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The first documentary in this two-tape set,
The Holocaust and Vad YaShem, traces the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany from the end of World War I through to the horrors of the concentration camps. A lot of information is covered in a fairly short period of time, and so this is by design an overview. The basics of how Germany's defeat in World War I led to the Jews being portrayed as villains are covered, as is the rise of Hitler and his ultimate plan to kill more than 11 million European Jews. Archival photographs and vintage film clips, including grisly film of German units dedicated to killing Jews executing prisoners in the field, show graphically how the Final Solution operated. The second documentary in the set,
Displaced Persons, takes up the story from the end of World War II, when as many as 10 million homeless people found themselves wandering on the roads of Europe. Using interviews with participants, including a former member of a British airborne unit that liberated a concentration camp, the documentary describes the problems faced by refugees, including the difficulties many had in reaching Palestine. Both these films are intelligently produced, but one technical problem should be noted: the transfer to video from older film stock means that the picture quality often suffers.
--Robert J. McNamara
From the back cover
The Holocaust and "Yad VaShem". A special co-production of Yad VaShem, Israel Film Service, and Doko Video, this painful but vital memoriam traces the history of the Nazism from its earliest roots in Germany of 1918. Through a collection of miraculously precise and enlightening photographs and footage, we are given a look into the rich cultural, religious and social world of the Jews in Eastern Europe, destroyed forever in the fires of the Holocaust. The Holocaust is a remarkable and important film, for it captures not only the horrors of Kristlenacht, Babi Yar, and the monstrous concentration camps, but also the heroism and bravery of the Warshaw Ghetto uprising and the Jewish partisans who desperately tried to free their brethren. This testament is a significant educational tool, particularly in these times when anti-Semitism is all too real and tangible. The Holocaust must never be forgotten. Displaced Persons. Feeling lost in their own country, many survivors liberated from the Nazi concentration camps had only one place they would ever feel safe again--the land of Israel. This film follows the progress of an "illegal" immigrant ship, the SS Fearless, which set out from Italy to Palestine. It speaks with eyewitness officials and surviving immigrants. It shows the Herculean task most faced running the British Mandate blockades and landing in pre-state Palestine.
