All the films below are available on VHS. Please call the Archive to arrange for a loan. They may be kept for a two week period from the day they are sent out to the day they are returned unless other arrangements are made. This policy must be strictly enforced so that others may use the materials.
After The First - 14 minutes, color
In this dramatization of a 12-year-old boy being taken on his first hunting trip by his father, the boy enjoys learning to use the gun correctly on inanimate objects while pleasing his dad. Then the father kills a rabbit and urges the boy to kill another rabbit. The boy is visibly upset; as he brings the dead animal to his father he mumbles, "Is two enough?" and walks away. The father follows with, "Wait up. I know how you feel. I felt that way once. You'll see, after the first time it gets easier."
Ambulance - 8 minutes, black and white
This silent film is a dramatization of a group of children and their adult caretaker about to board a mobile gas van. As the four Nazi soldiers prepare the van, the teacher remains calm so as not to panic the children. The children are playing blind man's bluff and other children's games as they unknowingly await their death. The film is full of symbolism and depicts the event without any language.
America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference - 87 minutes, color
This program explores the difficult story of America's response to the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators. Using interviews, archival footage and documents, home movies and film from the time, it traces the story of America's inaction on two levels: through the
experience of Kurt Klein, a Jewish refugees trying to save his parents; and through documented evidence of the U.S. government's official policy.
Armenian Genocide, The - 25 minutes
This film begins by showing current human rights violations (1991) and relates them to other atrocities throughout history. It shows how small violations may lead to genocide, i.e. the extermination of a racial, national, ethnic, or religious group through physical destruction, prevention of births, or forcible transfer of children. The film explains historical events leading up to the Armenian Genocide (1915-1923). Concluding questions generate student discussion and relate historical events to the present. Purpose: The film will enable students to understand the meaning of genocide and recognize signs of human rights violations that could lead to the repetition of such acts in the future. It presents the idea that the lack of human rights and democratic principles in the Ottoman Empire made the Armenian Genocide possible. The film promotes discussion as to possible causes for genocide and exploration of preventive measures that can be implemented in today’s society.
As If It Were Yesterday - 85 minutes, black and white. Subtitled
This videotape documents the story of the Belgian people who helped over 4,000 Jewish children escape deportation to concentration camps in Eastern Europe. Through interviews with grown survivors and with Belgians who helped Jewish children during the war, As If It Were Yesterday provides insights into the risks rescuers took in helping victims of the Nazi regime and raises questions about why some people were willing to take such risks while others remained bystanders and did not take a stand against the Nazi regime.
Assignment Rescue – 26 minutes, color and black and white
The story of Varian Fry and the emergency Rescue Committee. Fry, an American, saved over 2000 refugees trapped in Vichy, France. In addition to the video, as study guide, resource guide, and autobiography of Fry are included in the packet.
Au Revoir Les Enfants - 103 minutes, color. Subtitled.
Directed and written by Louis Malle. Based on Malle's experiences at boarding school during the Nazi occupation of France, this film documents the story of Julien, a Catholic schoolboy, and his friend Jean, a Jew, being sheltered by a courageous French priest. After an act of betrayal, the Gestapo deports Jean and the priest to Auschwitz. Julien must say goodbye to his friend - and to his childhood.
Beyond Hate - 88 minutes
Through the experiences of world figures, gang leaders and young people trying to cope with violence in their lives, Bill Moyers chronicles the impact of hate on its victims and probes its many dimensions. Moyers listens to those gripped by hatred and those victimized by it. He focuses on individuals and groups who are working to move beyond hatred to achieve tolerance and acceptance. A young man in Los Angeles is beaten by police; a woman loses her family to Northern Ireland's religious war; Arab and Israeli children enact a centuries-old conflict; Nelson Mandela spends 27 years in a South African jail; Valclav Havel is harassed by a prison guard. They are witnesses to the power and effect of hate - one of humankind's most basic emotions that fuels personal, national and international crises.
The Camera of My Family: Four Generations in Germany 1845-1945 - 18 minutes, color
This moving story is an effective vehicle for involving students in Holocaust studies without the use of shocking and overwhelming material. It recounts the story of Catherine Hanf Noren, who was born to a Jewish family in 1938. Her family, which had lived in Germany for generations, was forced to flee shortly after her birth, and all records of their experience were lost in the Holocaust's destruction. This program describes Ms. Noren's perseverance in tracing her roots and rediscovering her heritage through the use of old family photographs that had been preserved.
A Class Divided: Then and Now - 57 minutes, color
In 1970, a public school teacher in Ricefille, Iowa (see The Eye of the Storm) divided her all-white, all-Christian third-graders into blue and brown-eyed groups for a lesson in discrimination. On successive days, each group was treated as inferior and subjected to discriminatory treatment. This FRONTLINE reunites teacher and class after fifteen years to relate the enduring effects of their lesson.
The Courage and the Pity - 120 minutes, black and white
A documentary made for Italian television (Italian with English subtitles) this film recounts the rescue of thousands of Jews in Italy during the War. It includes many interviews with survivors and rescuers as well as soldiers and politicians.
The Courage To Care - 30 minutes, color
This film contains profiles of individuals during the Third Reich who helped protect Jews in France, Holland, and Poland, and of Jews who were saved by non-Jews. The film raises questions about what motivated rescuers to assist victims in Nazi-occupied Europe and what moral and ethical dilemmas non-Jews confronted when deciding to engage in rescue work.
Dark Lullabies - 30 minutes
Days of Memory –
A video record of an October 1993 conference marking the 50 th anniversary of the end of the Vilna ghetto. This program has a great deal of historical background, but previous knowledge is required for it to be fully accessible.
A Delayed Talk - 37 minutes
A group of Israelis originating from Tarnow in southern Poland talk, by means of a video cassette, to Poles of their generation living there today. The main topic is the complex relationship between Jews and Poles - smoldering emotions, alienation, distrust - in the period leading up to World War II. The discussion brings back memories of the busy life of the town's Jewish community, a humming Jewish microcosm gone forever.
A Debt to Honor – 30 minutes
A documentary that tells the stories of ordinary individuals whose personal acts of courage resulted in rescuing thousands of Jews after the Nazi occupation of Italy in 1943. Prepared in collaboration with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Italian American Foundation. Includes discussion guide, bibliography, and filmography.
The Democrat and the Dictator: A Walk through the Twentieth Century - 58 minutes, color and b&w
In this episode from the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series, Bill Moyers contrasts the lives and legacies of Franklin Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler examining how these two leaders dominated the world stage during the 1930's and '40's. Newsreel footage of the U.S. and Germany show what factors led to their coming to power and why people were willing to rally behind them. The juxtaposition of Roosevelt's fireside chats with Hitler's public speeches reflects the power of oration to unite a nation behind a cause or a man.
The Eighty-First Blow - 90 minutes, black and white
This film which consists of Nazi footage and is a chronological documentary of the Holocaust was produced by survivors living in Israel. Its title is derived from the story of Michael, who survived 80 blows from a German soldier. When he related his account to his liberators, they thought it was not true. "That was the 81st blow." The film opens with a montage of Jewish life in the early 1930's followed by a portrait of the rise of Nazism: the parades, robot-like mass rallies, and near-frenzied oratory. In the order of events it shows Kristallnacht; the establishment of the concentration camps; hunger, deportations, brutality and murder. It is an attempt to prevent the 81st blow by revealing what really happened.
The Eye of the Storm - 27 minutes, color
In 1970, Jane Elliott, a third grade teacher in a small Iowa town, divided her class into two groups for a lesson in discrimination - one group being superior to the other. While only a classroom "experiment," the experience had a profound and lasting effect on the students. Issues of prejudice, victims and victimizers, as well as human behavior, are central to this video documentary (see A Class Divided). The text, A Class Divided: Then and Now, Expanded Edition by William Peters and the PBS Study Guide are both available.
Facing Evil - 88 minutes, color
A provocative program in which journalist Bill Moyers joins the participants of a three-day symposium entitled "Understanding Evil," held at the Institute for the Humanities in Salado, Texas. A group of respected scholars, philosophers and artists gathered together to study this problem that has been with mankind and shows few signs of disappearing. The persistent relationship between good and evil is highlighted in personal testimonies from poet Maya Angelou; Holocaust scholar, Raul Hilberg; choreographer and author Chung-Liang Al Huang; former U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Jordan; and philosopher Philip Hallie among others. Viewers are challenged to delve into the origins of evil and to form new strategies to disarm violence.
Facing Hate: Elie Wiesel with Bill Moyers - 60 minutes, color
When he was fifteen, Elie Wiesel's family perished in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. Since then he has struggles to understand hatred and its role in contemporary world affairs. In the process, he became a prolific writer, a leader in the worldwide cause of human rights and, in 1986, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in furthering social justice. Wiesel examines the logic of hatred as expressed in books, religion, history and personal experience. Wiesel discusses the death of his father at Auschwitz, his anger toward the Allies for not acting in time to save the doomed occupants of the death camps, and the hatred he felt from anti-Semites within the camp.
Flames in the Ashes - 90 minutes, black and white
The third in Haim Gouri's film trilogy of the Holocaust, this documents Jewish resistance during the War. Relying only on documentary footage and photographs and narrated by the voices of the survivors themselves (Hebrew, Yiddish, German, French, Polish, etc. with English subtitles), it juxtaposes shots of European Jewry's struggle and the life of the German people enjoying music and dance. In the words of those who took part in the resistance, it documents little known uprisings and the motivations and actions of those who took part in them.
For the Living - 57 minutes, color
A chronicle of the design, creation and building of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The program uses archival footage, photographs, on-location scenes at concentration camps today and interviews with the museum designers and curators. It is an excellent introduction to the museum for those planning a visit.
Genocide - 52 minutes, color and black and white
This is part of the British "World at War" television series, narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier. It is a chronological account of the methodical extermination of Jews under Hitler, from his years in power until his death. Scenes of personal testimony from victims, perpetrators, and bystanders intersperse the historical overview.
The Hangman - 12 minutes, color
A poem written by Maurice Ogden and narrated by Hershel Bernardi provides the script for this short film. It is a parable in which the people of a town are hanged , one by one, by a mysterious stranger who erects a gallows in the center of a town. For each hanging the remaining townspeople find a rationale, until the hangman comes to the last survivor, who finds no one left to speak up for him. Superb animation provides the visual accompaniment to the poem.
Hate on Trial: The Trial of Tom and John Metzger ,
parts 1 and 2, total time 146 minutes (part 1 - 86 minutes, part 2 - 60 minutes), color
In 1990 Tim and John Metzger, leaders of the White Aryan Resistance (WAR), were charged with inciting the murder of a young Ethiopian man in Portland, Oregon. The victim was beaten to death by three skinheads who are now serving long prison terms. Using exclusive courtroom footage, Hate on Trial follows the suspenseful and provocative trial of the Metzgers for their role as advocates of a deadly racial hate crime. Tom Metzgers delivers his arguments and reveals his agenda in the context of opposing opinions. Morris Dees, had of the Southern Poverty law Center, is the charismatic prosecuting attorney. A panel of lawyers, activists and journalists analyze issues raised in the courtroom: When do first amendment rights stop and hate crimes begin? What is the relationship between speech and conduct? Who joins hate groups? What threats do they pose? What is the media's responsibility in exposing hateful speech and activities?
Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth - 30 minutes, color and black and white
Combining an interview of Alfons Hock, a former member of the Hitler Youth who presently lives in the United States, with black and white documentary footage from the World War II era, this program effectively demonstrates the Nazi indoctrination of an entire generation of children and the resulting tragedy through the words of one who not only experienced it, but believed fully in the Hitler Youth program, in Hitler himself, in the Nazi racial policies and in the war aims. Because it contains graphic footage of Nazi atrocities, this film must be carefully previewed to ascertain whether it is appropriate for all high school age audiences. Told in the words of a participant in the Hitler Jugend, who speaks honestly about his own experiences and guilt, it is extraordinarily convincing. The accurate inclusion of important historical events as they impinge on his personal life, broadens the scope of the film. The film is not only appropriate for teaching about the World War II and the Holocaust, but also demonstrates the danger of propaganda and indoctrination in general. The effective and creative use of documentary footage conveys the effectiveness and the concrete results of the Nazi propaganda program. The film contains complex concepts presented so they can be understood by a high school level audience, yet does not oversimplify, so that it can be used on a much higher level as well. The inclusion of songs and translations of the lyrics with the films of Nazi rallies are most effective. The concluding scene of the Nuremberg rally is combined with the narration warning of the still present danger. The importance of teaching positive values to young people, as opposed to the "massive case of child abuse" perpetrated by the Nazis upon an entire generation, is exceptionally effective without moralizing.
Image Before My Eyes - 90 minutes, color
Using photographs, drawings, home movies, music, and interviews with survivors, this production vividly recreates Jewish life in Poland from the late 19th century through the 1930's. By building with great personal detail the depth and diversity of Jewish culture - the intellectual and creative achievements, class stratification, varying degrees of religious orthodoxy, different levels of assimilation - the program emphasizes the magnitude of the loss when the Nazis destroyed Jewish Poland during World War II.
It Was Nothing… It Was Everything – 29 minutes, color
Approximately 10,000 Greek Jews survived the Holocaust. Some lived through death camps, some became partisans, but many were helped by non-Jewish Greek citizens. Yad Vashem has honored close to 200 Greek rescuers and believes that the number of rescuers in Greece far exceeds this number. This is the story of ordinary Greeks who were involved in rescuing Jews. Prepared in cooperation with Yad Vashem. Highlights of the History of Jewish Life in Greece included.
Jehovah’s Witnesses Stand Firm Against Nazi Assault - 78 minutes, color, closed-captioned
As the Nazi killing machine engulfed Europe with terror, thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses suffered brutal persecution. Why? Because they stood firm in their beliefs and boldly spoke out against the cruelty of Nazism. They were among the first to be thrown into Nazi concentration camps. “The goal was to destroy this religious group,” says Dr. Detlef Garbe, Director of the Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial. “There were to be no more Witnesses in Germany.” Hitler vowed to smash this small Christian group. But they could not be silenced. Jehovah’s Witnesses “spoke out from the beginning,” says Professor Christine King, Vice-Chancellor of Staffordshire University. “They spoke out with one voice. And they spoke out with a tremendous courage, which has a message for us all.” In this video 10 historians from Europe and North America, and more than 20 Witness survivors, join in relating a story of courage and triumph that must be told.
Jewish Life (collection), 5 tapes, each 10 minutes, black and white, Yiddish with English subtitles
A Day in Warsaw: The lively Jewish neighborhoods of Warsaw, including Zamenhof Street and the commerical “beehive” Nalewki Street, were home to 400,000 Jews before World War II. A Day in Warsaw sets Warsaw’s multi-storied buildings and broad streets against its old market square and Jewish quarter. Trucks, trolleys, autos and buses meet horse-drawn carriages, pushcarts and porters in the bustling commercial district. Also shown are the Yiddish Theater, Gensza Cemetery and other Jewish institutions--the community council, hospitals, schools and synagogues. At film’s end, after Sabbath services, families pour into Krashinsky Park where children play and adults spiritedly debate the issues of the day.
Jewish Life in Bialystok : Vivid cinematography and music evoke the industrial and cultural center that was Bialystok in 1939. Images of smokestacks, power looms and textile workers; downtown shops and buses; market day with peasants and horses; schools, synagogues, the Sholem Aleichem Library, the TOZ Sanatorium and a community-run summer camp reflect the diversity of the city’s 200-year-old Jewish community. In addition to the tile-roofed home of Dr. Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto, Jewish Life in Bialystok features memorable images of a spacious park where young adults relax and children play.
Jewish Life in Cracow : Focusing on Cracow’s Jewish quarter, this film intermingles old and new, using music to enhance the images. Streetcars share tree-lined streets with horse-drawn carriages; people conduct business under umbrella-covered markets and arcaded market halls; parks and schoolyards host sports, games and animated discussions. Scenes from the famous Remu Synagogue and the Alte Shul, an orphanage, a hospital, the Jewish Community Council and several schools convey the vitality of this age-old Jewish community.
Jewish Life in Lwow : Stylish women promenade through modern Lwow’s thriving market squares to a piano-and-violin accompaniment suggesting urban rhythms. Also known as Lemberg and home to an old, well-established Jewish community, this city, nestled in a valley, projects an aura of prosperity. Parks and pavilions punctuate its public spaces, as trucks, pushcarts and bicycles occupy its busy streets. Among the Jewish community landmarks shown are the Yad Haruzim Trade Union Building and the old ghetto, the softly curving exterior of the Modern Temple and the orthodox school, the Moorish-looking Lazarus Hospital, the grave of the “Golden Rose”--filmed in warm, dappled light--and the Nowosci Theater.
Jewish Life in Vilna : This rare film document captures the spirit of Jewish life in pre-World War II Vilna. Lively narration and music accompany film sequences of people engaged in the rituals and realities of daily existence--at work, at play, in the synagogue and in school. Vilna’s famous landmarks--the Strashun Library, Shnipeshiker cemetery, YIVO Institute--are among the film’s highlights.
Kitty: Return to Auschwitz - 82 minutes, color
A guided tour of Hell, this award-winning documentary records the pilgrimage to Auschwitz of Kitty Hart, a survivor who lived in the camp between the ages of 16 and 18. Thirty-four years later, realizing that someday no eyewitnesses will be left alive, she returns in order to tell others - and to try to understand - what happened there. In the now-deserted camp, the numbing statistics become personal and immediate as Kitty relives her two years of struggle: thirst, dogs, crowds, ever-present death, cold, washing in her own urine, slave labor, bread rations, filth, trying to be invisible, the daily fight to exist. Ultimately, the film serves as testament to all who died in Auschwitz, and to Kitty's own determination and strength.
The Klan: A Legacy of Hate in America - 28 minutes, color
This award-winning documentary, narrated by James Whitmore, exposes the activities of the KKK, and American organization now more than 120 years old. Touching briefly upon its origins and early history, the program focuses primarily on the Klan's efforts to undermine gains made by African-Americans in the 1960's and its more recent campaigns against Jews and Vietnamese fishes along the Texas coast. Features interviews with Louisiana legislator David Duke and a journalist who completed an 18-month undercover assignment researching the Klan's activities. Note: Due to racist content, students should be fully prepared before viewing this program.
Klan Youth Corps - 11 minutes, color
CBS news correspondent Christopher Glenn reports on the efforts of the Ku Klux Klan to recruit youngsters age 10 to 17 to its ranks. The Klan's efforts are open and widespread. Youth corps members are interviewed and like their adult counterparts they freely spout the vilest racist slogans. The Imperial Wizards of the Klan consider the Youth Corps as unqualified success with 100% becoming full-fledged KKK members when they reach the age of 18. Interviews with youngsters who oppose the Klan's philosophy provide moments of rational counterpoint.
Kristallnacht: The Journey from 1938 to 1988 - 58 minutes, color
Living witnesses of Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) violence which left hundreds of German and Austrian synagogues burned and wrecked thousands of Jewish businesses vandalized and the glass of the broken windows littering the streets. Host Eric Sevareid recalls the devastation and seeks out traces of that traumatic night still visible today.
The Last Sea - 68 minutes, black and white
Second in Haim Gouri's film Trilogy ( The Eighty-First Blow, The Last Sea and Flame in the Ashes), it starts where The Eighty-First Blow ended. It is the story of the survivors after the war and who, when they realized they has neither a place to which to return nor surviving families, left Europe for Israel. It recounts their wanderings, their hardships on the way and their fight on the sea as anonymous illegal immigrants.
Memory of the Camps - 59 minutes, black and white
American and British film crews working in Europe entered Nazi concentration camps and found tragic evidence of the machinery of genocide. The film includes scenes of the gas chambers, medical experimentation labs, crematoria, and the haunted, starving survivors in Dachau, Auschwitz, and Buchenwald as well as other camps. This film, assembled in the order intended by the filmmakers, has been in a vault in the Imperial War Museum since 1945. WARNING - This film is extremely graphic and should not be used with young audiences.
Memory of a Moment - 10 minutes, color
In this McNeil Lehrer News Hour segment reported by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Jerry Thompson, two men whose lives touched forty years ago are reunited on the anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald. Robert Waisman, who had been imprisoned in the German concentration camp and Leon Bass, a black American who participated in the liberation of the camp, recall their experiences. Bass was the first black man Waisman had ever seen. As a black soldier in a segregated army, Bass's personal pain gave him a special perspective. Bass, now a history teacher, comments: "Human suffering is universal. Your pain is my pain." Out of the tragedy of the Holocaust and World War II, Robert Waisman and Leon Bass offer a hope for a future free from prejudice and hate.
Nazi Concentration Camps - 59 minutes, black and white, uneven sound quality.
This is the official film record of the Nazi death camps as photographed by Allied liberation forces in 1945. Although much evidence had been destroyed by the retreating Nazis, what remained was so unspeakably horrible (half-dead prisoners, victims of "medical" experiments, gas chambers, open mass graves) that the very names of the camps have become synonymous with ultimate human suffering, degradation and tragedy. This historic document provides irrefutable testimony to these "crimes against humanity." Warning: not recommended for unprepared audiences due to the intensely graphic presentation of atrocities.
Nazi Medicine: In the Shadow of the Reich – 54 minutes, black and white, some subtitles
This documentary studies the step-by-step process that led the medical profession in the Third Reich down an unethical road to genocide. It graphically documents the racial theories and eugenics principles that set the stage for the selections at the death camps, as well as inhuman and unethical experimentation. It provides the historical basis for many current dilemmas in bio-ethical work.
Night and Fog - 32 minutes, color and black and white
The award-winning short documentary by the noted French director Alain Resnais. This haunting production effectively combines actual black and white footage of the concentration camps with color scenes of the same places ten years after the Holocaust. This surrealistic journey of horror was written by a novelist who survived imprisonment by the Third Reich. French with English subtitles.
Warning: not recommended for unprepared audiences due to the intensely graphic presentation of atrocities.
Now After All These Years - 60 minutes, color. some subtitles
Until 1933, Rhina was a German village with a predominately Jewish population. When the Nazis came to power, the entire Jewish community vanished, most of them into concentration camps. Today, all that is left of the Jews in Rhina is a vandalized graveyard. In the film, those who still inhabit Rhina discuss their departed neighbors and speak warmly of the old Jewish Community. However, the few remaining Jews from Rhina, who live in New York City, present a sharply different picture. The film culminates in an emotional confrontation when the townspeople of Rhina view a filmed sequence of their erstwhile Jewish neighbors.
Nuremberg Trial - 31 minutes -, black and white
This film covers the period from November 1945, when the international tribunal began, to the verdict and sentencing of those on trial in the fall of 1946. It seeks to provide background by showing something of the chaotic conditions of post-war Europe, and then it presents the eight months of the trial itself, the eyewitness accounts and the statements of the defendants. It provides a useful historical overview with which to introduce discussion of the issues of justice and judgement.
Obedience - 45 minutes, black and white
This documentary describes the Milgram experiment at Yale , which tested the willingness of several volunteers to obey orders requiring them to inflict pain on others. In actual fact. pain was not being inflicted on the supposed "victim" but the subject did not know this. The experiment and results raise many disturbing questions about the capability of people to obey orders, even immoral ones, and some have questioned the morality of the experiment itself.
Partisans of Vilna - 90 minutes, color
Directed by Josh Waletsky and told almost exclusively in the passionate words of survivors, this production chronicles the Jewish resistance to Nazism in the Vilna ghetto. The program describes how the ghetto's young activists put aside their political differences to issue a "call to arms" when they realized the Nazis meant to liquidate the entire Jewish population. The film deals with the meanings of resistance and what it actually accomplished.
A Portrait of Elie Wiesel - 58 minutes, color
An intimate look into the life story of Nobel Peace Prize winner, he recounts his story of survival and reflects on truth, memory and a world that witnesses the Holocaust. Pictures from archives, family photographs and original art work by Samuel Bak are interspersed as illustrations. The video relies upon the haunting voice and expressive eyes of Wiesel.
Purple Triangles – 25 minutes, color
The story of the Kusserows of Baad Lipspringer, Grmany, Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were Jehovahs Witnesses. One of their eleven children was tried and executed, others were incarcerated in concentration camps and tortured. The youngest were placed in orphanages and beaten.
Resistance: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans – 60 minutes, color/black & white
When most people think of the Holocaust, they remember the six-million Jews who were put to death by the Nazis. With the exception of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, the impression persists that there was little resistance by the Jews to Nazi genocide. In fact, historians estimate that as many as 30,000 Jews fled to the forests of Eastern Europe, armed themselves and actively fought the Nazis. Furthermore, rebellions occurred in ghettos throughout Europe and even in some of the Nazi death camps. This film uses striking black and white imagery of the forest, rare archival footage, historical photographs and original artwork by partisan fighter Alexander Bogen to document this portion of the Holocaust that has somehow gotten lost in the tide of history. In Resistance: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans, surviving partisans tell of the circumstances that enabled them to make a decision that not every Jew could -- the decision to fight back. Set in the towns and forests of Poland, Lithuania and Belorussia between 1941 and 1945, Resistance is a group memoir told by 11 men and women now in their 70s and 80s who detail their battle first for survival and then for revenge. They speak about the almost insolvable dilemmas facing Jewish partisans, their efforts to overcome these obstacles, and the emotional aftermath when, despite the victory over the Nazis, these men and women faced the reality of everything they had lost.
Samuel Bak: the Art of Speaking about the Unspeakable – 37 minutes, color
For over sixty years, from his first paintings as a child prodigy in the Vilna Ghetto, Samuel Bak has produced a remarkable body of work that has earned him an international reputation as a painter of thought-provoking images which raise challenging questions about essential life issues. Samuel Bak: The Artopf Speaking About the Unspeakable, explores the life experiences which have shaped his art through a candid and insightful conversation with the artist, selected recollections from his recently published memoirs, and a moving presentation of many of his most important works.
Schindler: The Documentary - 78 minutes, color and black and white
As every movie-goer knows, Oscar Schindler was a German-Czech industrialist who owned a small factory in Krakow, Poland. Beginning in 1940, he employed Jewish slave laborers; first out of self-interest, but gradually our of decency, he managed to shield his workers from the Nazi terror. Ultimately, he saved more that a thousand Jews from Hitler's extermination camps. The actual story told in this documentary is the more powerful for being less artful than the feature film. The program contains rare archival footage as well as specially shot material that includes Schindler's wife and his mistress who give their own accounts of him. In an interview recorded only four days before her death, the mistress of the concentration camp commandant, Amon Goeth, talks of her memories of Schindler and life with the SS officer who took a part in the slaughter of Jews. Many whom Schindler saved also appear.
Skokie - 121 minutes, color
From the cover: Skokie, Illinois is a small American town where many Nazi death camp survivors have spent years rebuilding their shattered lives and families into a thriving community. When a band of neo-Nazis announces its plans for a march through the town, the outraged citizens rise up to prevent the demonstration. But their fight against the National Socialist party divides the town’s political and religious leaders from their children. Tensions increase as the lines are drawn for a conflict that would etch itself into our nation’s memory forever. Based on the actual events.
Theresienstadt: Gateway to Auschwitz: Recollections from Childhood – 58 minutes, color
In 1941 Theresienstadt became the stopping place for Jewish deportees en route to death camps. Of some 15,000 children younger than fifteen, less than 150 survived. This video tells their stories.
To Know Where They Are - 27:40
To the Smoldering Cities - 36 minutes
A journey to southern Poland shot during a typical winter, visiting the smoky, thickly populated mining and heavy industrial area of Zaglembie. Who were the Jews who once lived there? Meeting the few remaining Jews and the Poles, a story unfolds which begins hundreds of years ago, and ends with the Holocaust.
The Triumph of Memory - 29 minutes, color
Non-Jewish resistance fighters were sent to Nazi concentration camps during World War II. In this video they bear witness to the Jewish Holocaust and provide a moving reminder of the actions of the Nazis in Mathausen, Buchenwald and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Frenchman Pierre Troadec was sent to Mauthausen after being captured by the Gestapo for rescuing American flyers in France; Reidar Dittman was arrested and sent to Buchenwald for sabotaging the construction of German ships in Norway; Czech resistance fighter Vera Lasker hid Jews and fought the Nazis until she was sent to Auschwitz' and Irina Kharina, a young Soviet Army soldier was captured behind German lines. Narrated by Arnost Lustig, a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz.
They Looked Away: Why Wasn’t Auschwitz Bombed? – 33 minutes, color and black and white
Narrated by Mike Wallace, a documentary on whether the Allies could have bombed Auschwitz and why they didn’t.
Triumph of the Will - 110 minutes, black and white
Leni Riefenstahl's controversial film of the Sixth Nazi Party Congress at Nuremberg (1934) is considered by many to be the greatest propaganda documentary ever filmed. This heroic celebration of Nazi philosophy is at once blatant and subtle fascinating psychological study of Nazi leaders in action. Mature students will be able to discuss how the Nazis saw themselves and understand the role of propaganda in molding popular opinion. Told visually with little dialogue; speeches by Hitler and others are in German with English subtitles.
Tzvi Nussbaum: A Boy from Warsaw - 50 minutes, color
Tzvi Nussbaum: A Boy from Warsaw , is the story behind one of the most well-known photographs associated with the Holocaust. The picture of people centers on a small boy with his arms raised as German soldiers point their machine guns at him. As an adult, Tzvi Nussbaum began to investigate whether he was the child in that photo. The video follows this investigation which includes interviews with witnesses who knew Nussbaum or his family, those who helped save him, and experts who add background and authenticity to Nussbaum's search. Documentary photographs and footage, documents, and clippings of the locations as they look today are included. Through the effective presentation of one person's story, the history comes alive. The sources combine to tell a compelling story placed in its historical context, which makes this particular photograph worth even more than its proverbial "1,000 words."
Verdict for Tomorrow - 28 minutes, black and white
A well-documented account of the Eichmann trial, narrated by Lowell Thomas. The film is based on the actual footage gathered during the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem and utilizes the trial as a reminder of Nazism and the persecution of Jews rather than as a "dated" legal presentation.
The Warsaw Ghetto - 51 minutes, black and white
Charged with documenting the gradual destruction of almost 500,000 Jews in the walled-in Warsaw ghetto, cameramen of the German army, SS and Gestapo made an almost anthropological study of the people. In this program, their still and motion pictures are collected (many from Himmler's personal scrapbook) and narrated by Warsaw ghetto survivor Alexander Bernfes. The program includes footage showing the creation of the ghetto, early Nazi propaganda, scenes from everyday life, starving people in the streets, and the final, violent ten-day resistance.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising - 22 minutes, color and black and white
This video utilizes archival footage, still photographs and testimonies of survivors of the ghetto. Beginning with the Nazi invasion of Poland, we are led step-by-step through life in the ghetto, the deportations, formation of the resistance organization and the Warsaw Ghetto revolt (brief segments of re-enactment).
The Wave - 46 minutes, color
Teacher Burt Ross thinks the best way to illustrate the attitudes that allowed the German people to deny responsibility for - and the very knowledge of - the Nazi atrocities is to recreate that atmosphere for the students. He begins his own Reich, "the Wave," and drills ideas of power, discipline, and superiority into his surprisingly willing students. Based on an actual California school in 1967, this poses some difficult questions for those who believe "it can't happen here."
Weapons of the Spirit - 28 minutes, color
A classroom version of Pierre Sauvage's feature length documentary. During the war years, Sauvage and his family were hidden in the French village of Le Chambon. The Chambonnaise people were descendants of the Huguenots, a small Protestant minority in France who had settled in the area to avoid persecution from the Catholic monarchy. A central figure in the film is Pastor Andre Trocme who came to the village in 1934. Trocme and the people of Le Chambon saved approximately 5000 Jewish adults and children during the war.
The White Buses - 24 minutes, black and white
A documentary about the rescue mission led by Count Folke Bernadotte of Sweden. Carried out by the Swedish Red Cross with assistance from the Danish Red Cross in Germany during March-April, 1945, 19,000 prisoners from German concentration camps were freed and re-transported to Sweden. The mission covered all of Germany and gathered, initially, Scandinavian prisoners of war from a camp near Hamburg. During the final phase, Polish, Dutch, Belgians and French prisoners were freed as well. Included are actual footage, recent interviews of participants and some dramatized scenes.
Witness to the Holocaust - 120 minutes
Witnessing Darfur: Genocide Emergency – 17 minutes, color (DVD)
“Darfur Eyewitness”
Former United States Marin Brian Steidle describes what he saw while in Darfur with the African Union Monitoring Force. March 2005. 10 minutes
“Staring Genocide in the Face” – 7 minutes, color
Jerry Flwler, Director of the Committee on Conscience, relates stories told by Darfurian refugees in Chad. May 2004.
World at War, The - 52 minutes, color
From the cover: This is the definitive film about World War II, made using the most dramatic documentary footage ever seen. In addition to action at the fronts and in the war rooms around the world, there are penetrating interviews with statesmen and military leaders of the time. Further, The World at War chronicles events through the experiences of ordinary men and women--American, British, German, Japanese, and Russian, in uniform and out--who lived and fought through the most momentous conflict in world history. Addresses genocide, Himmler, and his dream of “awakening the Germanic race within the German people.”
