The mass murder of Jewish people by the Nazi regime is chronicled, with a warning that anti-Semitism is on the rise and the events of the Holocaust could happen again. The history of European Jewish culture and events before and during the Holocaust are seen in newsreels, photographs, and animated segments. The words of the victims of the era are read, and footage from the liberation os a concentration camp is shown.
Elizabeth Taylor
Narrator (voice)
Orson Welles
Narrator (voice)
Simon Wiesenthal
Self
Neville Chamberlain
Self (archive footage)
Winston Churchill
Self (archive footage)
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Self (archive footage)
Joseph Goebbels
Self (archive footage) (as Josef Goebbels)
Hermann Göring
Self - at Nuremberg Trials (archive footage)
Rudolf Hess
Self (archive footage)
The mass murder of Jewish people by the Nazi regime is chronicled, with a warning that anti-Semitism is on the rise and the events of the Holocaust could happen again. The history of European Jewish culture and events before and during the Holocaust are seen in newsreels, photographs, and animated segments. The words of the victims of the era are read, and footage from the liberation os a concentration camp is shown.
Orson Welles anchors the narration here describing some of the most heinous imagery from human history. He commences with a potted history of the often enforced transient existence of the Jewish communities in Europe before bringing us to twentieth century Germany where millions are unemployed, the economy is still on it’s knees after the defeat in the Great War and homelessness is rife. Skilfully navigating this national maelstrom, Adolf Hitler arrives with a clear and concise message: it’s all the Jews’ fault. Following on from Nero’s proven philosophy that giving people someone to loathe is always an effective way of cementing political power and diverting attention from the real issues, a period of persecution begins. Initially it’s registration, then their property is seized and then as the Nazi regime becomes more firmly entrenched and embarked on pan-European expansion, the rest of the holocaust unfolds before us. The production uses an effective combination of archive and animations to illustrate the story and for some especially poignant readings from many of their diaries, Elizabeth Taylor infuses a poignant degree of emotion as she delivers some perspectives from those tortured souls facing certain death at the hands of brutes in uniform or white coats. Viewers of this type of documentary will have seen much of the library footage before, but it never ceases to disgust as the inhumanity beggars belief, the corpses pile up and those aerial shots of the concentration camps never fail to affect.
Produced and presented as evidence at the Nuremberg war crimes trial of Hermann Göring and twenty other Nazi leaders, this film consists primarily of dead and surviving prisoners and of facilities used to kill and torture during the World War II.
"Trinity and Beyond" is an unsettling yet visually fascinating documentary presenting the history of nuclear weapons development and testing between 1945-1963. Narrated by William Shatner and featuring an original score performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, this award-winning documentary reveals previously unreleased and classified government footage from several countries.
Set both in Latin America and the United States, the film explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger says that the film "...tells a universal story... analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow".
With unprecedented access, this documentary follows the extraordinary journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”—a group of anonymous citizen journalists who banded together after their homeland was overtaken by ISIS—as they risk their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.
A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.
Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.
WWII from Space delivers World War II in a way you've never experienced it before. This HISTORY special uses an all-seeing CGI eye that offers a satellite view of the conflict, allowing you to experience it in a way that puts key events and tipping points in a global perspective. By re-creating groundbreaking moments that could never have been captured on camera, and by illustrating the importance of simultaneity and the hidden effects of crucial incidents, HISTORY presents the war's monumental moments in a never-before-seen context. And with new information brought to the forefront, you'll better understand how a nation ranked 19th in the world's militaries in 1939 emerged six years later as the planet's only atomic superpower.
Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II. This film examines the differences between democratic and fascist states.
This documentary movie is about the battle of San Pietro, a small village in Italy. Over 1,100 US soldiers were killed while trying to take this location, that blocked the way for the Allied forces from the Germans. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.
Meet the real-life airmen who inspired Masters of the Air as they share the harrowing and transformative events of the 100th Bomb Group.