Night Will Fall

Villagio

Did anyone watch this documentary on channel 4?

It's about the allied crews in world war 2 who were assigned with filming footage of scenes at the concentration camps as they were being liberated. I've never seen anything as disturbing in my life before.

wretcheddomain

I'm afraid not. I was too busy doing something interesting.

Timberrrrrrrr

Villagio wrote: »

Did anyone watch this documentary on channel 4?

It's about the allied crews in world war 2 who were assigned with filming footage of scenes at the concentration camps. I'very never seen anything as disturbing in my life before.

Watched it last night, pity it was on late on a Saturday. More people need to see this sort of programme to remind them of the atrocities that happened not so long ago.

Menas

I watched it this morning. I had seen most of the footage before but it is still harrowing. It does still amaze me the scale of the killing and dehumanisation that went on in those camps.
What I liked about Night will fall was that it showed the healing process too...people getting better, getting clothed etc.

Villagio

The scenes of emaciated bodies being dumped in pits like trash were shocking. Was just watching the end of it now, had to turn it off.

Birneybau

wretcheddomain wrote: »

I'm afraid not. I was too busy doing something interesting.

Well done you.

Those that forget history are condemned to repeat it.

Harry Palmr

Timberrrrrrrr wrote: »

Watched it last night, pity it was on late on a Saturday. More people need to see this sort of programme to remind them of the atrocities that happened not so long ago.

9 PM isn't late

I saw it, nothing that I haven't seen before so not shocked in that regard but its worth the occasional reminder as to what man can do to man when ideology begets psychopathic madness on an industrial scale. Certain every teenager should be made to watch it.

Ghost Buster

wretcheddomain wrote: »

I'm afraid not. I was too busy doing something interesting.

What a waste of a 2,701 st post

diddley

Ya I saw it, awful stuff but I'd seen it before.

I read something recently about the director of the Auschwitz museum saying the upcoming anniversary (70th) could well be the last 10 year anniversary with survivors in attendance so it's important for us to remember.

One eyed Jack

Christ, I was about to ask the OP for a link so I could watch it as it sounded like something from the "World at War" series, but after reading this -


http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/22/hitchcock-holocaust-documentary-belsen-night-will-fall


I realise other posters here weren't exaggerating. I'll be giving it a miss tbh, nobody should be made to watch that kind of horror.

Menas

One eyed Jack wrote: »

I'll be giving it a miss tbh, nobody should be made to watch that kind of horror.

I would disagree with you there. People should watch it to know what man kind is capable of and to help prevent it from happening again.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Trigger Happy wrote: »

I would disagree with you there. People should watch it to know what man kind is capable of and to help prevent it from happening again.

+1

The disturbing thing for me was the people living locally around the camps and directly benefiting from its existence who were unable or unwilling to witness the mass corpses and graves being filled with the slave labour they used in their houses and farms.

Amica

I mostly agree that people should watch it to really understand the horrors of genocide and I also feel some sort of duty toward the victims (sort of like, they had to endure it - the least we can do is not turn our gaze away). However it is obviously very distressing to watch and I don't think people should be forced to watch - more encouraged.

I actually know somebody who believes the Holocaust never happened...very difficult for me. I wish this documentary would change his mind but I know it won't :-(

qt3.14

Timberrrrrrrr wrote: »

Watched it last night, pity it was on late on a Saturday. More people need to see this sort of programme to remind them of the atrocities that happened not so long ago.

I think not. Everyone but the wilfully ignorant knows enough about the actions of the Nazis to be horrified. Very few people seem to know what Stalin got up to, or the Turks in Armenia or a host of other atrocities.

Timberrrrrrrr

Harry Palmr wrote: »

9 PM isn't late

I saw it, nothing that I haven't seen before so not shocked in that regard but its worth the occasional reminder as to what man can do to man when ideology begets psychopathic madness on an industrial scale. Certain every teenager should be made to watch it.

Not "late" per se but it's a time and day when many young people (who should be educated about the past) are out.

Timberrrrrrrr

Trigger Happy wrote: »

I would disagree with you there. People should watch it to know what man kind is capable of and to help prevent it from happening again.

Agree, i would go as far as saying it should be a compulsory subject in secondry school (history classes tend to gloss over it) to educate the young.

Pwindedd

For any one that missed it, it's on 4OD for next month. I downloaded the app just to watch it. Horrifying stuff. Far more detailed and graphic than anything I'd seen before and I've seen a few documentaries on the subject.

Mam of 4

Pwindedd wrote: »

For any one that missed it, it's on 4OD for next month. I downloaded the app just to watch it. Horrifying stuff. Far more detailed and graphic than anything I'd seen before and I've seen a few documentaries on the subject.

Thanks for that, was just about to ask if anyone knew if it would be repeated.
Although I know it will be hard to watch .

conorh91

Must get around to watching this online, if possible.

I only saw Schindler's List for the first time over the Christmas, and it weighed on my mind for days afterwards. Unbelievably brutal period in Europe's history.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Shoah: First Era on BBC 4 atm recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as victims.

Leogirl

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Shoah: First Era on BBC 4 atm recounts the story of the Holocaust through interviews with witnesses - perpetrators as well as victims.

Thanks for that, been meaning to watch this for a while.

As for last nights one- I've watched so many documentaries and movies on the holocaust but this one really got to me. Very disturbing but it was also good to see how the victims started to recover & begin to feel human again. I think it will stay on my mind for a while. As it should.

Venus In Furs

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

The disturbing thing for me was the people living locally around the camps and directly benefiting from its existence who were unable or unwilling to witness the mass corpses and graves being filled with the slave labour they used in their houses and farms.

Probably too overcome with guilt.

qt3.14 wrote: »

I think not. Everyone but the wilfully ignorant knows enough about the actions of the Nazis to be horrified. Very few people seem to know what Stalin got up to, or the Turks in Armenia or a host of other atrocities.

I'd say it's a lot more than "very few people" in relation to Stalin. The Turks in Armenia, yeh - not a known one.

sadie06

I'm afraid to say there is no way I would be able to watch it. I think it is fantastic that this period was documented in film format, and that the work has finally come to the fore and is being viewed by so many. I'm glad I read the thread and that I am aware of the documentary and the shocking nature of its content.

Unfortunately, I'd be likely to throw myself under a bus in despair if I viewed the footage. Likewise, I can't engage fully with present-day events in Nigeria, Syria, and elsewhere as I just can't cope with the full and brutal reality of the situation.

It's a mad, mad world!

Jawgap

Shoah - the shortened 4.5 hr version of it is on BBC 4 at the moment - if you're interested in that topic.

Autonomous Cowherd

qt3.14 wrote: »

I think not. Everyone but the wilfully ignorant knows enough about the actions of the Nazis to be horrified. Very few people seem to know what Stalin got up to, or the Turks in Armenia or a host of other atrocities.

The Gulag Archipelago gives some insight into Stalin's atrocities and Primo Levi's ''If This Is A Man' gives insight into an Italian man's experience in Auschwitz. Both are very poignant books, especially i would say Levis. It is true what that there are atrocities we do not remember well. As far as I am aware there has been no literature published by those who experienced the Rwandan massacres for example, when (as my husband regularly says in disbelief) they were rounding up the casualty figures to the nearest million.

Gonna check out that documentary in OP. Thanks.

Autonomous Cowherd

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/holocaust-night-will-fall/on-demand/57245-001
available here for a month

Yurt2

Jawgap wrote: »

Shoah - the shortened 4.5 hr version of it is on BBC 4 at the moment - if you're interested in that topic.

Harrowing yet compelling viewing. Watched the entire thing in almost a single sitting over a weekend, and was zoned out for a couple of days afterwards. The bit where he tracks down the SS guy and he's working as normal punter in a restaurant in West Germany sticks with me the most for some reason. Almost unbelievable how such a sophisticated and learned civilization like Europe (it was enabled by more than the Germans) collapsed into insanity and murder for murder's sake. But it happened and logically it could happen again.

Birneybau

Jawgap wrote: »

Shoah - the shortened 4.5 hr version of it is on BBC 4 at the moment - if you're interested in that topic.

Full length version, second half on next week. Recording it myself, couldn't sit through 4 and a half hours of it in one go.

Bruthal

wretcheddomain wrote: »

I'm afraid not. I was too busy doing something interesting.

Id say a closed mind would be a great thing to lose.

Mam of 4

Birneybau wrote: »

Full length version, second half on next week. Recording it myself, couldn't sit through 4 and a half hours of it in one go.

Also recording it to watch when I have a quiet house .

I didn't see that (I wasn't aware that it was on) but I did visit Auschwitz in the 1990s, seeing the place really reinforces all you've ever heard or seen on the TV.

Bruthal

Amica wrote: »

I actually know somebody who believes the Holocaust never happened...very difficult for me. I wish this documentary would change his mind but I know it won't :-(

What do these people think the footage, and survivors accounts of events are, science fiction?

Bruthal

Bruthal wrote: »

What do these people think the footage, and survivors accounts of events are, science fiction?

I think that it was US general Pattern who said when visiting Dachau, "record as much as possible, make movies of everything, because at some point in the future some SOB will pretend it never happened!"

That's not his exact quote, but along the lines of what he said, and he was right to say it!

mailforkev

PBS are showing the movie that came out of that filming on Tuesday night for the first time on UK television.

cassid

It was pretty shocking stuff to be honest. I could not watch it all, had to stop about 3/4's way through.

The haunted look on those poor dead people. Some of the bodies were like deflated dolls just skin. I felt sorry for the poor soliders who were initally given the task of carrying the bodies.

It was fitting to see the nazi's were then given the tasks of moving the deceased to the pits, it was interesting to see that they allies made the german locals go into the camps to witness the horrors that were going on in their town.

When I was looking at it, I was thinking about people who claim that the holocaust never happened, especially when it was documentated.

The only saving grace, was that they did not show children and babies,

Amica

Bruthal wrote: »

What do these people think the footage, and survivors accounts of events are, science fiction?

conspiracy (rolls eyes angrily)

Amica

Bruthal wrote: »

What do these people think the footage, and survivors accounts of events are, science fiction?

conspiracy - explanations like actors, special effects (rolls eyes angrily)

pidgeoneyes

Was in Auschwitz-Birkenau last July. A very good tour. If you came from another planet you'd still know something dreadful went on there. There's just a bad air about the place!

gipi

Amica wrote: »

conspiracy - explanations like actors, special effects (rolls eyes angrily)

Billy Wilder (who directed the US film which used the camp footage) pretty much said the same - that some people would think the victims were movie extras.

Saw the prog this evening - emotional doesn't describe it very well, but I can't put any other words on it right now.

curioser

Some episodes of The Rise of the Nazi Party on Discovery this evening - also very harrowing. I'm still waiting for the comment - yes it was all terrible but.... and then proceed to rant about the current situation on Israel's borders.

Capt'n Midnight

qt3.14 wrote: »

I think not. Everyone but the wilfully ignorant knows enough about the actions of the Nazis to be horrified. Very few people seem to know what Stalin got up to, or the Turks in Armenia or a host of other atrocities.

There's the 3 million Russian POW's that the German Army (regular not just the SS) allowed to die during winter of 41/42 ,

the graveyard in Belarus with hundreds of markers. Every one representing a village wiped out with no survivors.

then there's the Second Congo War including what happened in Rwanda and Burundi

Cambodia was just insane


oddly enough it was the Germans who first recognised the Armenian Genocide.


the good news is that your chances of dying in wars or famines are less than any time in recent history

Capt'n Midnight

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

There's the 3 million Russian POW's that the German Army (regular not just the SS) allowed to die during winter of 41/42 ,

the graveyard in Belarus with hundreds of markers. Every one representing a village wiped out with no survivors.

then there's the Second Congo War including what happened in Rwanda and Burundi

Cambodia was just insane


oddly enough it was the Germans who first recognised the Armenian Genocide.


the good news is that your chances of dying in wars or famines are less than any time in recent history

True, and you're only referencing the middle of the 20th century.
In earlier conflicts it wasn't unusual for the vanquished to be almost wiped out and any survivors to be sold into slavery.

animum

I just watched it, and I cried. As someone said, everyone needs to watch this at some point. Horrifying.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Venus In Furs wrote: »

Probably too overcome with guilt.

I'd say it's a lot more than "very few people" in relation to Stalin. The Turks in Armenia, yeh - not a known one.

I don't think they were overcome with guilt, tbh. I think they just ignored what was happening as it was costing them nothing and they were receiving goods and services at little cost.

Their first exposure to the reality of the camp changed from a happy day out on the walk to the camp to the comprehension of what actually happened in the camp.

For me, the horror is in how easily a society can accept the constant, inch by inch, dilution of normality. I have little doubt that similar scenarios will continue to happen, unfortunately.

Baggy Trousers

wretcheddomain wrote: »

I'm afraid not. I was too busy doing something interesting.

It's only January and you are probably winner of most idiotic and childish post of the year. Well done.

Villagio

I'm curious what the opinions of the German public were of Hitler and the Nazi party in the 5 years or so following their defeat.

jimgoose

Arbeit Macht Frei. Or, as the HSE would say, kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.

Birneybau

jimgoose wrote: »

Arbeit Macht Frei. Or, as the HSE would say, kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.

What? What does 'Work will set you free' have to do with the rest?

FloatingVoter

Villagio wrote: »

I'm curious what the opinions of the German public were of Hitler and the Nazi party in the 5 years or so following their defeat.

There are several books on the subject. Hitlers Willing Executioners (1996) sheds light on the complicity of "ordinary" segments of German society in the Holocaust. Those were active participants. As for the inactive, the unseeing.....life was good, no rationing until the later stages of the war. They won't feel the brunt until Stalingrad and the inevitable aftermath.
Germany itself was in ruins after the war. People were scavenging for food and later trying to rebuild lives. Denial was rife even though the trains going east were not invisible. You cannot murder 6,000,000 people quietly.
And making the records and memories of the lives of 6,000,000 people disappear from the mind of nations is impossible.

Zebra3

Birneybau wrote: »

Well done you.

Those that forget history are condemned to repeat it.

And within a couple of years the British were back with their concentration camps in Africa again.

Lyaiera

Someone linked to pictures of German POWs being shown the video of the concentration camps and their survivors. It brought me to tears. Here were soldiers finally being unabashedly confronted with what they were fighting for. They couldn't deny it any longer.