The following is an incomplete list of World War II documentary films.
For a list of propaganda films, see: List of Allied propaganda films of World War II.
For a list of feature films and series, see: List of World War II films. For shorts and cartoons, see: List of World War II short films.
Contents |
| Year | Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1940 | Germany | Deutsche Panzer | Walter Ruttmann |
| 1940 | Germany | Deutsche Waffenschmieden | Walter Ruttmann |
| 1940 | Germany | Feldzug in Polen | |
| 1941 | Canada | Churchill's Island | Stuart Legg |
| 1941 | Canada | Inside Fighting China | Stuart Legg |
| 1941 | USA | Kukan | Rey Scott |
| 1941 | Italy | Uomini sul fondo | Francesco De Robertis |
| 1942 | Germany | Männer, Meer und Stürme | Heinrich Hauser, Hubert Schonger |
| 1942 | United Kingdom | The Soldier's Food | unknown |
| 1944 | Germany | Panorama | |
| 1944 | USA | The Battle for the Marianas | Gordon Hollingshead |
| 1945 | Denmark | Danmark i Lænker | Sven Methling |
| 1946 | USA | Let There Be Light | John Huston |
| Year | Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | USA | Victory at Sea | M. Clay Adams |
| 1955 | France | Night and Fog | Alain Resnais |
| Year | Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Soviet Union | Ordinary Fascism | Mikhail Romm |
| 1965 | Canada | Memorandum | Donald Brittain, John Spotton |
| 1968 | USA | The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich | Jack Kaufman |
| 1969 | France | The Sorrow and the Pity | Marcel Ophüls |
| Year | Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | UK | The World at War | Miscellaneous |
| 1974 | Israel | The 81st Blow | Haim Gouri |
| 1976 | UK | The Memory of Justice | Marcel Ophüls |
| 1978 | Soviet Union | The Unknown War | Isaac Kleinerman, Roman Karmen |
| Year | Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | West Germany | The Yellow Star - The Persecution of the Jews in Europe 1933-45 | Dieter Hildebrandt |
| 1981 | USA | The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter | Connie Field |
| 1982 | USA | Genocide | Arnold Schwartzman |
| 1982 | Sweden | The Story of Chaim Rumkowski and the Jews of Lodz | Peter Chohen, Bo Kuritzen |
| 1982 | USA | Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die | Laurence Jarvik |
| 1985 | France | Shoah | Claude Lanzmann |
| 1985 | USA | Unfinished Business | Steven Okazaki |
| 1987 | Japan | The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On | Kazuo Hara |
| 1988 | France | Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie | Marcel Ophüls |
| 1989 | UK | Fascist Legacy | Ken Kirby |
| 1989 | Sweden | The Architecture of Doom | Peter Cohen |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Czech Republic | A Story about a Bad Dream | Pavel Stingl |
| USA | From Swastika to Jim Crow | Lori Cheatle, Martin D. Toub |
| USA | Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport | Mark Jonathan Harris |
| Germany | Paragraph 175 | Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman |
| Germany | Shadows of Memory | Claudia von Alemann |
| USA | Sisters in Resistance | Maia Wechsler |
| UK | The Children Who Cheated the Nazis | Sue Read |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| UK | Horror in the East | Laurence Rees, Martina Balazova |
| Japan | Japanese Devils | Minoru Matsui |
| France | Sobibor, Oct. 14, 1943, 4 p.m. | Claude Lanzmann |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| USA | A Yiddish World Remembered | Andrew Goldberg |
| Austria | Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary | André Heller, Othmar Schmiderer |
| USA | Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII | Aviva Slesin |
| Canada | The Boys of Buchenwald | Audrey Mehler |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| USA | Marion's Triumph | John Chua |
| Denmark | Med ret til at dræbe (With a Right to Kill) | Morten Henriksen, Peter Øvig Knudsen |
| Canada | Prisoner of Paradise | Malcolm Clarke, Stuart Sender |
| USA | The Holocaust Experience | Oeke Hoogendijk |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| UK | Dunkirk | Alex Holmes |
| Netherlands | Goodbye Holland | Willy Lindwer |
| USA | Hidden Fuhrer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality | Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato |
| USA | Hiding and Seeking | Menachem Daum, Oren Rudavsky |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 2 or 3 Things I Know About Him | Malte Ludin |
| USA | A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin | Eric Simonson |
| UK | Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution' | Laurence Rees, Catherine Tatge |
| UK | Hiroshima | Paul Wilmshurst |
| USA | The 11th Day: Crete 1941 | Christos Epperson |
| USA | The Mushroom Club | Steven Okazaki |
| Poland | The Portraitist | Ireneusz Dobrowolski |
| Austria | Unwanted Cinema | Petrus van der Let |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Russia | Blokada | Sergei Loznitsa |
| USA | Forgiving Dr. Mengele | Bob Hercules, Cheri Pugh |
| USA | The Rape of Europa | Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham |
| Estonia | The Blue Hills | Raimo Jõerand |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| USA | A Distant Shore: African Americans of D-Day | Douglas Cohen |
| Canada | My Opposition: The Diaries of Friedrich Kellner | Fern Levitt |
| USA | Nanking | Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman |
| USA | Order Castles of the Third Reich | R.J. Adams |
| USA | Ruins of the Reich | R.J. Adams |
| Israel | Stalags | Ari Libsker |
| USA | The War | Ken Burns, Lynn Novick |
| USA | White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki | Steven Okazaki |
| USA | Wings of Defeat | Risa Morimoto |
| Japan | Yasukuni | Li Ying |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| USA | Battle 360° | Tony Long |
| Germany | Harlan – In the Shadow of Jew Süss | Felix Moeller |
| Netherlands | Tulip Time: The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano | Tonino Boniotti, Marco De Stefanis |
| Latvia | The Soviet Story | Edvīns Šnore |
| UK | World War II Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West | Laurence Rees, Andrew Williams |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| France | Apocalypse: The Second World War | Isabelle Clarke, Daniel Costelle |
| USA | The Inheritance of War | Ashley Karras |
| Netherlands | Patton 360° | Tony Long |
| Finland | Sisters Across the Gulf of Finland | Imbi Paju |
| UK | The Week We Went to War | Malcolm McKissock, Louise Pirie |
| USA | WWII in HD | Frederic Lumiere, Matthew Ginsburg |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | War Music | David Porteous |
| Country | Title | Director(s) |
|---|---|---|
| USA | We Were There | Jarod O'Flaherty |