In terms of duration, this film is the most boring one I have ever seen. Nine and a half hours, four days in a row, from the empty basement, to the sultry and dirty dormitory, to the classroom where the class is in progress, and finally to the home where the snoring is constant. The location is changing, the sitting posture is changing, the mood is changing, but I never thought about giving up watching the full movie. Prior to this, the Nazis slaughtered Jews, this simple fact was fixed in the mind without any movement. Pain, cruelty, distortion, cold...All the feelings have become cold words, imprinted on the book, so deep in my mind that they can no longer be forgotten. However, this kind of memory is like a big hole that never seems to be filled, and there is a world of difference between that cry and tears. There is no Auschwitz train timetable in this empty memory, no slogans on the wall of the dressing room, no slopes and borders of Treblinka, and no tens of thousands of people who once existed but died. And their nation. This kind of memory refuses to understand, rejects sympathy, and ultimately rejects humanity. However, those places are real, and those things are beyond doubt, and those things have really happened. The unwavering eyes and tone forged into a huge iron chain, which fastened people tightly and escorted them to the scene. When those shots pass through the desolation, snow, and broken walls, you can't resist the pain that hits deep in your heart and the imagination hidden in your mind. This is the documentary and undoubtedly the painful struggle of the truth in the smoky history.
It is said that shortly after the death of Jesus, the Jews revolted against the Romans due to religious issues. Unexpectedly, Jerusalem was attacked by the Roman army, the temple was demolished, and the Jews were abandoned. Time has passed, and the huge Roman Empire has long been trampled by iron hoofs without a trace, but the Christianity handed down by Jesus has become the largest religion in the world today. However, Jesus killed Judas, and Judas was also a Jew. Therefore, they had to bear the roots of their ancestors and let all people swear.
No matter when and where, the Jews are always abandoned people. They are incompatible with politics and religion, and only shame is left in this world and in the future. "Jesus is taking revenge!" said the Jewish scholar who was imprisoned in the church at the time.
They are destined to be the dead souls of the wilderness. Wherever it floats, it becomes nothing. This almost innate characteristic makes the Jews constantly threatened by assimilation of different races. Perhaps one day, this race that was once called "Jewish" will completely disappear on the earth: everyone can be said to have Jewish ancestry; or everyone will not have it. The Jews are in the United States, the Jews are in Germany, the Jews are in Poland, the Jews are in China... The formation of the nation-state undoubtedly makes this ancient nation and its constituents scattered all over the world feel very disappointed. When we find that the English, French, German, Italian, Polish, and Yiddish languages that appear in the film language list are all from the mouths of Jews, we probably understand what Jews mean to themselves and to the world. What's going on. Ironically, until the Hebrew language crawled out of the grave, the Jews could not even say the word "lost" in their own way; even more ironically, the absence of language is probably the one they are most able to try to accept. Something out.
The Jews alone are not short of money. This seems to be a good thing, but in fact it is fatal, and fatal is above "only". Because, just as money can’t buy love, money can’t buy power and status. It can’t alleviate hostility and prejudice. In the final analysis, there is no guarantee of power and the respect of people around them. Their wealth will only bring jealousy. The end result is the loss of wealth and life. As Tocqueville commented on the French Revolution, the reason why the people hated the nobility more than before was not because they were more exploited and oppressed, but because they lost their political power but did not lose their wealth. But where is the wealth wrong? Is it the fault of hard work, accumulation, or shrewdness? no one knows. After the First World War, some people sarcastically said that it was Jews and cyclists that caused the war.
"Why a cyclist?" someone asked.
"Why are they Jews?" the sarcasm replied.
Of course this is a joke. In the years when "eternal anti-Semitism" reached its peak, Jews dressed in gorgeous clothes, with gold chains in their hands, gold teeth in their mouths, and beautiful women in their arms, took the train from all over Europe to Trey at the instructions of the highest authority in Germany. Several concentration camps such as Brinka and Auschwitz. People have heard that huge factories have been built there, and there are thousands of jobs waiting for them to fill. After arriving, however, the situation was somewhat unexpected: they had to take off their clothes under the SS surrounded and watched, lined up in two rows by gender, and then walked to a room. The train started moving forward, clothes piled up into hills, jewelry scattered all over the place; people wearing them disappeared into the world's sight as if they had evaporated in place. Afterwards, it may be a wisp of blue smoke, or it may be a few foul smells, and they are completely non-existent. After their ghostly life, they got a magical death. No one escaped from these human flesh melting pots, there was no rumors from the concentration camps, and no Jew knew that they were dying step by step.
Even the Germans themselves are kept in the dark. The "final plan", the Jewish extermination plan, was only carried out in full swing at both ends of the Nazi heads of state office and concentration camp gas chambers, and the entire railway only operated on the number, number, and number of trains, freight, and number of people. The clothes, luggage, and jewelry left behind by the Jews eventually paid for the entire cost of their trip to the concentration camp; that is, they broke their family for their undeserved death.
It would be far-fetched to say that this road to death is completely unknown. However, people did not seem to have the will to help the Jews, because the Jews lived in the golden part of the city, mastered superb craftsmanship, and accumulated countless gold and wealth. Driving out Jews is a great benefit to most people in most cities. The only harm is the loss of Jewish women who make men crazy...
The ruler lacks rationality, the executor does not know the truth, and the bystanders are stingy with sympathy. The catastrophe is like a train of cars that can't stop the brakes and can only rush towards the destination. The film took nine and a half hours, not to describe the painful lessons of World War II, nor to count the brutality and absurdity of anti-Semitism, nor to eulogize the beginning and end of the Jews' tragic resistance, but to expose the irreparable, indifferent and self-interested humanity. This is probably not the Europeans since the First World War, but the common problem of all mankind since its birth, and it is the inferiority that human beings can never explain and make up for.
"Shoah" is a Hebrew word that means "catastrophe". The film is named in Hebrew, and I am afraid it is directly related to its birth. In fact, such a hugely projected documentary was not within the scope of Langzman's plan. However, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel and a friend of Lantzman invited him to make a film about the Holocaust "from the perspective of the Jews", a film not "about the catastrophe, but the catastrophe itself" (a film that is not "about the Shoah, but a film that is the Shoah."). Langzman continued to use this Hebrew word, and spent ten years in interviews and filming. There are countless difficulties and obstacles. Finding witnesses is self-evident, and sometimes even risking his life. On one occasion, Langzmann and his assistant interviewed a Nazi military officer. Because the officer strictly prohibited video recording at the time, Langzmann decided to use a pinhole camera to hide a miniature microphone behind his tie for secret shooting and recording, and to combine the obtained images with The sound is transmitted via radio to the mobile signal receiving car parked outdoors. Everything went well in the beginning; the officers even began to proudly talk about the death production lines that were primitive but well-functioning assembly line of death ("a definitely primitive but well-functioning assembly line of death") and sang the camp songs of the time, but soon the officers discovered this Little secrets in the interview. Langzman and his assistants were beaten up by the officer's son and three other people, almost losing their lives. After a month in the hospital, they were charged with illegal use of German radio and almost went to jail.
Fortunately, he did not give up because of this, but obeyed the call and proceeded step by step. Counting five years of editing, Langzman spent a full fifteen years to complete this stunning work, and polished out a valuable lesson that humans can always reflect on their faces. In the final product, Langzmann did not use one second of historical images (archival footage), and used only first-person testimony throughout to outline the little-known historical truths outside the concentration camp, incinerators and gas chambers, and to vacuum the history. Fill it back completely. As a documentary, it finally fulfilled that wish: Shoah becomes the shoah itself.
View more about Shoah reviews
