Languages – French , German
This documentary, directed by Alain Resnais is not for the faint-hearted. The imageries and the vivid descriptions are sure to run a chill down your spine. The absolute monstrosity that the Jews had to go through in the concentration camps in several places like Struthof, Oranienburg, Auschwitz, Neuengamme, Belsen, Ravensbruck, Dachau to name a few have been described in this unnerving documentary. Having seen a lot of movies with similar lines like Kapo, Sophie’s Choice, Schindler’s List, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, I felt I was prepared for this 32-minute documentary. But the very first scene and I could sense my confidence fly out of the window.
The harrowing details mentioned in this documentary are nerve-racking. The atrocities that those humans had to face in those inhuman concentration camps is unfathomable. The inexplicable horrors that those souls went through are perhaps the biggest blotch on humanity and human existence. This documentary reminds me of an article by Andrew Brown – What was God’s role in Auschwitz? A question often prohibited, but always asked.
The inhuman torture shown vividly in this documentary is surely going to make you uncomfortable even in your cozy couches.
Alain Resnais has shot this documentary in the abandoned fields of Auschwitz which has unfortunately been the home for the millions of Jews who were tortured till they succumbed to it. The way the documentary starts with a slow background score, melancholy, and fear immediately creeps in. You know what you are going to see ahead in the documentary but somehow you are not able to cope up with the explosion of emotions that erupt the moment the lush greenery on the screen gives way to a black and white frame with faces of those unfortunate men and women who had to face the wrath of inhuman treatment.
The visuals are so intense that it shall get you nightmares, leaving an indelible mark on your mind. In a scene from the documentary, it is said that while building these concentration camps, tenders were released, different companies would collide in order to get their tender sanctioned which also included bribery. It reminds me of the words of Marx where he says that one day the Capitalism would be so rampant that if a capitalist has to be hung, some other capitalist would sell the rope to make a profit out of this death. The question that arises in the mind is have we as humans have deteriorated to such an extent that we do not shy away from making money by making institutions of torture and pain? Have we reduced ourselves to that limit where the cries of those helpless millions fail to strike any empathy in our hearts? Different styles were adopted for these camps. Who would appreciate the design language of such a camp? The ones going inside? The SS? The Kapo? Or the Fuhrer himself?
Quite to my surprise and disgust, the ‘ Kapo ‘ used to be a prisoner himself who would be appointed by the SS guards to supervise forced labor and help the guards to maintain law and order within the camp. There were groups among the prisoners. The young and agile ones used to prey on the old and dilapidated ones for food which often lead to starving and eventual death.
The documentary shows how hair from the heads of these prisoners was used to make carpets, their bones used to make fertilizers for the crops grown in the fields where these prisoners were made to toil under the extremes of climate and their skin is used to make soaps. Making an earning out of the dead? If they had ways to keep these prisoners’ souls in captivity, those souls would also have been used in exchange for some economic gains.
After all those million lives lost in these camps with Auschwitz being the most notorious amongst them, these lands are now barren with all that remains are the horrors, anguish, fear, and hatred against the relentless torture of a human on another fellow human.
A garland of frames 