Electronic Research Guides - Holocaust Videos

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Holocaust Related Videos: The Burke Library Collection

*The descriptions included on this page are predominantly from the highly recommended Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust.

America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference

This video explores the painful and difficult story of America's response to the murder of 6,000,000 Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators. Using interviews, archival photos and documents, and home movies and film from the time, the program traces the tragic story of America's inaction on two levels: through the experiences of Kurt Klein, a Jewish refugee trying to save his parents, and through documented evidence of the U.S. government's official policy.

Also see the PBS Web site: America and the Holocaust.

The Cross and The Star

This video boldly examines the Christian anti-Semitism that may have paved the way for the Holocaust. It argues that the ideological seeds which developed into the Nuremberg laws and then the death camps may have been sown into Christian dogma many centuries prior to the rise of the Third Reich. The video questions the absence of foreign governments, institutional churches, and Christian neighbors while the Nazi atrocities were being committed. Director Michalczyk, a former Jesuit priest, utilizes archival footage of Nazi Germany and interviews over 30 Holocaust survivors, scholars, and Protestant, Catholic and Jewish clergy.

Dachau

Two American G.I.'s, (one a first lieutenant with the 191 Tank Battalion and one a supply officer for the 54 field hospital unit), discuss the liberation of Dachau, the first concentration camp built by the Nazis, and the effect the Holocaust has on their lives. Includes authentic photographs and archival World War II film footage.

Death Camps (Official title: "Nazi Concentration Camps")

The video contains historical footage, still photos, background information and commentary by former New York Times executive editor A.M. Rosenthal. Also appearing is Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel. (The video is part of a learning packet including various educational resource materials for teaching about the Holocaust.)

Der Ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew)

This classic anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda film interprets Judaism according to Nazi racial theories. It was used by the Nazi regime to incite the German population against the Jews. (German with English subtitles)

Flames in the Ashes

Using testimony of eye witness and recently discovered film footage, this video explores how Jews in innumerable ways resisted the Nazis. The voices of those who survived the horrors of the Holocaust, both murderers and resistance fighters, tell the story that defines the differing dimensions of Jewish resistance in Europe before and during the war. (Hebrew with English subtitles)

The Forgotten Genocide

A classic and definitive film about the first genocide of the twentieth century told for the first time by eyewitness accounts of Armenian survivors and rare archival film footage.

The Grey Zone

A true story that tells of the only uprising of the Jews in the camps in a 1944 incident that managed to permanently destroy about half of the crematoriums in Auschwitz before that uprising ended in the mass execution of the perpetrators.

Hitler, The Whole Story: The Early Years

The first part of a documentary trilogy analyzing Hitler's career, this focuses on his early years and an discussion of the factors behind his successful rise to power.

Hitler, The Whole Story: The Rise of The Reich

The second part of a documentary trilogy about Hitler's career which examines the consolidation of his power and his buildup of the Nazi totalitarian state.

Hitler, The Whole Story: The War Years

This 3rd part of a documentary trilogy of Hitler's career concentrates on the Nazi military strategy during World War II as well as on the genocidal atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis.

Holocaust: Liberation of Auschwitz

A video documenting the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops on January 27, 1945. It presents both the graphic scenes at the time of the entry of the Soviet troops as well commentary about details of the atrocities inflicted on the camp's victims by the Nazis. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR UNPREPARED AUDIENCES.

The Killing Fields

"The Killing Fields" chronicles the journey of two friends who find themselves swept up in the revolution in Cambodia during the 1970s. A disintegration of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, resulting in the death of 1.5 million people due to assassinations, forced marches, and starvation from 1970-1979.

Nuremberg: Tyranny on Trial

This film documents the 1946 Nuremberg Trials, the International War Tribunal before which the four victorious powers, led by the American chief prosecutor, Robert Jackson, on leave from his position as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, brought a four-count indictment (conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity) against some of the main perpetrators of the Nazi atrocities. It provides evidence for the four counts by chronicling the history of the events leading to the Holocaust, weaving familiar archival footage used at the trial with footage of the trial that traces the efforts of the prosecution and defense and concludes with verdict and sentence.

Nazi Concentration Camps

This is a video cassette version of the official film record of the Nazi death camps as photographed by Allied Liberation Forces in Germany, 1945. Warning: Not recommended for unprepared audiences due to the intensely graphic presentation of atrocities.

Night and Fog (Nuit et Broullard)

A brilliant and haunting film on the concentration camp world which effectively combines black and white footage of the camps with color scenes of the same place ten years after the Holocaust. It includes explicit scenes of Nazi atrocities and carnage. There is no special emphasis on Jews. In French with English subtitles. Should not be shown to unprepared audiences.

The Pianist

A film that Roman Polanski was born to direct. A childhood survivor of Nazi-occupied Poland, Polanski was uniquely suited to tell the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and concert pianist (played by Adrien Brody) who witnessed the Nazi invasion of Warsaw, miraculously eluded the Nazi death camps, and survived throughout World War II by hiding among the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto.

Religious Implications of the Holocaust

Three religion and theology professors discuss the meaning of the Holocaust, how it represents a realization of the worst aspect of modern society, and how the world must learn to recognize protest against the denials of rights of any people and means of preventing future holocausts.

Schindler's List

The Steven Spielberg film presents the true story of the enigmatic Oskar Schindler, a member of the Nazi party, womanizer, and war profiteer who saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. (With Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes)

Shoah

This film is an assemblage of witnesses: Holocaust survivors, Nazi functionaries, Polish villagers who resided near the death camps, whose testimony amounts to one of the most shattering human documents ever recorded.

Survivors of the Holocaust

This document features the moving testimony of Holocaust survivors and the children of survivors. Interspersed with their narration, which details their lives before, during and after World War II, are photographs and footage actually shot in concentration camps.

They Looked Away

They Looked Away probes the issue of bombing Auschwitz, revealing for the first time previously classified Government documents, rare archival footage and eyewitness interviews with military veterans, camp survivors and historians. The question of why couldn't the Allies have bombed Auschwitz and the railway lines leading to it still haunts us.

Triumph of the Will (Triumph des Willens)

Leni Riefenstahl's film of the Sixth Nazi Party Congress at Nuremberg in 1934. A masterpiece of Nazi propaganda, it provides a fascinating psychological study of the Nazi leaders in action. Told visually with very little dialogue. Speeches by Hitler and others are in German with no subtitles.

The Wannsee Conference

On January 20, 1942, a conference took place in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee. The entire meeting took ninety minutes, during which the Final Solution was voted on.

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Source: The descriptions of the videos above have been taken predominately from: Teachers Guide to the Holocaust Videography http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/films.htm. For and extensive list of Holocaust films we highly recommend this web site.

Last Update:
September 2005

Holocaust Related Videos: The Burke Library Collection