שעות של צילומים על ידי בעלות הברית במחנות הריכוז הגרמניים נערכו ב-1945 לסרט שהיה מיועד לצופים גרמנים שלא הכירו או הכחישו את זוועות השמדת היהודים באירופה. העורכים של הסרט נעזרו בעצות של גאון הקולנוע אלפרד היצ'קוק בכדי לערוך את הסרט, שלבסוף נגנז ונשאר להעלות אבק באחד הארכיונים הבריטיים. כעת יוצא הסרט בגרסתו המלאה בעותק משופץ במהדורה מיוחדת ,שמכילה תוספות מרתקות למי שרוצה להעמיק את חוויית הצפייה ולהבין את משמעויותיו ההיסטוריות וההיסטוריוגרפיות של התיעוד הנדיר. המהדורה כוללת בונוסים רבים.
On 29 September 1945, the incomplete rough-cut of a disturbing yet compelling documentary revealing the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps was viewed at the Ministry of Information in London. For five months, Sidney Bernstein had led a small team - which included Stewart McAllister, Richard Crossman, Sergei Nolbandov and Alfred Hitchcock - to complete the film from hours of footage.
Unfortunately, this ambitious Allied project to create a feature-length visual report that would damn the Nazi regime and shame the German people into acceptance of Allied occupation had missed its moment, and was left unfinished and shelved. Even in its incomplete form, the film was immensely powerful, generating an awed hush among audiences. But now, complete to six reels, this faithfully restored and definitive version produced by the Imperial War Museums and with a newly recorded narration by actor Jasper Britton, has been rightfully compared with Alan Resnais' Night and Fog (1955).
Special features
- New restoration by IWM (Imperial War Museums)
- Presented with both an optional contextualising Intro and Outro
- Panel Discussion at the BFI Southbank (2015, 42 mins): restoration director Dr Toby Haggith (IMW) is joined on-stage by a panel of experts to discuss the film
- Audio Commentary with Dr Toby Haggith and senior curator Patrick Russell (BFI)
- Vox Pops Compilation (2015, 6 mins): cinema-goers reflect after a screening at the BFI Southbank
- Interview with Ludwig Weill at Fort Breendonk (1945, 5 mins): archival interview with a freed prisoner
- Interviews and Statements at Bergen-Belsen (1945, 17 mins): archival interviews with SS soldiers, freed prisoners and members of the British Army
- Interviews and Statements at Dachau (1945, 37 mins): archival interviews with recently liberated prisoners
- Interview with Petr Zenkl (1945, 12 mins): archival interview with the Czech politician who was imprisoned at Dachau and Buchenwald
- Alternate archival soundtrack
- 80-page perfect-bound book with new writing on the film, and full film credits
אנגליה (2014).
