Customer Reviews

Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi State

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Movie: ***** DVD Transfer: ***** Extras: *****

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.

This is an excellent BBC production on Auschwitz. Rees has managed to produce a series of programs aimed at a broad audience, but with a strong academic foundation. He avoids simple moral judgments by hearing different eyewitnesses, such as victims, perpetrators and bystanders. The series uses different kinds of sources, virtual reality and it uses actors to portray some of the key Nazis in the decision making process.It describes the history of the camp, but it does so much more. Individual stories bring the story to life without ever becoming over-emotional.It also pays attention to the importance of local decisions and sentiments for the fate of millions of people, such as local anti-Semitism but also rescue operations. Rees' series is not just on Auschwitz, it is a story of Europe and the Holocaust. In the last episode he even tells the story of the return of victims of the camp to their home country and the cold welcome they received.Personally I found the testimony of the former SS man who had worked in Auschwitz very telling. Rees is a brave man for portraying this man in his moral ambivalence.
Strongly recommended. Also suitable for use in schools and education. It is also a far better introduction to the Holocaust than Lanzmann's film Shoah.

I just watched this film again, for the second time.

Three years ago, I made the trip to southern Poland and visited O'wi'cim, just outside Krakow.. I saw part of remnants of the massive concentration camp and industrial complex there that that the Germans called Auschwitz- Specifically the two extermination camps at Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II Birkenau. The experience was one of the most searing of my life.

I walked the grounds along the barbed wire and railway tracks, through the iconic gates and buildings.. I got a sense of the scale of the place, of the geography. Something that had always been somewhat abstract to me, became that afternoon very - and all too horrifically - substantial. I wandered the vast Birkenau compound past the small ponds still gray and clouded with the ashes of hundreds of thousands. I witnessed the piles of shoes, glasses, suitcases.. The hair shorn in a great heap.. Relics of the thousands of victims murdered at the very end of the war. I stood by the rubble of the gas chambers, blown to slag by the SS as the Soviets bore down on them in the very last days of the Reich..

I stood and gazed up at the cruel sneering mendacious "Arbeit Macht Frei" - that famous motto borrowed from Dachau emblazoned in steel wire above the entrance - with fresh eyes, as if for the first time.


The nightmare was overwhelming. I wandered about mute, not sure how to process any of it.


As I left, I stopped in the gift shop, and bought this film. I watched it in my hotel that night. It brought everything I had seen that day into clearer focus.


Watching beforehand would of course have been better, for this film's strength is that it re-enacts many of the crucial moments in the history of the place: it's architectural expansion, the principal personalities involved, the larger political and historical context. It gives a decent sense of how the original Polish army cavalry barracks and parade ground that formed the germinal nucleus of Auschwitz I was developed initially into a concentration camp for Polish political prisoners, and then incrementally grew into something far more ambitious and monstrous. With the beginning of the war with the Soviet Union, many of the 2 to 3 million Soviet prisoners taken that first year were funneled through Auschwitz, where they were brutally worked and starved to death.

At this point Himmler and the industrial giant IG Farbin decided to expand the complex, creating an SS command complex and a huge industrial park run by slave labor that grew up about the original concentration camp dubbed Auschwitz III.

All of this seems relatively banal, compared to what came next. The narrative expands to describe the relatively halting and "small" scale atrocities that the Wehrmacht and SS began committing throughout the newly conquered Baltic, Ukrainian and Belorussian territories. Himmler was concerned, because he felt that the process of butchering Jews and other undesirables in groups of dozens and hundreds and thousands with rifles was both inefficient and "too brutalizing" to those committing the acts. The wizards of the SS Einzatzgruppen death squads began to devise various solutions. They actually experimented with blowing a few groups up with explosives, before deciding that the resulting rain of viscera and body parts was too gruesome even for Nazis..

Carbon Monoxide, then other gases were tried. They finally hit upon Zyklon B, a gas previously used to exterminate lice and rodents, as the suitable tool to murder millions with industrial efficiency. The "gas shower" technique had been already developed by doctors at asylums back in Germany before the war. The technique had been used to euthanize tens of thousands of mentally and physically handicapped..


And so it went. The machinations and insanely hideous essential details are laid out with relentless spare economy. The narrative is relentless, leaving one nauseous and aghast. It tells the history of the entire Holocaust through the prism of of the evolution of the camp.


The story of the Nazis is mostly depicted with actors reenacting the story.. Contemporary footage of the locations, interviews with several dozen camp survivors and other witnesses, along with some vintage film footage and photos help carry the story along. The Germans are presented in their twisted humanity - socializing with one another, playing with their families - all while feeling their way forward with demonic clownishness as they organize the industrial genocide of millions.

There are even several former SS men who inexplicably agreed to be interviewed. Clear eyed octogenarians who gaze steadily at the camera, as they admit their continuing antisemitism and describe how they personally participated in the butchery.

Astonishing. Is there a statute of limitations on genocide?

We listen to how they describe feeling nothing as they shot prisoners, and then tell how they still hate Jews and consider Slavs to be backward. "The French had toilets in their homes, but the Russians.. They for the most part had only outhouses behind their houses.." This was apparently rationale enough to exterminate them by the hundreds of thousands after they surrendered.


As I finished watching this again this afternoon for the first time since I returned from Poland, memories of that accursed place flooded back. I've been feeling queasy and vaguely homicidal since. I'm a borderline pacifist, but I gotta say watching unrepentant Nazis spew venom brings dark thoughts..


In lieu of venting my anger in a truly satisfying way such as enlisting with Patton to go shoot some fascists, I have to settle for typing this review.


The history so competently detailed in this film must be remembered. I give it my highest recommendation. Watch it.

I have just finished watching the full six parts and I would recommend this to all those who want to learn about this subject and also all those who want to avoid it.

However many times you read or watch programmes on this subject, the enormity of what happened is impossible to comprehend,. Yet, in one scene, the horror of what happened came through. It concerned the plight of the French children. Their parents were taken first, and then some weeks later the children, aged 4-10(?) were taken for extermination. The photographic portrait of these tiny innocents, and the appalling end that befell them moved me to choking back the tears. That one scene brought it home to me, the absolute horror and barbarity.

I do have a number of issues with the final episode of the series. I feel this was the worst, and let down the overall professional and informative value of the series.

The final episode was shallow. It skipped around the main point - why was it that 90% of the guards and staff at Auschwitz were NOT prosecuted?
Why were the top Nazi's prosecuted? The big names certainly were dealt with, but why were so many allowed to go free for so long? Why were they allowed to free in South America, Germany and even the UK for so long?

Each of the three series - Nazi's - A Warning from History, War of the Century, and now this are series that should be shown to a wider audiance for as long as history is taught.

As a final, and personal note, it maybe 60 years since the war ended, but watching this series filled me with a rage to seek revenge and balance the books. So many died, and so few were brought to account. I am not religious, but in this case I hope there is a God that will make sure all those involved spend their days in damnation

Recently screened on the BBC here in UK is on the best documentaries I have seen in a very long time. Powerful and compelling viewing for everybody it is the sort of program that should be shown at schools. But it does not lecture it lets the facts speak for themselves.

Can one get tired of hearing about the holocaust? Not as long as there are new things to learn - and it seems there always are. Rich with detail and new information as well as special features that interview experts and survivors, this DVD adds to our growing understanding of the Nazis and their mission. One unsettling admission is how much like "us" the Nazis seemed to be when interviewed after the war. They believed, at the time, that what they were doing was the right thing to do. They weren't, as I always thought, "just following orders." They believed in what they were doing. How often do we all say that? And how often are we just plain wrong? We need to understand these things and more if we are to truly to be able to say, "Never again!" All these years later, so little has changed.

The more we tire of hearing about the Holocaust and refuse to believe that it is a problem for today, the more vulnerable we become to its reality. I will never look away. Those people had to live it. The least we can do is to bear witness - every single time the opportunity arises.


Aimee and Jaguar

A wonderful documentary profiling the worst period since humans have been on this planet. Linda Hunt is a perfect choice for narrator - the rare footage and computer-enhanced graphics only add to the value of this special DVD. A horrific time, presented as factually as possible. Bravo! Everyone should see this - it should be used in all schools as an educational tool and a warning to all.

Frankly, I was fooled by all the positive reviews. In short: This film is incredibly repetitive, and relies on actors and computerized imagery. The producers and writers are not well informed about the camps, and appear to be blissfully unaware of all the incredible, shocking footage that is available--for almost none of that footage appears in this film. The writers and producers are also unaware of what led to the creation of the gas chambers, such as the fact that Nazi soldiers were breaking down, crying, etc., after hours of shooting innocent people, whereas Himmler turned green and nearly got sick when some brain matter splashed on his uniform. Himmler decided there must be a more humane way of killing--more humane for the Nazis. Likewise, this film completely ignores Hitler and fails to address Hitler's reasons for hating the Jews, and the influence of the defeats in Russia on the decision to begin mass extermination. Instead, we get banal generalities, computerized images, modern landscapes, and actors smoking cigars, staring at maps, and riding in cars. The film completely loses sight of the big picture and instead focuses on minutia and the irrelevant. The makers of this film are also obviously uncomfortable with the horrors of the camps, because they try to avoid it and instead focus on the irrelevant. I've seen several documentaries where witnesses and victims provide incredibly gripping, horrifying accounts of what took place. By contract, most of the "victims" interviewed for this film are not believable and claimed first hand knowledge of events they could not have witnessed or persons (e.g. Dr. Mengel) whom they could never have met--unless of course, you wish to believe these witnesses were able to freely roam about the camp, offices, and medical labs, as if they were on a college campus instead of in a concentration camp. I am also sorry to report that Linda Hunt's (the narrator's) condescending, faux-intellectual voice, in my opinion, is very irratating. I've seen dozens of superior documentaries. Don't be fooled into buying this overly long, repetitive, and often quite boring pseudo-documentary.

This is a typically extremely well researched and produced BBC series. Comprehensively detailed, it is often confronting and is a fascinating portrait of humanity. Many times you suddenly realise that you are holding your breath totally drawn into another world - one in which you often question what you would have done and how you could have survived.