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 | shoah | witness | testimony | deception | 

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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 English

Release Date:

November 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Шоа

Filming Locations:

Ruhrgebiet, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,874, 12 December 2010, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$15,642, 2 January 2011

Company Credits

Production Co:

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

Technical Specs

Runtime:

566 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White Black and White (some scenes)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

All of the unused interviews and outtakes produced for Shoah (1985) are available online as part of the 'Claude Lanzmann Shoah Collection' in the 'Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive'. They are in the public domain now.

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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

Featured in Siskel & Ebert: The Best Films of the '80s (1989)

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Soundtracks

Mandolinen um Mitternacht
Performed by Peter Alexander (uncredited)

User Reviews

A real film.

Over the past several weeks I had the opportunity to see all of Claude Lanzmann's 9 1/2-hour documentary about the Holocaust. It left me cognizant of a greater tragedy in much the same way that PIXOTE opened my eyes to the humanity on the streets of South America. Like many people who have seen SHOAH I was interested in it primarily because of the degree of praise that this film has received; some critics have called it one of the most important films ever made. Well, now that I have had time to reflect on this film for the past month can I honestly say that SHOAH is one of the greatest films ever made? To answer my own question, it depends on how you look at it.

SHOAH in now way covers the entire scope of the holocaust. Instead it focuses on the people who were sent to three specific concentration camps during WWII. The film also concentrates on the people who were involved in the deportation and execution of those who arrived to the camps. Its last hour is devoted to events that occurred around the Warsaw Ghetto. The fact that this film limits its scope made me aware that this was an account that's too big to be perfectly analyzed and deciphered. It's too complex for a standard 2 hour, 4 four or even the film's 9 1/2 hour length. It's testament to the number of documentaries about the Holocaust which have come out fairly recently. But unlike those documentaries, SHOAH seems less about the Holocaust than it is about people, whether they were the commanders who intimidated the Jews, individuals who had small farms or houses near the concentration camps or even the victims themselves. These are all people who have a story to tell. SHOAH made me think out of the context of the film a lot. The fact that it told me so much about people made me wonder about the loss of the life that occurred during the 80's when the Contras fought the Sandinistas, or when Pol Pot executed his own people, or when Stalin starved his own soldiers during the War. All of these people had a story to tell but you hear very little about these tragedies that fell on their own lives. In a way, that's so unfair. Nevertheless, SHOAH comes closer than any other documentary I have seen when it comes to showing us what makes life so sacred and special.

To be fair, there are long stretches in SHOAH that are less than riveting, and moments when you question the ethics and purposes of the filmmaker. As one commenter candidly pointed out, there are times when SHOAH is more like a chore than an experience but as Claude Lanzmann orders one interviewee during the film, "We have to do it, you know it." And that's why SHOAH has to be seen: It's a real film about a real tragedy, real events, and real people.