"It's hard to imagine um, for a a normal human mind uh, I had peered into hell and that's (sobbing a couple or few seconds) it's not, ah, something you quickly forget and it's a little hard for me to describe."
Those were the words of Sgt. Benjamin Ferencz, U.S. Third Army, speaking on the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp in the documentary Night Will Fall right after he described things he had seen there. To say the least, it is a hauntingly memorable documentary about the making of another lost documentary
covering the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps near the end of WWII. Much of the footage in the documentary was from that so called lost film - German Concentration Camps. That documentary was made by the allies contemporaneously with the liberation of many of the camps 1945 (and one made in 1944 by the Russians) but was shelved before it was completed. To say the least, the images portrayed are horrific and burn themselves into your brain. There were also some clips from the American documentary Death Mills.
Night Will Fall, along with the imbedded German Concentrations Camps documentary, illustrates the ghastly things that men can do unto other men. Regardless of the horror, or more precisely exactly because of it, it is a film that should be watched by every living soul in the hopes we never repeat the mass executions of 13 million fellow human beings. There are scenes in it that will shock you and that you are unlikely to forget. One for me was seeing the bodies at Belsen-Bergen Camp, I could only think that sights like that were in some way used as models for zombies in todays horror movies. Another and possibly one of the most shocking scenes for me showed only buildings. It was an aerial film of Auschwitz Concentration Camp - it was the largest of the concentration camps and seeing its size in this film was chilling considering what took place therein. I won't go on more about it except to strongly suggest that you watch it. It is an eye opener. It is currently showing on HBO.
My hope is that I will one day be able to see German Concentration Camps in its entirety. Despite being shelved right after the war, it was resurrected by a British museum that completed it the way they believe it was meant to be done.
All the best,
Glenn B
Those were the words of Sgt. Benjamin Ferencz, U.S. Third Army, speaking on the liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp in the documentary Night Will Fall right after he described things he had seen there. To say the least, it is a hauntingly memorable documentary about the making of another lost documentary
covering the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps near the end of WWII. Much of the footage in the documentary was from that so called lost film - German Concentration Camps. That documentary was made by the allies contemporaneously with the liberation of many of the camps 1945 (and one made in 1944 by the Russians) but was shelved before it was completed. To say the least, the images portrayed are horrific and burn themselves into your brain. There were also some clips from the American documentary Death Mills.
Night Will Fall, along with the imbedded German Concentrations Camps documentary, illustrates the ghastly things that men can do unto other men. Regardless of the horror, or more precisely exactly because of it, it is a film that should be watched by every living soul in the hopes we never repeat the mass executions of 13 million fellow human beings. There are scenes in it that will shock you and that you are unlikely to forget. One for me was seeing the bodies at Belsen-Bergen Camp, I could only think that sights like that were in some way used as models for zombies in todays horror movies. Another and possibly one of the most shocking scenes for me showed only buildings. It was an aerial film of Auschwitz Concentration Camp - it was the largest of the concentration camps and seeing its size in this film was chilling considering what took place therein. I won't go on more about it except to strongly suggest that you watch it. It is an eye opener. It is currently showing on HBO.
My hope is that I will one day be able to see German Concentration Camps in its entirety. Despite being shelved right after the war, it was resurrected by a British museum that completed it the way they believe it was meant to be done.
All the best,
Glenn B
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