Videos/Plays

Reviews of videos, movies, and plays.

The Survivor & War and Love

The Survivor, by Jack Eisner. New York: Wm. Morrow, 1980, 320 pp., ISBN 0-688-03741-0. War and Love, directed by Moshe Mizrahi, screenplay by Abby Mann, produced by Jack Eisner, released by Cannon Group,1985. Running time 112 min. In late 1980 I was contacted by a Chicago TV station with a proposal that I appear to…

Shoah

Shoah. Directed by Claude Lanzmann. Produced by Les Films Aleph, Historia Films with the French Ministry of Culture. Cinematographers: Dominique Chapuls, Jimmy Glasberg, William Lubehansky. Editors: Ziva Postec, Anna Ruiz. Running time: Part I, 4 hours, 33 minutes. Part II, 4 hours, 50 minutes. Shoah is a Hebrew word which means catastrophe. It has become…

Outlaw History #31

Even PBS's Linda Ellerbee seems a little sheepish about the question, “Why another Holocaust documentary?” She should be. Another mixing of “re-creations” with historical footage will provide American and British viewers with a step-by-step approach to the planning and execution of a “final solution,” that, in the event, didn't happen. Something happened, all right. But…

Outlaw History #33

Laurence Rees, the producer of Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State, was interviewed on PBS, one of our State-sponsored media outlets. The first question he was asked was: “Why is this series important?” Rees's response: “Auschwitz is a physical place – the site of the single largest mass murder in the history of humanity.” Well, maybe….

Outlaw History #32

Night before last I watched the first two installments of Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State (we get PBS in Baja). Three matters caught my attention. First, I was truly surprised by how utterly conventional the film is. I suppose I had expected something new. Foolish me. There are claims that new documents are referenced here…

Abraham Bomba, Barber of Treblinka

I have seen the complete nine and one half hour documentary, Shoah, which purports to be “An Oral History of the Holocaust.” It was produced, directed, narrated and is now being promoted by Claude Lanzmann. From the newspapers I gather that Lanzmann is an assimilated French Jew who speaks neither Hebrew nor Yiddish. Born in…

"Hitler’s Hidden Holocaust"

Touted as a documentary which would change the Holocaust narrative as we know it by revealing new information on the Einsatzgruppen and what has come to called “the Holocaust by bullets,” National Geographic's special “Hitler's Hidden Holocaust” which aired on August 2, 2009 failed to deliver on its hype. Anticipating a clear new thesis which…

Jailing Opinions

Jailing Opinions. A documentary exploring the criminalization of normal historical enquiry and expression, including first-hand accounts from those attending the trial of British historian David Irving who is currently incarcerated in Vienna, Austria, for talking about events that happened (or not, as the case may be) more than sixty years ago. A DVD produced and…

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