“An Film Unfinished” Captures Nazi Propaganda Film Making

A Film Unfinished is an 80-minute documentary of several lost reels of Nazi propaganda film shot in the last few months of the occupation of the Warsaw ghetto in Poland.  Shot just months before the Final Solution was implemented and the ghetto’s inhabitants were transported by rail to their deaths in the infamous concentration camps, Nazi film crews shot film stock for a propaganda film.

The clips, as part of a work of propaganda shot in Poland’s Warsaw Ghetto during World War II by a team of SS cameramen, are effectively combined by director Yael Hersonski with comments from ghetto survivors, and surprisingly, one of the German Wehrmacht cameramen who worked on the film in May, 1942.

The original Nazi raw film stock has never been presented in its entirety and is used as the framework of this documentary.  The initial reels including 30 minutes of outtakes that were discovered in an East German archive simply labeled “Das Ghetto” or “The Ghetto.”  A later discovery of another long-missing reel was found in the 1960s inside a Polish archive.  This second reel included proof that many ghetto film clips were actually staged by the Nazis with multiple takes using ghetto Jews who were forced to act in various roles, and different camera angles of the same scene being shot over and over.

From a highly staged dinner party of the “wealthy” eating lavish meals in a restaurant to fictionalized sequences of people ignoring dead bodies on the streets, the carefully orchestrated scenes were all designed to make the Jews of Warsaw’s ghetto look inhumane and uncaring of the human suffering all around them.

At the time of the filming, 400,000 Warsaw Jewish residents had been joined by another 200,000 Polish refugees who were all forced to live within the walled ghetto zone.  A Jewish family was restricted to live in just one room, often without working toilets, electricity, or running water.  Within a year, over 100,000 Jewish residents had died from malnutrition, disease, and starvation, as well as execution for even the most minor of infractions of strict Nazi rules.  Within 15 months of the filming, most of the residents of the ghetto had been relocated and exterminated.

The original film clips lack narration, titles or script, and records or details of the film have never been discovered so the intent of the film has yet to be determined, but it’s obvious the film’s intent was to paint the the Jews as an inferior or second-class race, worthy of liquidation.

One cameraman along with excerpts of ghetto inhabitant’s diaries and journals, all written in Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew have been used to act as an basis for the story.

The mostly black and white grainy raw silent footage shows the extreme inhumanity of the ghetto.  Shocking images of filth, poverty and death are the backdrop to interviews with Holocaust survivors telling their own personal stories of daily life in the infamous ghetto.   At one point, a survivor recognizes a starving and disturbed woman who was often seen walking the streets with her small child in her arms, begging for food.

The film can be disturbing, shocking and sad as an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto, but is a testament to the horrors of Nazi inhumanity and the strength of survival of all the people forced to live under their rule.

Viewer discretion is advised.

A Film Unfinished Film — Landmark’s E Street Cinema, 555 11th Street, NW, Washington DC  (map)

Dates and Times – Starting September 24, 2010.

Tickets – $10.00, matinees $8.00 include Mon. – Fri. before 6:00 pm, weekends 1st show daily, Seniors and children under 12 – $8.00, Military and students with ID – $8.50.  Additional ticket information.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – E street – Metro Center – Blue, Orange and Red lines, then a 1-block walk.

Parking – Metered street and reduced rate garage parking ($10.00 with validation for up to 3 hours) is available adjacent to the theatre, Monday-Friday after 5:00 p.m. and all day on weekends.

Images – Courtesy of An Unfinished Film.

The author received complimentary copy of this film; the opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author.