Monday, April 11, 2011

Night and Fog (1955)

Spine #: 197

When I read Hulu's description of this film I expected to see a well done thirty-one minute educational short on the holocaust. Well, what I didn't expect was what I was about to see... The film is made up almost entirely of actual footage of the horrors that took place in the death camps and the little that wasn't, gives the viewer a tour of the camps that were still standing post WWII. During the introduction, the narrator explains how these camps were built like hotels, all having different "styles" for instance; Swiss, Garage, Japanese and some even having zoo's and orchestras. This blew my mind, I would have never imagined that concentration camps were put up like restaurants, needing contractors, estimates, and bid wars... But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the devastation that Night and Fog reminds us of, your taken on a journey with the innocent prisoners from when they are captured, until there deaths. Your exposed to the "endless un-interrurpted fear" they suffered through daily, the illusions used by the Nazis to deceive their victims, the experiments/methods of torture implemented and much more.. I must forewarn the horrifically graphic nature of this film, there are some images that are very hard to watch, especially with the knowledge that everything you are viewing is reality and not just a fictional movie. The only flaw in this film is the notion that parts of the victims body's were turned into soap and distributed... I found this idea so appalling that I researched it and found it to be a commonly believed myth. Still in actuality this is not a film at all, it is a historical record of actual events that were infinitely devastating.

Note: The picture above is an inmate that passed away in the middle of the night with his eyes open.. which was a common occurrence.

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