Watch Shoah: The Forgotten Souls

Shoah: The Forgotten Souls is a powerful and heartbreaking documentary that explores the atrocities of the Holocaust through the personal stories of survivors, witnesses, and perpetrators of the genocide. The film, directed by Claude Lanzmann, was released in 1985 and runs for nine hours and 26 minutes. The documentary is not a traditional historical account of the events of the Holocaust, but rather a collection of testimonies from people who lived through it. The film is in no way linear, and we are taken through various locations, survivors, and events throughout the course of the film.

The film begins in Poland, where Lanzmann interviews a train driver who transported Jews to concentration camps during the war. The driver is rattled by the memories of what he had witnessed, and it is immediately evident from the start that this will be no ordinary documentary.

As we progress through the film, Lanzmann interviews a variety of individuals, including survivors of concentration camps, Jewish council members who were forced to select people for deportation, and even a Nazi who worked at a concentration camp.

The interviews are long and in-depth, often lasting several hours, and the camera never cuts away. This creates an unflinching and intimate experience that forces the viewer to confront the realities of the Holocaust. Each interviewee is given space to tell their story, and we see firsthand the toll that the trauma of the Holocaust has taken on them.

The film also features footage of the locations where the concentration camps once stood, which has been left abandoned and overgrown. These shots are intercut with the interviews, serving to further underscore the sheer magnitude of the genocide and to highlight the silence and emptiness that lingers on in the aftermath of the atrocities.

Perhaps most striking about Shoah: The Forgotten Souls is its refusal to show any graphic images of the atrocities. While other documentaries about the Holocaust may include images of piles of bodies or gas chambers, Lanzmann chooses to focus solely on the power of testimony. This approach makes the film no less harrowing, but it ensures that the focus remains on the human stories behind the horrific events.

Ultimately, Shoah: The Forgotten Souls is a remarkable and important film that bears witness to the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust. It is a work that honors the memories of those who died and serves as a reminder of the humanity that can be found in the darkest of times. While it is not an easy film to watch, it is a critical one that demands our attention, compassion, and respect.