Death Mills

Presented as a bonus on the A Film Unfinished DVD, this Holocaust documentary short has a few interesting characteristics.  For one thing, it was commissioned by the War Department to show to Germans during the occupation, basically shaming them into facing what was going on in their own backyards.  The tone is almost one of scolding, and this is really one of the few films to call out the average German citizens for their indifference and denial.  Unlike the usual stone-faced detachment of more modern documentaries, there is definite anger in the voiceover.  In this way it’s reminiscent of Night and Fog or Hitchcock’s Memory of the Camps.  And that leads to another interesting thing about this movie: it was directed by Billy Wilder.  That might account for the sharp, pointed language of the narration… and also the anger at his fellow countrymen for ignoring the obvious horrors.  Most of the footage will be familiar to anyone who watches a fair number of Holocaust docs (in fact, I believe much of it is duplicated in Memory of the Camps) but these images never lose their awful power.  Rating: Very Good

IMDb