Upgraded Version of Alfred Hitchcock Holocaust Documentary to be Broadcast

Image: austinchronicle.com

In 1945, Alfred Hitchcock helped create a documentary that depicted the macabre reality of the Nazi extermination machine. The director used footage Allied soldiers shot in Bergen-Belsen and other concentration camps. According to an article in the UK newspaper The Guardian, the movie did not see the light of day for decades, apparently due to "political reasons." A truncated version was shown in Berlin about thirty years ago. In 1985, the US television network PBS broadcast the film, but one The Guardian article claimed was "poor quality."

The UK's Imperial War Museum completed a restoration project that has brought the Hitchcock documentary to its complete form and visual integrity. The film will be shown this year on British television.

Meanwhile, Time noted that HBO will broadcast a Holocaust documentary called Night Will Fall, which will include the story of the footage that Hitchcock used, and show some of it. Of course, the opportunity to view "unseen" Hitchcock work should not be missed. The larger reason to view the film became evident recently, courtesy of the massacre of Charlie Hebdou staffers and related, hate-inspired murders in a Paris kosher supermarket.

HBO will show Night Will Fall on January 26th, with a repeat presentation on HBO2 the following day. Viewers are advised that some footage will be graphic and disturbing.