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The Warsaw Ghetto (ca. 1940 - 1943) [DVD]

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I obtained this DVD after our visit to Warsaw, where I first saw these images unabridged and in context. I had seen photos and short sections before, but actually being in Warsaw and learning so much more about the history of the Nazi occupation in Poland is something that can only be experienced where it happened. So when I watched this DVD after coming home, the images cut straight to my heart in a way they never quite had before, because I knew so much more about what is taking place.
Prior to World War II, nowhere in Europe was the Jewish population higher than in Poland, and the people there had established a rich and influential culture over the centuries. It didn't take Hitler's henchmen long to destroy, stupidly, almost everyone and everything.
The German occupiers forced millions of Jewish families to cram themselves into the Warsaw ghetto, then a high wall was constructed to surround the area. No one was allowed to leave, and no food or other vital supplies were allowed in. The adults and children were simply left to starve to death.
The German occupiers actually visited the ghetto on the weekends to amuse themselves. German soldiers even strolled there with their dates.
The most heartbreaking images are of the children, who try to keep a smile on their little faces. One little boy dances for handouts. It is horrible.
Those holding the cameras were Nazis. The behavior of the people who appear in the film can only be considered in this context. Men doff their hats to the unseen film crew; rabbis who attempt to bury the stripped and emaciated dead cannot even appear to pray; people walk by the dead and dying who lie in the street because they are not allowed to show concern.
There is no possible way that anyone can fully understand what these innocent men, women and children went through without having experienced it themselves. All we can do is watch with an infinitely deep sense of sorrow and respect. As for those who stole from these people, and tortured and murdered them one by one, we must face the fact that there are human beings who are capable of such evil. It is only through the actions of good people that such inhumanity can never be allowed to happen again.