 |
Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi State Streaming.
Movie Title: Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi State Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi State is available for streaming or downloading. Click Here to Stream or Download Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi State |
Movie: ***** DVD Transfer: ***** Extras: *****
Buy,Download, Or Stream Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi State! Click Here
A unique and highly informative 6-part documentary that examines the establishment and development of the Auschwitz-Birkenow concentration camp within the historical context of the Nazi’s changing strategies and goals during the Second World War. Using historical photographs, filmed re-enactments, recent interviews with both survivors and perpetrators, and computer models based on recently discovered blueprints of the camp, the filmmakers painstakingly trace the evolution of Auschwitz from a detainee facility built to house Polish prisoners, to a forced labor camp, and finally, to an infamous and horrifyingly efficient factory devoted to mass murder. Brilliantly and movingly narrated by actress Linda Hunt (Oscar-winner for “The Year of Living Dangerously”), the 4-1/2 hour series is intellectually stimulating, educationally astonishing, and emotionally overwhelming as it attempts the almost impossible task of explaining the incomprehensible. That “Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State” succeeds so well in its mission is a testament to the commitment and skill of the filmmakers.
The DVD also includes a revealing interview with filmmaker Lawrence Rees, who produced the series; and a series of six short interview segments with Holocaust and genocide authorities, each of which is hosted by esteemed journalist Linda Ellerbee. These interviews, originally designed to air as companion pieces to the six parts of the documentary, are invaluable tools in providing modern day context to the lessons and legacy of Auschwitz, and a framework in which to consider the ongoing horror of genocide. Literate and immensely powerful, this 2-disc DVD set is most highly recommended viewing for those wishing to educate themselves about one of the darkest chapters in all of human history.
No film or documentary could ever fully cover the enormity of the Shoah, everything that went on, every last aspect, but this one really hits the mark on the area of the Shoah it chose to focus on. This three-part documentary focuses on Oswiecim-Brzezinka (Auschwitz-Birkenau) in general and on the inner-workings of the camp, the blueprints for genocide, in particular. There are interviews with people who were actually there (on both sides), multiple historical re-enactments, pictures, documents, diagrams, blueprints, plenty of narration, you name it. We start from the beginning, the seeds that led to genocide and the first baby steps towards it (euthanising the mentally ill in Germany), to the creation of the camp and some of its first victims, such as the orphaned French children (prior to early 1942 the camp had only housed male Polish political prisoners and criminals), and finally to the period of the camp’s highest murder rate, the arrival of Hungarian Jewry starting in May of 1944, through to liberation, what happened to the survivors, how some of the people in charge were caught and brought to justice, and how some, such as Mengele, were never. We also get, along the way, information about some of the other death camps, such as Treblinka, and how that camp did not start out as a model camp (it was run so “inefficiently,” not enough people murdered quickly enough and then disposed of in a quick and speedy matter, that the person running the camp, “Dr.” Irmfried Eberl, was dismissed). Also included are episodes about how the power corrupted many of the Nazis running or working at the camp, sometimes leading to intrigue. It was also a welcome change of pace for there to be a segment on the notorious sadistic Irma Grese (who was hanged for crimes against humanity shortly after the War); too often all these kinds of books and documentaries talk about are male Nazis, when history shows that there were a number of women, such as Grese, who were equally cold, brutal, top-ranking, and sadistic. The extras are also very good, featuring some very insightful interviews with a variety of people, on topics such as why genocide is still allowed to occur, what we have learnt from the Shoah, and young peoples’ reactions to the documentary.