The Last Days
- Bill Basch
- Randolph Braham
- Alice Lok Cahana
- Renée Firestone
- Tom Lantos
- Irene Zisblatt
The last day is the title of a 1998 documentary produced, which deals with the subject of the Holocaust and the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich.
Action
Five surviving Hungarian Jews from the concentration camp Auschwitz -Birkenau come back to the place of their martyrdom and give the viewer in interviews insight into the inhumanity and brutality of war of extermination by the Nazis against the Jews. You also want to clarify the whereabouts of their relatives who were selected from the ramp in front of their eyes, and therefore make some inquiries. On the other hand, Hans Münch chance to speak, in his former camp doctor at Auschwitz, which is from the perspective of a perpetrator insight into the cruel mechanisms of the Holocaust. Even former U.S. soldiers are interviewed, whose job it was to liberate the inmates of the death camps.
Parallel to the interviews, archival footage and photos are displayed from the crematoria.
Background information
The last few days was produced in behalf of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, whose chairman is the famous director Steven Spielberg.
The film premiered on 23 October 1998 in Los Angeles Premiere, and came on 5 February 1999 in the American cinema. In Germany the film from the 9 March 2000 was seen. In the U.S. alone, the film played in nearly two months, $ 419,762.
Awards
Both James Moll, who made his directorial debut with the film, as well as producer Ken Lipper were honored at the Oscar ceremony in 1999 with the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
Even minor was nominated for his film editing at the Eddie Awards for Best cut of a documentary film in 1999.
Documentation for the movie
- Steven Spielberg, James Moll: The Last Days. Introduction by historian David Cesarani. Egmont Publishing, 1999, ISBN 3-8025-2648-1. ( Backing band )