- published: 06 Feb 2016
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This page is about the film by the name of Shoah. For other uses, see Shoah (disambiguation)
Shoah is a 1985 French documentary film directed by Claude Lanzmann about the Holocaust (also known as the Shoah). The film primarily consists of interviews and visits to key Holocaust sites.
Although loosely structured, the film is concerned mainly with four topics: Chełmno, where gas vans were first used to exterminate Jews; the death camps of Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau; and the Warsaw Ghetto, with testimonies from survivors, witnesses, and perpetrators.
The sections on Treblinka include testimony from Abraham Bomba, who survived as a barber, Richard Glazar, an inmate, and a rare interview with Franz Suchomel, an SS officer who worked at the camp who reveals intricate details of the camp's gas chamber. Suchomel apparently agreed to provide Lanzmann with some anonymous background details; Lanzmann instead secretly filmed his interview, with the help of assistants and a hidden camera. There is also an account from Henryk Gawkowski, who drove one of the trains while intoxicated with vodka. Gawkowski is portrayed on the photograph used on the poster.
Claude Lanzmann directed this 9 1/2 hour documentary of the Holocaust without using a single frame of archive footage. He interviews survivors, witnesses, and ex-Nazis (whom he had to film secretly since they only agreed to be interviewed by audio). His style of interviewing by asking for the most minute details is effective at adding up these details to give a horrifying portrait of the events of Nazi genocide. He also shows, or rather lets some of his subjects themselves show, that the anti-Semitism that caused 6 million Jews to die in the Holocaust is still alive in well in many people that still live in Germany, Poland, and elsewhere.
Keywords: auschwitz, burning-corpse, bystanderism, child-murder, collaboration-with-nazis, concentration-camp, corpse, crime-against-humanity, cruelty, crying
Claude Lanzmann: And this "death panic"?::Franz Suchomel: When this "death panic" sets in, one lets go.It's well known when someone's terrified, and knows he's about to die; it can happen in bed.My mother was kneeling by her bed...::Claude Lanzmann: Your mother?::Franz Suchomel: Yes.Then there was a big pile.That's a fact.It's been medically proved.
Franz Suchomel: If you lie enough,you believe your own lies.
Claude Lanzmann: And this "death panic"?::Rudolf Vrba: When this "death panic" sets in, one lets go.It's well known when someone's terrified, and knows he's about to die; it can happen in bed.My mother was kneeling by her bed...::Claude Lanzmann: Your mother?::Rudolf Vrba: Yes.Then there was a big pile.That's a fact.It's been medically proved.
Rudolf Vrba: If you lie enough,you believe your own lies.
Watching the sequence of sounds
Coming out of your mouth
But the snore is too loud
Follow the hands as they move
Try to make out your move
But my brain doesn't want to
Silent call for you
What have I done to you
Kill and run, kill and run
I'm one of the dirty guns
Kill and run, kill and run
A bullet through your heart
Interpret the eyes as they die
Should i cry should I love
Your poor lashes blow
Victim of sensory love
You cry over my
An innocent call
Silent call for you
What have I done to you
Kill and run, kill and run
I'm one of the dirty guns
Kill and run, kill and run
A bullet through your heart
Kill and run, kill and run
I'm one of the dirty guns
Kill and run, kill and run