View Full Version : Alfred Hitchcock's unseen Holocaust documentary to be screened



Prunepicker
01-08-2014, 03:20 PM
From The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/alfred-hitchcocks-unseen-holocaust-documentary-to-be-screened-9044945.html)
... In 1945, Hitchcock (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/alfred-hitchcock-facts-10-not-so-hidden-secrets-about-the-master-of-suspense-9047071.html?dkdkdk) had been enlisted by his friend and patron Sidney
Bernstein to help with a documentary on German wartime atrocities, based on
the footage of the camps shot by British and Soviet film units. In the event,
that documentary was never seen.

"It was suppressed because of the changing political situation, particularly for
the British," suggests Dr Toby Haggith, Senior Curator at the Department of
Research, Imperial War Museum. "Once they discovered the camps, the
Americans and British were keen to release a film very quickly that would
show the camps and get the German people to accept their responsibility for
the atrocities that were there."

The film took far longer to make than had originally been envisaged. By late
1945, the need for it began to wane. The Allied military government decided
that rubbing the Germans' noses in their own guilt wouldn't help with postwar
reconstruction.

Chadanth
01-08-2014, 06:59 PM
From The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/alfred-hitchcocks-unseen-holocaust-documentary-to-be-screened-9044945.html)
... In 1945, Hitchcock (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/alfred-hitchcock-facts-10-not-so-hidden-secrets-about-the-master-of-suspense-9047071.html?dkdkdk) had been enlisted by his friend and patron Sidney
Bernstein to help with a documentary on German wartime atrocities, based on
the footage of the camps shot by British and Soviet film units. In the event,
that documentary was never seen.

"It was suppressed because of the changing political situation, particularly for
the British," suggests Dr Toby Haggith, Senior Curator at the Department of
Research, Imperial War Museum. "Once they discovered the camps, the
Americans and British were keen to release a film very quickly that would
show the camps and get the German people to accept their responsibility for
the atrocities that were there."

The film took far longer to make than had originally been envisaged. By late
1945, the need for it began to wane. The Allied military government decided
that rubbing the Germans' noses in their own guilt wouldn't help with postwar
reconstruction.

Interesting, I didn't know he made that. I'll have to check it out.

RadicalModerate
01-08-2014, 08:49 PM
"Shoah" (another look at what occurred) was one of the most powerful glimpses of that time I have ever seen. It was screened on PBS many years ago then mysteriously dropped off into some corner of the mediasphere . . . sort of like "Connections" (with James Burke).

I wonder why that happened.
("Shoah" disappearing from the easily accessible public eye)

ljbab728
01-08-2014, 09:48 PM
It may not be the final version referenced in the article but the documentary has been shown before and it does have some shocking video and pictures.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaR3qud2-e8