've attended at least two talks that were given by survivors. I've read memoirs and short stories and graphic novels and history books, seen fictionalized films and documentaries, and been to at least two Holocaust museums, including the one in DC.

    Yet it wasn't until watching this film that it truly dawned on me: the Holocaust took place in this exact world that we're living in now. It took place in a world where people wear Hawaiian shirts, where children walk alongside their bicycles, where people pay to get haircuts. It took place in a world with railroads and travel agencies and moving vans and typewriters. It took place in a world with farmers and bureaucrats and engineers and babies. A world where people complain about their jobs, where people are too tired or selfish or stupid or scared to care about anything other than themselves. The trees looked like trees then, the rivers flowed like rivers, and the grass was green in the summertime. All of this happened, not in some otherworldly, black-and-white, unfathomable realm, but in a world where children under four can ride a train for free, where not having a flush toilet in your house could be considered appallingly primitive, and where a living person exposed to exhaust fumes will suffocate and a body exposed to flame will turn to ash.

    Lanzmann's interviews are intense. His personality, albeit quite calm and always polite, is stirringly insistent--he never hesitates to call a lie a lie, even as he encounters every possible variety of mistruth. There are those who try to rewrite the past--to claim ignorance, poor memory, a lack of any actionable authority, a rosier and more melodramatic view of a tragic fate that was simply unavoidable. What could we have done, they say. We didn't know, they say. We did everything we could, they say. Even if we had risked our necks, it was fated from up above. He never lets that pass. "No. I don't think that's true," he says, and their faces falter, all shrugs and awkward smiles and apologetic platitudes, because of course it's not true.

    The Holocaust unfolded because everybody kept doing what they were supposed to be doing, too overwhelmed or uncaring to choose resistance. It was an unprecedented and horrifying event, yet it unfolded in the temperament, landscape, and conditions of this very normal world. Hopefully, Lanzmann's courage will encourage viewers to speak up whenever they have an opportunity to challenge wrongness.
    helpful•56
    8
    • nehpetstephen
    • Sep 1, 2018

    FAQ1

    • Due to the length of 'Shoah', is there a way to watch it in sections?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 1985 (United States)
      • France
      • German
      • Hebrew
      • Polish
      • Yiddish
      • French
      • English
      • Greek
      • Italian
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, Oswiecim, Malopolskie, Poland
    • Production companies
      • Les Films Aleph
      • Historia
      • Ministère de la Culture de la Republique Française
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • 9 hours 26 minutes
      • Color
      • Mono

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