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Yom ha-Shoah Holocaust Memorial Day
Teacher’s Guide

Filmography

Annotated Filmography of Canadian produced films & videos on the Holocaust Compiled by Gary Evans, Dept of Communication, University of Ottawa, ©July, 2000

This is a chronological filmography (in progress) of films and videos on the Holocaust produced in Canada and/or by Canadians. [Brackets indicate where they may be found]

Guilty Men. National Film Board of Canada, Tom Daly, dir. 1945, 11m. This newsreel shows footage of the Nuremberg trials of the chief war criminals and an Allied execution, referring only to “crimes.” It makes reference to the Jewish catastrophe, without mentioning the word “Jew” once, though it does show images of pre-war anti-Semitic acts against German Jews and Allied footage from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. [NFB Archives]

Sun in My Eyes. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation [CBC] Feb. 21, 1960. 60m. This is a televised play by Jack Kuper about his life as a child in a Shtetl in Poland during the German occupation. Starring Al Waxman, it is a tale of the Nazis’ murder of a family on the run and the desperate sobering finality of having a child as sole survivor. The title derives from a Polish peasant fiction that Jews could not see the sun. This Toronto production is probably the first time the CBC treated the subject of the Holocaust directly. [master copy, CBC Archives; copy with the Jewish Board of Education, Toronto, audiovisual department]

Canada at War. (Part 4, June 1944-August 1946) National Film Board, Donald Brittain, dir. 1962, 28m. Using archival footage this segment traces Canadian army activity in Europe in 1944-45, including atrocities discovered at Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz, & Buchenwald as well as the beginning of the Nuremberg trials. In the section dealing with the end of the war, there is footage of Bergen-Belsen with a comment, “Untold millions had been gassed, starved, burned, and beaten to death. They had committed a crime. They were not of pure German stock.” This segment closes with reference to Hitler’s last will and testament. “In it he blamed the Jews for everything.” [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

Across Canada: The Observer. (CBC tv series), Don MacPherson, producer. Nov.19, 1964. 30m. Public affairs programme. There is a brief item on a man who rescued 50 Romanian Jews during the war. [National Archives, Ottawa]

Across Canada: The Observer. (CBC tv series), Don MacPherson, producer. Feb. 9, 1965, 30m. Public affairs programme. There is a segment on the opening of The Deputy, a German play that deals with accusations against Pope Pius XII in connection with the destruction of the Jews. [National Archives, Ottawa]

Memorandum. National Film Board, Donald Brittain, John Spotton, dirs. 1966. 58m. Survivor Bernard Laufer visits Bergen-Belsen and remembers his incarceration. The narration asks important questions about perpetrators and bystanders and subtly articulates the meaning of ‘the banality of evil.’ This landmark Canadian documentary includes footage of Nazi criminals on trial in 1965 amidst a German society that is seemingly unconcerned. The closing minutes evoke a vision of loss and resignation that is poetic and enduring [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

Man Alive (television series) From the Ashes: Elie Wiesel in conversation with Roy Bonisteel. CBC, 1973, 28m. Wiesel talks to Bonisteel about his book Night and about his loss of faith in God when he was in Auschwitz. Wiesel calls himself a storyteller, not a teacher or messenger. Yet he believes that whoever hears a witness to the Holocaust becomes a witness and messenger too. The power of his words is riveting, and the viewer forgets that visually there are only two men in conversation. [Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal]

It Has To Be Told. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1973. 29m. Three survivors recollect the concentrationary experience. There are no accompanying visuals. (Note: This may be the raw material from which a television program was constructed.) [Canadian Jewish Congress copy has no titles, no narration, only the survivors’ testimonies.]

The Man Who Hid Anne Frank. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, December 17, 1980, Harry Rasky, producer/dir. 57m. Fourteen year old Holly Rasky, intrigued by Anne Frank’s diary, traveled to Amsterdam to interview many of those who helped shelter Anne, her family and four other refugees for two years. The on-screen presence of the young teen (Rasky’s daughter) and the use of archival footage help draw others like her to Anne Frank’s remarkable story and the interviews illuminate the quiet heroism of the many Dutch who risked their lives on behalf of this now world renown figure. [CBC Archives. For broadcast only; not available for rental or purchase.]

The Spies Who Never Were. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, October 11, 1981, Harry Rasky, producer/dir. 114m. This two-programme documentary film, narrated by Harry Rasky, tells the story of the 3,000 (mostly Jewish) refugees in Britain who, upon the outbreak of war, found themselves exiled to prison camps in Canada as suspected subversives. A number of these ‘spies who never were’ went on to become well known figures in the world of Canadian music, broadcasting and letters. Eric Koch, one of the interviewees, happened to be the CBC executive in charge of documentary programming, but took credit only as a consultant on the film. [CBC Archives. For broadcast only; not available for rental or purchase.]

Journey Into Our Heritage (series). Canadian Jewish Congress, Stanley Asher, dir. 1983. (This consists of two 20 minute videos that were aired on community cable in Montreal) Holocaust survivor Paul Trepman, former executive director of the Jewish Public Library, Montreal, shows slides of his trip to Poland and Czechoslovakia. Poor production values and some erroneous information lessen this item’s effectiveness. [Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal]

Charlie Grant’s War. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Martin Lavut, dir. 1984. 125m. This fictional story with high production values is a melodrama about a Canadian diamond merchant in Nazi Germany who risks his life to smuggle Jews out. The play underscores the sorry Canadian government policy of “None Is Too Many.” [National Archives, Ottawa]

Dark Lullabies. DLI and National Film Board, Irene Angelico and Jack Neidik, dirs. 1985. 81m. This documentary film journey of the on-screen director, herself a child of survivors, who meets children of Nazi perpetrators. She asks what happened and why, and travels from Montreal to Israel to Germany in search of answers. This film is oddly structured, yet moving emotionally whenever survivors speak. [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

So Many Miracles. Alternative Pictures, Inc and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Katherine Smalley and Vic Sarin, dirs. 1986. 48m. This is a docmentary film account of the Rubinek Family reunion with the Polish family that hid them 49 years earlier. Its high production values combined with an effective use of direct cinema technique record the return and reunion. The directors employ actors to emphasize several of the Rubinek’s dramatic moments, especially a near-capture by German soldiers. The film achieves closure by emphasizing how some gentiles were willing to risk their lives to save Jews. [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

To Mend the World. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Harry Rasky, dir. 1987. 86m. This world class documentary combines survivor testimonies with the art of witnesses to create some of the most profound and haunting images of the genocide. A dozen survivors recount the agonizing circumstances and unfathomable depth of despair they faced and overcame. The art is probably the closest a viewer will ever come to the actual concentration camp experience. Rasky’s skillful blending of witnesses, art and music guarantees this film as one of the premier Canadian films on the Holocaust. Rasky said his film tried to find some meaning, or even hope, in the Holocaust experience. Viewing it reminds one of Elie Wiesel’s fundamental position on the Holocaust: to hear a witness is to become a witness oneself. [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

Voices of Survival. Canadian Jewish Congress, Heritage Canada, TVOntario. Alan Handel dir. 1988. 56m. (narrator Stephen Lewis) Six Canadian witnesses tell parts of their stories of surviving brutality, roundups, Auschwitz selection and their macabre Auschwitz “people’s game: gas or shower?” There is good use of historical footage and intercutting of a discussion about the Allied failure to stop the mass murder as well as Canada’s pathetic refugee record. [Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal]

The Quarrel (based on a short story “My Quarrel With Hersh Rasseyner” by Chaim Grade) from a play by Joseph Telushkin. American Playhouse Theatrical Films, Atlantic Releasing and Apple & Honey Productions. Eli Cohen dir. 1990. 90m. Two survivors (one played by Saul Rubinek, whose parents were featured in So Many Miracles) meet by chance on Montreal’s Mount Royal in 1948 where they resume their philosophical dialogue of faith versus reason, a dialogue cut short by the Holocaust and the mutual loss of their families. The man of faith insists that he could have been a perpetrator too, but his comfort is his faith. Their philosophical discussion eclipses historical reality and the film meanders while exploring the premise that all men can be killers digressing from the fact that Jews were victims and the Nazis were the killers. [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto: A Birthday Trip in Hell. Kuper Productions, Toronto, Jack Kuper dir, 1991. 30m. Wehrmacht Sergeant Heinz Joest spent his 43^rd birthday inside the Warsaw Ghetto on September 19^th, 1941, taking photographs. These unique photos are the core of this black and white documentary video, complemented by excerpts from the hidden diaries of Warsaw ghetto historians, as well as by Yiddish music of the period. Hope is stronger than desperation as evidence of ongoing underground schools and religious observances bear witness to human fortitude in a nightmare world. [Laval University, Quebec City, Qc.]

March of the Living. Jewish Education Council of Montreal, Sid Goldberg, dir. 1992. 147m. This is video footage of the March of the Living journey to Poland and Israel in 1992. Similar accounts of this event have been produced annually by the Jewish Education Council of Montreal. (The video reflects non-professional production values)

The Valour and the Horror. (Part 1 Death by Moonlight) Galafilm, National Film Board, Brian McKenna, dir. 1992. 104m. This highly controversial docudrama makes the weakest reference to the Holocaust and asserts that the Allied bombing raids on Germany were war crimes, neglecting to mention that Nazi propaganda insisted that the bombing was the result of Jewish world power. This production, reflecting flawed historical research, is notable for missing a valuable opportunity to tie the Holocaust to Allied bombing policy. [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

Both Sides of the Wire. Black River Productions and Vision TV Neal Livingston, dir. 1993. 47m. This documentary tells the story of young German and Austrian Jewish men who, having sought refuge in Britain before the war, were deported to Canada in 1940 and were interned as enemy aliens alongside Nazis. They return to the camp where they were internees and remember daily life. This low budget production suffers from visual sluggishness. [Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal]

The Lucky Ones: Allied Airmen and Buchenwald. National Film Board/Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/A & E Networks, Michael Adler, dir. 1994. 47m. This documentary tells the story of 168 Allied airmen, ages 19-21, who were waiting for transfer to POW camps and who witnessed atrocities at Buchenwald in the summer of 1944. There are minimal references to other prisoners, and the specificity of the Holocaust is ignored. Thus the viewer might think that Buchenwald was a camp for captured combatants exclusively. [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

The Voyage of the St. Louis. Galafilm, Inc., National Film Board, Les Films d'Ici, Canal +, NDR International, Maziar Bahari, dir. 1994. 51m. This tale, told by some surviving refugees, is a documentary film account of the saga of the 937 mostly Jewish refugees who sailed on the German luxury liner St. Louis from Hamburg to Cuba in 1939. They had their visas revoked and found themselves refused refuge in the US and Canada. They returned to Europe, the war began, and some ? perished as victims of the Nazis. Their ordeal in search of refuge was the subject of the fiction film Voyage of the Damned. [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

Silent Witness/Les Gardiens du Silence. Wichin-York Film, Harriet Wichin, dir. 1994. 74m. (In English or French, with German.) This colour film deals with the concentration camp-as-museum and the contemporary issue of monumentalization. Always off-camera, Wichin deals with absence and meaning as she visits sites at Dachau and Auschwitz. The rich hues of the cinematography make her quest poetic, but the film lacks the political edge that is needed to understand specific controversies that lay behind turning the concentration camps into contemporary memorials. The documentary tries to reach for universals about suffering and reconciliation, yet the specificity of the Jews’ destruction seems to be strangely eclipsed. [Cinema Libre, Montreal]

Hidden Children. Sienna Films and October Films (U.K.) 1995. Tom Roberts, producer, Julia Sereny, dir. 50m. This documentary video explores the tales of six Jews who were hidden children during the Holocaust. For some, day to day existence depended on their ability to pass as Christians. Another ran wild in the forests. Subsequently they had to deal with the difficult issues of abandonment and family re-integration. As adults, they generally chose careers such as social work, medicine, and teaching, allowing them to repay the generous world that had helped them. [Available through Sienna Films, Toronto sienna@istar.ca]

Shtetl, Kuper Productions, Jack Kuper dir, 1995. 23m. The aged Canadian folk artist Mayer Kirshenblatt serves as a central focus in this recollection of small town Jewish communities of Eastern Europe which were destroyed in the Holocaust. This documentary evokes the vividness and vitality of a once thriving civilization, obliterated by war and now only a memory in the minds of the last survivors. [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

A Rough Crossing. Starry Night Productions/NFB, Teresa MacInnes, dir. 1995. 48m. This documentary film retraces the journeys of eight British child evacuees to Canada in 1940. One of the children was Martin Gilbert, now the renowned British historian. Insisting he came as a British subject, not as a Jew, and his tale is punctuated by a brief segment in which Canadian historians recount Canada’s closed door policy to most Jewish refugee children. Most of those children subsequently perished. [Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal]

Web of War. Galafilm, National Film Board, Brian McKenna, dir. 1995. 51m. This documentary is about three Canadians who return to Europe and recount the story of Canadians and Poles who fought alongside each other. It contains brief reference to the Holocaust. [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

Who Was Jerzy Kosinski? Kuper Productions, Jack Kuper dir, 1996. 53m. Video. Kuper wrote a memoir called Child of the Holocaust, a tale of a boy on the run during the Holocaust. When he read Kosinski’s The Painted Bird he suspected plagiarism of his book. Kuper traveled to Poland to find out if the renowned Holocaust novel was indeed Kosinski’s true story. What Kuper learned subsequently provides a shocking denouement to this documentary investigation. [Côte St. Luc Public Library, Montreal]

Visualizing Memory… A last Detail. Kleinmann Family Foundation, Naomi Kramer, dir. 1996. 52m. Survivor Peter Kleinmann returns to Flossenburg concentration camp, one of three where he was incarcerated during war. The video tries to be didactic by breaking the narrative into four thematic sections: The Fallacy of Race, Liberation, Moral Responsibility, and Visualizing Memory. Conceptually these have an uneven impact, in part, because the videography is unremarkable. Yet the witness accounts are riveting. The work raises the important contemporary question of commemoration as the viewer ponders what will happen once the witnesses have passed away. [Montreal Holocaust Centre]

Nothing to Be Written Here. Hahn and Daughters Productions, Wendy Oberlander, dir. 1996. 47m.Oberlander’s video contains average production values. It tells the story of her father as a 17 year old Austrian Jewish refugee in Britain who was sent to Canada and interned in a New Brunswick POW camp as an enemy alien. As an assimilated Jew he and some 2,000 others like him there and in other camps worked as lumberjacks and were kept apart from the Nazi POWs. The narration describes Canada’s closed door refugee policy and the long wait the internees endured before becoming official refugees. [Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal]

A Prayer For the Dead. Herzl Kashetsky Fundy Community TV, Lisa Lamb, prod/dir. 1997. 27m. This video discusses the exhibition of paintings and drawings by Canadian artist Herzl Kashetsky, who was inspired to create his art based on photos he saw of Bergen-Belsen and his own contemporary visit to several death camps. Alex Colville, who was a Canadian war artist, talks of his experience arriving at Bergen-Belsen just after liberation. The most telling moments in this low budget production are the heartfelt comments by the artists as well as their graphic images. [Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal]

Each of Us Has A Name Cambium Film and Video Productions/Global TV, Fern Levitt and Arnie Zipursky, dirs. 1999. 52m. This is a video of the 1998 March of the Living to death camps Auschwitz, Treblinka and Majdanek in Poland. The viewer follows a Canadian group of students and the four survivors who accompanied them, all as part of the 7000 participants who made this pilgrimage. The varied and earnest emotions of survivors and students are palpable as they visit these sites, culminating in Majdanek’s “Mountain of Ashes” memorial, where a student reads the poem that gave the film its title. This contemporary video takes the viewer through these museums/memorials that bear witness to the Holocaust. [Global TV]

Sunshine. Robert Lantos Productions (a coproduction of Canada, Austria, Hungary and Germany) Istvan Szabo, dir. 1999. 180m. This epic, with very high production values, is the story of a fictive Hungarian Jewish family from the 1800’s until the 1950’s. In World War II, the family’s earlier conversion to Catholicism notwithstanding, they are singled out and deported as Jews. One member (Ralph Fiennes) insists on keeping his Christian identity even after arriving at Auschwitz; it will cost him his life as he is bound and crucified for not admitting he is a Jew. The Holocaust occupies less than ten minutes of this three hour melodrama; had the director adhered to the historical record faithfully, the crucifixion of one would have been replaced by an emphasis on the murder of 400,000 Hungarian Jews; instead, the Jews are portrayed as ambitious and earnest people who became victims and then perpetrators, in a world where politics is forever corrupt. [video release forthcoming]

Zyklon Portrait. Wandering Tulip Productions Elida Schogt, dir. 1999 13m. The filmmaker dedicates this documentary to her grandparents who were transported from Westerbork, to Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. This evocation of the Holocaust does not use familiar images but is in the form of a dialogue between a mother who survived as a hidden child in Holland, and her daughter today. The backdrop is a scientific account of, and impressionistic images of the deadly zyklon gas. Diary selections from Auschwitz Komandant Höss, serve as a chilling reminder of the monstrous inhumanity of the perpetrators. This short and artful work is a useful catalyst for classroom discussion. [wtp@interlog.com for release information]

Let Memory Speak. Jewish Education Council of Montreal, Batia Bettman, dir. 1999 27m. This documentary video is an account of some 25 Jewish children, many of whom survived the Holocaust. Their diaries, poems and memoirs, read by contemporary teenagers, as well as their personal period photos, lend an immediacy and authenticity to their tales of life before and during the war, and after liberation. Other voices read poignant passages from Holocaust authors Elie Wiesel and Aaron Appelfeld that help unify and contextualize the piece. This short production is an excellent vehicle for stimulating group discussion. [Jewish Public Library, Montreal]

Yom ha-Shoah Holocaust Memorial DayTeacher’s Guide

Filmography

Yom ha-Shoah Holocaust Memorial Day
Teacher’s Guide