Bodies. Lots of them.
Not a typical uplifting fun London At Large story this – but sadly a true one.
This project makes use of footage shot by British, American and Soviet cameramen, led by the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein just after WW2. As troops entered the German concentration camps, they made a systematic film record of what they saw. Work began on a documentary to show the horror they witnessed to the German population. Treatment adviser was Bernstein’s friend, Alfred Hitchcock.
Despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved as part of the post war rapprochement with Germany, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums.
Night Will Fall is a modern ‘making of’ documentary for the film overseen by Bernstein. It is harrowing. I would guess Bernstein’s film is unwatchable. But it is evidence of atrocities which have tortured the world’s conscience since 1945.
And yet, has anything really changed?