Shoah (1985)

Claude Lanzmann directed this 9½ hour documentary on the Holocaust without using a single frame of archive footage. He interviews survivors, witnesses, and ex-Nazis (whom he had to film secretly since they only agreed to be interviewed by audio). His style of interviewing, by asking for the most minute details, is effective at adding up these details to give a horrifying portrait of the events of Nazi genocide. He also shows, or rather lets some of his subjects show, that the anti-Semitism that caused 6 million Jews to die in the Holocaust is still alive and well in many people who still live in Germany, Poland, and elsewhere.

IMDb rating	8.7
Producers	BBC, Ministère de la Culture, Les Films Aleph, Historia
Original title	Shoah
Directors	Claude Lanzmann
Writers	Claude Lanzmann

Cast

Claude Lanzmann

as Self - Interviewer

Simon Srebnik

as Himself

Michael Podchlebnik

as Himself

Motke Zaidl

as Himself

Jan Karski

as Himself

Paula Biren

as Herself

Abraham Bomba

as Himself

Inge Deutschkron

as Herself

Ruth Elias

as Herself

Richard Glazar

as Himself

Filip Müller

as Himself

Rudolf Vrba

as Himself

Raul Hilberg

as Himself

Hanna Zaïdl

as Self

Jan Piwonski

as Self

Itzhak Dugin

as Self

Helena Pietyra

as Self

Pan Filipowicz

as Self

Pan Falborski

as Self

Czeslaw Borowi

as Self

Henrik Gawkowski

as Self

Franz Suchomel

as Self

Joseph Oberhauser

as Self

Alfred Spiess

as Self

Franz Schalling

as Self

Martha Michelsohn

as Self

Moshe Mordo

as Self

Armando Aaron

as Self

Walter Stier

as Self

Franz Grassler

as Self

Gertude Schneider

as Self

Itzhak Zuckermann

as Self

Simha Rotem

as Self

Francine Kaufmann

as Self - Interpreter: Hebrew

Barbara Janicka

as Self - Interpreter: Polish

Mrs. Apfelbaum

as Self - Interpreter: Yiddish

Charlotte Hirschhorn

as Self - Gertrude Schneider's mother