For the world, the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz is a symbol of the Holocaust, genocide and terror. Never before in the history of mankind have so many people been murdered in such a short period of time, in such a small area and in such a calculated manner.
In 1940-1945, the Nazis transported more than one million Jews, almost 150 000 Poles, 23 000 Roma, 15 000 Soviet prisoners-of-war as well as more than 10 000 prisoners of other nationalities to Auschwitz. The vast majority perished in the camp.
A Place of Remembrance, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Ooświęcim is the largest grave, the largest cemetery of Jews, and the largest cemetery of Poles as well. It is also the largest cemetery in the world for Roma.
The Auschwitz camp was organised in the spring of 1940 for Poles, becoming an extermination camp for Jews only two years later. Auschwitz was one of many death camps created by the Nazis on occupied territory during the Second World War.
The obsessive anti-Semitism of one man, Adolf Hitler, became the state doctrine of the Third Reich. This doctrine was formulated at the beginning of 1942 in a series of executive decrees and orders, which initiated the plan for the “final solution” of the Jewish question – the annihilation of the Jewish people.
Subsequent generations must continue to draw their own conclusions from the past.
The series of documentary films entitled: FROM THE AUSCHWITZ CHRONICLE attempts to preserve the memory of this human tragedy and acquaint young people with it who are still forming their own view of the world. Episodes from the chronicle, fragments of testimonies, form the basis for the several films comprising this series. There is no single universal truth about the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Each camp survivor has their own unquestionable truth – which may vary from the truth of their campmate from the neighbouring bunk.
The films contain brief testimonies of numerous eyewitnesses. As a result, the images and histories seen and told in the films contain an unusual
degree of intensity and emotion.
- THE LONGEST ROLL CALL [Play]
- THE ORCHESTRA [Play]
- THE PLATFORM IN BIRKENAU [Play]
- LOVE [Play]
- THE SONDERKOMMANDO [Play]
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