Documenting history can be a challenging task. With events like The Holocaust, special attention must be paid to honor the victims and their families. One of the most famous films made regarding this era in history is Claude Lanzmann’s epic Shoah. Shoah is lengthy, but it would be an exceptional selection for Holocaust Remembrance Day library programming.
Clocking in at over nine hours, Lanzmann’s film can be broken down into four segments. He covers the camps at Chelmno, the death camps at Treblinka and Auschwitz, and the Warsaw ghetto. Lanzmann deviates from normal Holocaust films here, as the perpetrators are also investigated (this has been the object of much scrutiny). One particularly harrowing interview is with former SS officer Franz Suchomel, who worked the camps at Treblinka. Lanzmann conceals the man’s identity, yet the former guard calling Treblinka a “well-functioning assembly line of death” is one of the film’s most striking, heartrending sections.
Jan Karski is another central figure in the film. A member of the resistance force Polish Underground, Karski used false documentation to intervene on behalf of the Jews being massacred. Lanzmann also speaks to Holocaust historian Raul Hillberg, who discusses the effective propaganda techniques used by the Nazis.
The film is exhaustive, and unbearable at points. It’s unrelenting in its focus, but it needs to be to accurately portray the horrors of the time. Lanzmann’s epic is required reviewing for any history classroom. It would also be a moving addition to a librarian or educator's World War II film collection.