Posted on 01/08/2014 4:35:51 PM PST by BBell
Alfred Hitchcock's lost documentary about the horrors of the Holocaust is scheduled to be screened in full for the first time.
The legendary moviemaker created the documentary using footage filmed during the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in 1945, and Hitchcock was reportedly so traumatized by the shocking scenes, he took a week off work to recover.
The project, originally titled Memory of the Camps, was eventually shelved, and the film reels were given to the Imperial War Museum in London.
Some of the documentary was later cobbled back together and an incomplete version was screened at the Berlin Film Festival in Germany in 1984 and broadcast on U.S. TV a year later.
Memory of the Camps has now been revived and completed with the addition of a previously missing roll of film as part of a 2015 project to mark the 70th anniversary of occupied Europe's liberation following the Second World War.
The movie will air in Britain in 2015, along with a documentary about the restoration called Night Will Fall, which will also be shown at film festivals and in cinemas.
Interesting comments at the bottom from the holocaust deniers.
Thatnks for posting.
Hitchcock was an odd ball but he sure knew how to make a movie.
Fresh out of college I subbed for a history teacher. I watched the 1st hour of this (pretty sure it is the same one) 5 times in one day. I was just numb by end of the day.
I'm in the same camp. That documentary - as incomplete as it was - made my dad cry.
One of the hardest things to realize is that Bergen-Belsen was a mere "concentration camp" that held political prisoners as well as Jews, Gypsies, and others the Nazis hatted. In terms of volumes of dead, it was very small as compared to the "extermination camps" dedicated to killing.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Blzec, Chelmo, Treblinka, Maly Trostinets - all conveniently set up OUTSIDE Germany (mostly Poland) was where was systematic murder in mega-death numbers took place.
I too recall watching this and concur with your assessment. All of the deniers should watch this.
Brought to you by the NAZI party. The National Socialist Workers Party
I’ve never heard about this. How fascinating. I hope this doesn’t sound crass, but why is the footage in this film more disturbing than so much of the disturbing video that’s been shown?
Also, with regard to the narration, why would they change the original Trevor Howard to a “contemporary actor”?
FMCDH(BITS)
bfl
To me the worse part was the seemingly endless dragging of bodies to mass graves, bulldozers pushing piles of bodies into pits; just seems to go on and on.
Trevor Howard’s understated narration really added to the effect.
In regard to the narration, when I watched it it was shown in full, non-stop. At the beginning it was announced that the original audio was not complete but that the documentary would be played like it was, with the audio coming on and off frequently.
It's been almost 30 years since I watched it but if I remember correctly there were some scenes where bodies parts were coming detached from the corpses as they were being moved.
They say it was brilliant filmmaking
I’d forgotten about the bulldozers. Truly disturbing.
Thank you for this link...
Reading through the comments, I found this...
http://www.documentarytube.com/an-alfred-hitchcock-documentary-on-the-nazi-holocaust
It looks like it’s the original...
That is it! thanks for posting.
My local PBS affiliate showed it most years from 1985 - 2003 or so. Every April. I always forced myself to watch it. To somehow honor the victims, I suppose.
It always ended abruptly due to the missing reel.
Western Europe was freed from occupation in 1945 but Eastern Europe had to wait another 45 years or so until they were liberated.
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