The Holocaust was one of the most traumatic periods humanity has ever collectively experienced. In the mid-19th century, about six million European Jews were murdered by Germany and its collaborators. The Germans under Hitler’s Nazi party made a sport of hunting Jews, even going so far as to devise ingenious methods to maximize the torture of the prisoners. This powerful tsunami of hatred crept into all walks of life, sparing no Jew, regardless of age or gender.
Much art has emerged from this traumatic experience. Movies were made and plays were written. But in the grand scheme of things, any form of art falls short of mimicking the nightmare that the Jews of the time endured, and the following films come as close to that as possible.
8/8 Amen (2002)
Amen, from Academy Award-winning director Costas Gavras, differs thematically from mainstream Holocaust films. Rather than focusing directly on the horrors faced by the Jews, the film focuses on a chemist, turned SS officer, and his relationship with a priest, after learning that one of his disinfectants is being used to kill Jews exterminate. Amen is adapted from a play called the deputy, which revolves around Pope Pius XII’s failure to speak out against the Germans and the Holocaust. Gavras approaches the subject like a political thriller, choosing to focus on the effects of war on a few good men in a position of power.
7/8 Kapo (1960)
kapo, translates to a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, who is given food and other privileges in exchange for supervising other prisoners. The film follows a 14-year-old girl named Edith (Susan Strasberg), who is uprooted from her comfortable existence in Paris and transported to a concentration camp. Edith takes the opportunity to assume the identity of a prisoner rather than a Jew, earning her some reprieve and privileges. Interestingly, Strasberg also played the title role in the original Broadway production of “The Diary of Anne Frank”making the transition from stage to screen feel more casual and natural.
6/8 The Gray Zone (2001)
Based on dr. Miklós Nyiszli’s terrifying book Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account, The gray zone follows a group of Sonderkommandos planning an uprising with the help of Polish partisans. Sonderkommandos were essentially prisoners tasked with disposing of dead bodies. Having better lodgings and living facilities than the other prisoners, the group was often looked up to for help by the Jews, which placed them in a moral quandary as their position and longevity as Sonderkommando were also uncertain. Every few months the old group was sent to a gas chamber and replaced by a new group. The film depicts one such uprising by the Sonderkommandos that took place in Auschwitz, where the group of prisoners blew up one of the gas chambers, leading to chaos and disaster.
5/8 Europe Europe (1990)
A beautiful story of the loss of innocence, EuropeEurope, sheds light on human survival through the eyes of a small Jewish teenager named Salek. As Nazism flourishes across the country, Salek’s family flees Germany, though the boy is separated from his family and placed in an orphanage. Soon the Germans arrive at the orphanage, and coincidentally, Salek convinces them that he is of Aryan descent, turning hatred into admiration in the eyes of the Germans. The young boy then becomes an interpreter and joins the Hitler Youth and falls in love with Lena, a hard-nosed anti-Semite. A tale of cruelty, love and fate, EuropeEurope is one of the classics of the Holocaust.
4/8 Life Is Beautiful (1997)
While some films about the Holocaust are dark, Roberto Benigni’s are Life is Beautiful is an accurate representation of what the title suggests. In his efforts to lessen the impact of the darkness of war, a loving Jewish father devises a series of fantasy games to protect his son from the horrors of life in a concentration camp. The film metaphorically emphasizes the spirit of life and the need to always look on the bright side of things, even and especially when everything seems wrong.
3/8 Downfall (2004)
Newmarket Movies
Demise revolves around Hitler’s last few days before his alleged suicide. The film realistically documents Hitler through his various stages of denial and resentment, eventually culminating in helplessness and acceptance. Demise is largely set in Hitler’s underground bunker, in contrast to the lavishness the dictator was once known for. Demise is a bittersweet watch, chronicling a man’s descent from grace. But as soon as the realization sinks in that the man in question is directly responsible for the extermination of an entire race, empathy turns to revenge.
2/8 Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
A proof of innocence and friendship, Boy In The Striped Pajamas deals with themes where children are responsible for the consequences of adults. In Bruno and Shmuel’s pure world, they are oblivious to the hatred or division that has placed them on opposite sides of the fence in a concentration camp. Bruno, the son of an SS officer, and Shmuel, a Jew, form an innocent friendship that could cost them everything, including their lives.
1/8 The Pianist (2002)
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Roman Polanski The pianist is perhaps one of the most moving films about the Holocaust. It’s as heartbreaking as it is shocking. Based on a Holocaust memoir by pianist and composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, the film masterfully highlights the life and banality endured by many Polish Jews, regardless of their position in society. Szpilman’s character was played by Adrien Brody, who delivered one of the best performances in modern acting, winning an Oscar at the age of 29, making him the youngest actor ever to do so.