Product Details

• Directors: studio
• Format: Black & White, Full length, Full Screen, NTSC
• VHS Release Date: May 7, 1995
• Run Time: 85 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: 1585850071
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #534,766 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From the Producer

"Outstanding and powerful". "We are truly blessed that a copy was saved". "Gen'l. Eisenhower favored the British to much, that's why he had the films destroyed". "A great combat film-equal to "Saving Private Ryan".

Product Description

"The film the U.S. Army did not want you to see". Immediately after the surrender of all German Forces, General Eisenhower ordered a film produced honoring the outstanding and stunning accomplishments of the American foot soldier, GI Joe.

Two weeks later, a powerful film was produced called the "final Report of the commanding General of the U.S. Army-"Lest we Forget". It contained gut-wrenching action and electrifying scenes that were shocking proof of the compelling price paid by the American foot soldier as he marched from Normandy to the gates of Berlin.

It was only a matter of time until General Eisenhower ordered have all copies of the film destroyed. He believed the threat of communism, the negative tone of this film did nothing to help plant the seeds of democracy in occupied Germany.

This dynamic video was made from the only known complete copy of the original film. It was brought back to the United States by a member of the original U.S. Army Signal Corp Photographic Company that produced this gripping film of combat in Europe.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars We Should Remember, March 21, 2003

By 

Dr. Victor S. Alpher (Austin, Texas, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lest We Forget [VHS] (VHS Tape)

In view of Robert Hilliard's book (Surviving the Americans) on the American treatment of D.P.s (Displaced Persons) and Jews in the American sector after V-E day this film, in its original form with film of concentration camps (Konzentrationslager or KZ in German) is all the more important. Eisenhower required orders from ABOVE to open the KZs and these sections were deleted from later versions of the film.

There are many scenes on this video that the baby-boomers need to see, and in some cases, their children. The original video, later somewhat sanitized, contained horrific scenes of liberated POW and "Labor Camps" that must have shocked the liberating soldiers to the point of active nausea. The soundtrack narration, written in a "hokum" style from the perspective of the ordinary "grunt" soldier, belies the impact of these black and white images, from Great Britain, through Normandy, and on from town to town through France, and on to Germany. There is brief mention of the important campaign of 1944 which ended at Arnhem (subject of the movie, "A Bridge too Far"), which failed to end the war by Christmas, 1944 as hoped.

As an introduction to the fighting in the European theatre, one might view this with the volume off. Clearly, the Allied strategy was to destroy anything in the path leading to Berlin, anything defended by what the narrator refers to as "Heinies"...and this does in a way detract from the film...but nonetheless, I recommend it to viewers of any political persuasion who are contemplating what the landscape of the 21st century may bring. As the destruction of civilian and military targets shows, we may be thankful for the advance in technology intended to spare noncombatants.