"Austria - First Victim of National Socialism" - this is the core theme of the self-image of the country that first welcomed Hitler with waving flags and arms stretched to the sky: Nation, People and Race - Sieg Heil! Monuments, commemorative events and in between the helplessness of dull remembrance. What to do with the lie, where to put the pain, and why again? The war of narratives begins with the liberation of the concentration camps, with the piles of corpses - and it continues to this day. A final journey with those who were there. Which story do we tell ourselves, and which do we want to hear?
Portugal managed to get through all of World War II without firing a single shot. Caught in a vise between the Axis and the Allies, Antonio Salazar, the country’s strongman, used every trick in the book to get his country through unscathed. In this war of nerves in which anything went, the Portuguese dictator took brilliant advantage of the only weapon available to maintain his country’s independence: neutrality.
This film captures the affair, full of love, lust, and despair, between Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, from 1932 until their double suicide in 1945.
Docudrama about the Soviet occupation of a Finnish village in the fall before the Winter War.
The story of the Holocaust survivors in Poland (1946-1949). Based on the films of Nathan Gross and Shaul Goskind: Akhar alpaim shana.
Over a 50-year career and more than a hundred movies, filmmaker John Ford (1894-1973) forged the legend of the Far West. By giving a face to the underprivileged, from humble cowboys to persecuted minorities, he revealed like no one else the great social divisions that existed and still exist in the United States. More than four decades after his death, what remains of his legacy and humanistic values in the memory of those who love his work?
Infiltré à Auschwitz
The life story of Mania Hartmayer-Breuer, who fled Germany at the age of 16 after the "Reichskristallnacht" and made her way via Antwerp and southern France to Rome, where she found shelter with Catholic nuns and finally experienced liberation. From there she arrived in the USA with the first refugee transport.
Emil Skamene has written more than 250 scientific publications, won dozens of distinguished awards, and was even on the verge of winning the Nobel Prize. He is the founder of the Institute for Clinical Research at McGill University in Montreal, a member of the Czech Learned Society, and a Knight of the National Order of Quebec. Not so long ago, he discovered that he was someone completely different – he had devoted his whole life to unlocking the secrets of genes, and yet he had been unaware of his own identity for decades. His life was a history that changed the whole of Europe and the world. His story is full of unbelievable and completely absurd situations that can only happen in real life.
German training film from World War II.
If Only I Were That Warrior is a feature documentary film focusing on the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1935. Following the recent construction of a monument dedicated to Fascist general Rodolfo Graziani, the film addresses the unpunished war crimes he and others committed in the name of Mussolini’s imperial ambitions. The stories of three characters, filmed in present day Ethiopia, Italy and the United States, take the audience on a journey through the living memories and the tangible remains of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia — a journey that crosses generations and continents to today, where this often overlooked legacy still ties the fates of two nations and their people.
Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.
Artist and filmmaker Philippe Mora (Mad Dog Morgan; The Howling II; Swastika) is producing a graphic novel about his late father, Georges, widely known in Melbourne as a beloved contemporary art patron and owner of bohemian eateries Mirka Café, Café Balzac and the Tolarno Restaurant and Galleries. Less known, however, is Georges' astonishing history as part of the French resistance during World War II, his friendship with renowned mime Marcel Marceau (Philippe's godfather), and how together they saved thousands of Jewish lives with a fiendishly simple trick involving baguettes and mayonnaise.
The Unknown Woman is a documentary film scripted and directed by Elina Kivihalme. It depicts the reality of Finnish agriculture and forestry during the war years, when the home front relied entirely upon the work and endurance of the women. All farm work, caring for the children, woodcutting and other forestry operations were undertaken by the civilians, as the men in their prime were on the front.
Survivors tell the story of the Babyn Yar massacre from WWII, where some 100,000 people were massacred by German forces.
A remarkable film that takes a special look at the first war to be truly reported and recorded by one of the more unsung heroes of World War II: the combat photographer. Through the unflinching eye of their camera's lenses, these courageous soldiers continually risked their lives in their brave attempts to capture history.
Дети блокады
The experimental stop motion story of a London boy in World War 2, we witness war drawing inexorably closer as he comes of age. 14 when war begins, our young hero lives through bombings, the evacuation of his siblings, the privations of wartime. Yet he survives and even thrives. He sets out to search for his friend in the East End during those turbulent and frightening times, and with his own voice tells his story with a wit and verve few would believe today. Finally we leave him at the brink on D-Day, a hero already in the making.
From Steven Spielberg and Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation comes Broken Silence, a series of five films about human courage, heroism, and triumph over intense adversities during World War II. Hell on Earth: Renowned Czech filmmaker Vojtech Jasny directed this Czech-language documentary, a look at Theresienstadt, the "model" Czech ghetto set up by the Nazis to deceive the world about how well the Jews were treated.
Forgotten Transports to Poland is a documentary by Lukáš Přibyl, part of a series that explores lesser-known Holocaust deportations. This film focuses on Jewish deportees sent to little-known camps in eastern Poland during World War II. It highlights their survival strategies and personal stories, offering a human perspective on these largely forgotten events.