A thought provoking read with my Thursday morning coffee. I have heard of the Sidney Bernstein film, the decision to shelve it, and some of the explanation for that decision. As you say we Brits were strapped, the demands of occupation duty, and of course the politics of the Cold War and the necessity of getting the German civilian population on side. Nevertheless given the frightening extent of Holocaust denial these films must play a key role in keeping the memory alive; particularly as the survivors pass from our midst. Let’s face it most of the deniers are not reading a serious study of The Holocaust anytime soon. I think as Adie said Ike ordered films made for the explicit purpose of challenging deniers. Thank goodness serious players realised it was important to record the aftermath of The Holocaust.
There is also "Nuremberg: Its Lessons For Today", which was the official American film using the film shown at the Nuremberg Tribunal. It was assembled by the novelist Budd Schulberg and his brother Stuart, working after the war with the OSS to find the German original film. It wasn't completed until early 1948, by which time US policy toward Germany and the USSR had changed with the onset of the Cold War and the Berlin Airlift and the creation of the Marshall Plan. The film was "disappeared" by the government. However, in 2009, Stuart's daughter Sandra discovered his personal 16mm copy of the film when she went through her parents effects following her mother's death. She created a foundation and worked to restore it in 35mm, which was completed in 2022 - I just learned about this in a documentary shown on Turner Classic Movies, "Filmmakers for the Prosecution" which tells the story of the Schulberg brothers, and how the German originals were found and used at the Tribunal. A little internet research afterward shows it's available to be seen now. Here is the site at the US Holocaust Museum. It's 1 hour 18 minutes long and it "pulls no punches" but it presents Justice Robert Jackson's hope that there would be a film to remind people that the horror wouldn't go away (as you could see here on the streets of Minneapolis last Saturday with the assassination of Alex Pretti by ICE thugs.) here's the link: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/film/nuremberg-its-lesson-for-today
Was it an independent decision amongst the allies to make a film record ,if I remember correctly Eisenhower was keen to film the horrors his armies came across. Thank goodness they did because those scenes were completely unbelievable to normal people, the film record is so vital.
Eisenhower said "film it, because it's certain some damn fool will come along to tell us it never happened." The decision was made to gather the German film that documented the crimes to be used for the prosecution at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, that they'd be convicted with their own words.
........and yet, here we are 80yrs later permitting people to gather in aggressive masses on British streets to bellow 'death to the Jews' whilst waving the flag of Palestine - which the British PM recognised......
......and would you believe it, some of them are the children, grand-children and great-children of British servicemen who fought Nazis?
In truth, it is one of the vilest phenomena I have ever seen - and that is saying something in consideration of the past ten years.
The fascists rise again - this time, they disguise themselves, they pretend to denounce fascism.
A thought provoking read with my Thursday morning coffee. I have heard of the Sidney Bernstein film, the decision to shelve it, and some of the explanation for that decision. As you say we Brits were strapped, the demands of occupation duty, and of course the politics of the Cold War and the necessity of getting the German civilian population on side. Nevertheless given the frightening extent of Holocaust denial these films must play a key role in keeping the memory alive; particularly as the survivors pass from our midst. Let’s face it most of the deniers are not reading a serious study of The Holocaust anytime soon. I think as Adie said Ike ordered films made for the explicit purpose of challenging deniers. Thank goodness serious players realised it was important to record the aftermath of The Holocaust.
Katja,
There is also "Nuremberg: Its Lessons For Today", which was the official American film using the film shown at the Nuremberg Tribunal. It was assembled by the novelist Budd Schulberg and his brother Stuart, working after the war with the OSS to find the German original film. It wasn't completed until early 1948, by which time US policy toward Germany and the USSR had changed with the onset of the Cold War and the Berlin Airlift and the creation of the Marshall Plan. The film was "disappeared" by the government. However, in 2009, Stuart's daughter Sandra discovered his personal 16mm copy of the film when she went through her parents effects following her mother's death. She created a foundation and worked to restore it in 35mm, which was completed in 2022 - I just learned about this in a documentary shown on Turner Classic Movies, "Filmmakers for the Prosecution" which tells the story of the Schulberg brothers, and how the German originals were found and used at the Tribunal. A little internet research afterward shows it's available to be seen now. Here is the site at the US Holocaust Museum. It's 1 hour 18 minutes long and it "pulls no punches" but it presents Justice Robert Jackson's hope that there would be a film to remind people that the horror wouldn't go away (as you could see here on the streets of Minneapolis last Saturday with the assassination of Alex Pretti by ICE thugs.) here's the link: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/film/nuremberg-its-lesson-for-today
Was it an independent decision amongst the allies to make a film record ,if I remember correctly Eisenhower was keen to film the horrors his armies came across. Thank goodness they did because those scenes were completely unbelievable to normal people, the film record is so vital.
Eisenhower said "film it, because it's certain some damn fool will come along to tell us it never happened." The decision was made to gather the German film that documented the crimes to be used for the prosecution at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, that they'd be convicted with their own words.
........and yet, here we are 80yrs later permitting people to gather in aggressive masses on British streets to bellow 'death to the Jews' whilst waving the flag of Palestine - which the British PM recognised......
......and would you believe it, some of them are the children, grand-children and great-children of British servicemen who fought Nazis?
In truth, it is one of the vilest phenomena I have ever seen - and that is saying something in consideration of the past ten years.
The fascists rise again - this time, they disguise themselves, they pretend to denounce fascism.