Custaryans(2024)

Mathi Schenk's Last Journey to Poland(en)

In the summer of 2001, 75-year-old Mathi Schenk made his last trip to Poland, following in the footsteps of his own past. He lives in the eastern cantons of Belgium, which were forcibly united with the German Reich after the invasion of German troops in May 1940. Those who did not volunteer for the Wehrmacht were – like Mathi Schenk – sent to war as forced soldiers for Germany. When the Warsaw Uprising broke out in August 1944, the 18-year-old arrived in the Polish capital and was assigned to the notorious SS Dirlewanger Brigade. During the 63 days of bitter fighting, which cost the lives of more than 200,000 Poles, he witnessed unimaginable atrocities against the people of Warsaw. While fleeing the Red Army, Polish farmers found the young soldier wounded in a ditch. Despite his German uniform, they hid him from the Russians in their village.

The Pageant(he)

Every year since 2011, a unique beauty contest has been taking place in Haifa. The contestants are female survivors of the Holocaust. In the midst of this flashy spectacle, their personal traumas remain as deep as ever. There are many things about this contest that are controversial: it is organized by the right Zionist organization, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, and the dubious contest itself rises the public indignation of various speakers, including other survivors.

The Death Train(fr)

In Iasi, Romania, from June 28 to July 6, 1941, nearly 15 000 Jews were murdered in the course of a horrifying pogrom. At the time, the programmed extermination of European Jews had not yet began. After the war, the successive communist governments did all they could to ensure the Iasi pogrom would be forgotten. It was not until November of 2004 that Romania recognized for the first time its direct responsibility in the pogrom. All that remains of this massacre are about a hundred photographs taken as souvenirs by german and romanian soldiers, and a few remaining survivors.

Made in Auschwitz: The Untold Story of Block 10(de)

Around 80 years ago, the gynecologist Carl Clauberg conducted medical experimentation on Jewish girls and women in Auschwitz. The results of those sadistic experiments were used in medicine across the globe. It is possible that German companies played a part in those experiments. Most of the survivors became infertile, and very few of them were later capable to give birth. The Untold Story of Block 10 introduces the audience to those who have survived.

Stalin: Man of Steel(en)

Emmy Awards nominee for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research: Multi-faceted portrait of the man who succeeded Lenin as the head of the Soviet Union. With a captivating blend of period documents, newly-released information, newsreel and archival footage and interviews with experts, the program examines his rise to power, deconstructs the cult of personality that helped him maintain an iron grip over his vast empire, and analyzes the policies he introduced, including the deadly expansion of the notorious gulags where he banished so many of his countrymen to certain death.

I Was a Kapo(pl)

A former inmate of the Auschwitz concentration camp, accused of being a kapo, is serving a life sentence. From the monologue to the camera, we learn the story of an average man destroyed in terrible times.

The Eichmann Trial(en)

In 1961, history was on trial... in a trial that made history. Just 15 years after the end of WWII, the Holocaust had been largely forgotten. That changed with the capture of Adolf Eichmann, a former Nazi officer hiding in Argentina. Through rarely-seen archival footage, The Eichmann Trial documents one of the most shocking trials ever recorded, and the birth of Holocaust awareness and education.

Kolysanka(pl)

Little Angels(nl)

In a portrait of his New York relatives, one of them a Holocaust survivor and the other her daughter, filmmaker Marco Niemeijer gradually unfolds the harrowing, smothering effects of the war trauma across generations.

Genocide(en)

The mass murder of Jewish people by the Nazi regime is chronicled, with a warning that anti-Semitism is on the rise and the events of the Holocaust could happen again. The history of European Jewish culture and events before and during the Holocaust are seen in newsreels, photographs, and animated segments. The words of the victims of the era are read, and footage from the liberation os a concentration camp is shown.

Where the Ravens Fly(en)

Set in the dense forests of 1940s Eastern Europe, this story reveals the supernatural encounters that challenge three soldiers' understanding of life and death.

Sobibor, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m.(fr)

Documentary interview with Yehuda Lerner, who at 17 participated in a prisoner revolt at the Nazi-run Sobibor extermination camp. Originally filmed for inclusion in Lanzmann's 1985 documentary Shoah.

Jasenovac(sh)

A documentary short film about the genocide at the Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia in World War II.

Absent(ro)

For over a hundred years, Mărculești was a vibrant Jewish agricultural and mercantile community in Bessarabia (now present-day Moldova). In July 1941, the village was the site of an unimaginable atrocity. Seventy-three years later, few speak honestly or completely about what happened. ABSENT is a cinematic portrait of the ghost village of Mărculești, its current inhabitants, and their very complex relationship to their own history. Filmed entirely on location, the film documents one of Europe's poorest, most remote, and least-visited places.

Auschwitz: The Hidden Traces(en)

Examines documents and traces of the atrocities that took place at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Years after the end of the war, expert analysis of the remnants of these documents has helped shed light on the stories of prisoners.

The Hell of Auschwitz: Maus by Art Spiegelman(fr)

Art Spiegelman's graphic novel Maus (1980-91) was the first comic to address the Shoah in mainstream culture and is still considered a landmark in art history.

Knocking(pl)

Knocking opens the door on Jehovah's Witnesses. They are moral conservatives who stay out of politics and the Culture War, but they won a record number of court cases expanding freedom for everyone. They refuse blood transfusions on religious grounds, but they embrace the science behind bloodless surgery. In Nazi Germany, they could fight for Hitler or go to the concentration camps. They chose the camps. Following two families who stand firm for their controversial and misunderstood Christian faith, KNOCKING reveals how one unlikely religion helped to shape history beyond the doorstep.

Pius XII: The Pope, the Jews and the Nazis(en)

In an article on the Vatican and the holocaust at Jewish Virtual Library it says: “Pope Pius XII’s (1876-1958) actions during the Holocaust remain controversial. For much of the war, he maintained a public front of indifference and remained silent while German atrocities were committed. He refused pleas for help on the grounds of neutrality while making statements condemning injustices in general. Privately, he sheltered a small number of Jews and spoke to a few select officials, encouraging them to help the Jews.” This is a highly interesting documentary on this controversy.

Max and Helen(en)

In trying to bring a former concentration camp commandant to justice, Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal uncovers the tragic story of two lovers separated by the war.

My Mother's Courage(de)

The deportation of 4000 Jews from Budapest to Auschwitz in July 1944, as told by George Tabori, and how the narrator’s mother escaped it, owing to coincidence, courage and some help from where you’d least expect it.