Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'

Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'

BBC DVD cover
Genre Docudrama
Written by
Directed by
Starring
Narrated by
Country of origin United Kingdom
Language(s) English
No. of episodes 6
Production
Producer(s) Mary Mazur
Running time 60 minutes
Distributor BBC
Broadcast
Original channel BBC One
Original airing 11 January 2005 (2005-01-11)

Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution', is a BBC six-episode documentary film series presenting the story of Auschwitz through interviews with former inmates and guards and re-enactments, first televised on BBC One on 11 January 2005. The series prominently featured the music of Górecki's Symphony No. 3, Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel and the Sarabande from Handel's Harpsichord Suite No. 4 in D minor, HWV 437.

In the United States, this series first aired on PBS television stations as Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State in early 2005 and was released, under that title, in a 2-DVD box set (Region 1), by BBC Warner, on 29 March 2005.[1][2]

Contents

Production

The series uses four principal elements: rarely seen contemporary film from archives, interviews with survivors such as Dario Gabbai and former Nazis such as Oskar Gröning, computer-generated reconstructions of buildings now demolished, and re-enactments of meetings and other events. These are linked by modern footage of locations in and around the site of the Auschwitz camp.

Laurence Rees stressed that the re-enactments were not dramatisations, but exclusively based on documented sources:

There is no screenwriter… Every single word that is spoken is double — and in some cases triple — sourced from historical records.[3]

This reflects the conception of the earlier BBC/HBO film Conspiracy, which similarly recreates the Wannsee Conference (an event briefly portrayed in programme 2 of this series) based on a copy of the minutes kept by one of the attendees, although that film also includes speculative dramatised sections.

The CG reconstructions used architectural plans that only became available in the 1990s, when the archives of the former Soviet Union became accessible to Western historians. The discovery of these plans is described in the 1994 BBC Horizon documentary Auschwitz: The Blueprints of Genocide.

Episodes

Episode
number		 Title Original UK
broadcast
1. Surprising Beginnings 11 Jan 2005
2. Orders and Initiatives 18 Jan 2005
3. Factories of Death 25 Jan 2005
4. Corruption 1 Feb 2005
5. Frenzied Killing 8 Feb 2005
6. Liberation & Revenge 15 Feb 2005

Media information

DVD releases

Companion books

References

  1. ^ "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State: About This Series" (Web). Copyright © 2004-2005 Community Television of Southern California (KCET), (BBC and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member Public television). All rights reserved.. http://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/about/index.html. Retrieved 2008-08-30. 
  2. ^ a b "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State". BBC Warner (dist. PBS Video). 2005-03-29. ains 400. http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=1915639. Retrieved 2008-08-30. 
  3. ^ "Hearts of Darkness". The Sydney Morning Herald.. 2005-09-29. http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radio/hearts-of-darkness/2005/09/24/1126982268912.html. 
  4. ^ "Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'". BBC. 2005-02-14. http://www.bbcshop.com/History/Auschwitz-The-Nazis-And-The-Final-Solution-DVD/invt/bbcdvd1505. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
  5. ^ "The World War Two Collection". BBC. 2005-04-25. http://www.bbcshop.com/History/World-War-Two-Collection-The-DVD/invt/bbcdvd1728. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 

External links