Germany and the Holocaust

This film is the result of three years of research, drawing on the close involvement of world experts, recently discovered documents and nearly 100 interviews with camp survivors and perpetrators, many of whom are speaking on the record for the first time. Their stories are brought to life through the innovative use of archival footage, dramatic recreations of key moments, and their testimony. DVD.

Examines the sources of Nazi ideology by examining its occult roots in the world of myths, symbols and fantasies. Through interviews, rare archival footage and contemporary scenes shot in historic locales throughtout Germany it chronicles how the Nazis used these mythological foundations to develop Nazism as a political religion. In German with English subtitles. DVD.

This film, commissioned by Adolf Hitler to record the 1934 Nazi party rally in Nuremberg, is the "most powerful piece of propaganda ever produced." Included are many scenes of gatherings, marches, and parades. The viewer will also hear speeches given by Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, and Hess as well as samples of monumental architecture designed by Albert Speer. Includes the Leni Riefenstahl short film, Tag der Freiheit (Day of Freedom). In German with English subtitles. DVD.

At the heart of this film is the question of whether Leni Riefenstahl was a Nazi, as her detractors claim, or whether she was the victim of society -- a naive, young woman who made Triumph des Willens on assignment, and simply did a very good job. English and German with English subtitles. DVD.

This notorious Nazi propaganda historical costume melodrama is based on the Nazi version of the novel of the same title by Lion Feuchtwanger, which is based on the real historical character of Josef Süss Oppenheimer who was a Jewish tax advisor to Karl Alexander during the early 1700s and was publicly executed in Stuttgart for manipulation of state funds. In German with English subtitles. DVD.

In this classic propaganda film, Quex, a German youth, faces a conflict of ideals between his Communist father and his growing allegiance to the Hitler Youth movement which eventually leads to his own death. Based on the death of a Hitler Youth who became a martyr for the Third Reich. In German with English subtitles. DVD.

This documentary examines the American film and television industry's response to the rise of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi persecution of the Jews before, during, and after World War II. Uses film clips, newsreel footage and interviews of filmmakers and Holocaust survivors. DVD.

The Nazi extermination of Jews is examined through interviews of survivors, witnesses and perpetrators and through footage of the sites of the death camps and environs as they appear today. DVD.

This documentary traces the stories of courage in the years between the end of World War II and the formation of the state of Israel. Includes archival footage, original broadcasts and personal testimonies from survivors of the Holocaust. DVD.

Ten years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, this piece documents the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek. One of the first cinematic reflections on the horrors of the Holocaust, the film contrasts the stillness of the abandoned camps' quiet, empty buildings with haunting wartime footage. Directed by Alain Resnais. In French with English subtitles. DVD and streaming.

A series of five short films about the Holocaust narrated by survivors living in various countries. DVD.

A documentary that chronicles the wartime experiences of Dahme, one of an estimated 5,000 Jewish children hidden from the Nazis by righteous gentiles in the Netherlands. DVD.

Interviews with eyewitnesses and historians and newsreel footage show how during World War II the Nazis systematically took or destroyed the art of Europe. It follows the heroic Europeans who first hid, and then set out to find and return what had been taken, with the help of the Allied forces "Monuments Men." DVD.

The story of a Catholic war profiteer, Oskar Schindler, who risked his life and went bankrupt in order to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps. DVD.

Based on the true story of Fania Fenelon who was a Jewish cabaret singer in Paris during the Nazi invasion. Fania and thousands of other Jewish and political prisoners are sent to the Auschwitz death camp. She and a group of other classical musicians are spared from death in exchange for performing music for their captors. They are also ordered to play for the thousands being herded to the gas chambers, a 'humane' means of easing the condemned into the next world. DVD.

Based on the novel by Thomas Mann, this is the tale of a composer who sells his soul to Satan to ensure his own creativity, but the price he must pay is higher than he ever could have imagined. Mann's book was intended as an allegory of the Third Reich. In German with English subtitles. DVD.

In the summer of 1942 the French government, on the orders of the Nazi occupiers, conducted mass arrests of Jews in Paris and herded them into the Velodrome d'Hiver and a nearby internment camp from which they were ultimately shipped to Auschwitz and executed. More than 13,000 victims, including over 4,000 children, were subjects of this atrocity. A dramatization in French with English subtitles. BluRay.

In 1939 Nazi Germany, Liesel Meminger learns to read with the help of her foster father, and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. DVD.

Based on the true story of Anja Rosmus. A girl encounters local hostility when she undertakes a school project entitled "My home town during the Third Reich," as she researches into events in her home town during the Nazi regime. In German with English subtitles. DVD.

Tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss between two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true comaraderie, until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Louis Malle's own childhood. In French with English subtitles. DVD.

This film dramatizes the bizarre but true story of Solomon "Solly" Perel, a Jew who avoided the concentration camps and certain death by hiding in plain sight. In German and Russian with English subtitles. DVD.

A charming but bumbling waiter who's gifted with a colorful imagination and an irresistible sense of humor has won the heart of the woman he loves and has created a beautiful life for his young family. Then that life is threatened by World War II. Winner, 1998 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In Italian with English subtitles. DVD.

Two men struggling from the inside. On one side, Kurt Gerstein, a real-life chemist and SS officer, supplied the death camps with zyklon B while he tirelessly denounced the crimes and alerted the Allies, the Pope, the Germans and their churches at his family's and his own risk. On the other, Ricardo Fontana, a young Jesuit, a fictitious character who represents all the priests who had the heart to struggle against savagery, often paying for their courage with their lives. In German or English, with German subtitles. DVD.

Sophie Scholl is willing to face death for her belief in her ideals and those of the White Rose, an underground resistance movement to which she belongs. Through their resistance and protest against the Nazi regime, Sophie and her fellow members of the White Rose become synonymous with civil courage and a peaceful struggle against the rule of violence and oppression. Based on a true story. In German with English subtitles. DVD.

Based on the memoirs of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew, who was a brilliant pianist. He watched as his family was shipped off to Nazi labor camps. He managed to escape and lived for years in the ruins of Warsaw, hiding from the Nazis. DVD.

Arendt's reporting on the 1961 trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann in The New Yorker, controversial both for her portrayal of Eichmann and the Jewish councils, introduced her now-famous concept of the 'Banality of Evil.' This award winning film uses footage from the actual Eichmann trial. Based on a true story. In English and German with English subtitles. DVD.

Trapped in a Polish ghetto with thousands of other Jews facing starvation or deportation to the death camps, Jacob is detained one evening at the local Gestapo headquarters. Eavesdropping, he overhears a radio report about a nearby Russian victory. At first he is silent, but circumstances compel him to pass on the good news of hope. Jacob suddenly becomes a hero as old friends and neighbors flock to him, pressing for information about the latest reports. Jacob feels compelled to make up stories to keep up the spirits of his comrades. In German with English subtitles. DVD.

Arrested by the French police but given a chance to avoid jail, a young Algerian black marketeer agrees to spy on the Paris Mosque. The police suspect the Mosque authorities, including its rector Ben Ghabrit, of aiding Muslim resistance agents and helping North African Jews by giving them false certificates. In French with English subtitles. DVD.

Volume 1: Fiction
Volume 2: Documentary & Propaganda

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