“Bella Ciao!” – Program 3 – Meditate that this was

Cemetery of Europe
Aleksander Ford. Poland, 1945. 24′

A shocking testimony to Nazi cruelty, mass extermination, efficient fruit of Hitler’s ideology.

It is one of the first Polish documentaries made after World War II. Aleksander Ford produced a shocking account of Nazi cruelty, mass and industrialized extermination, using materials filmed by Polish and Soviet cameramen immediately after the liberation of the German concentration and extermination camp at Majdanek. However, it is not entirely free from manipulation, in line with the policy of the Soviet government and the future Polish government.

Aleksander Ford (1908-1980) was a charismatic figure in Polish cinema, and is considered one of his country’s greatest directors. Often opposed by the pro-Soviet regime, he had to leave Poland in 1969 because of anti-Semitism fomented by the Communist Party.

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Investigation of German concentration camps
Sidney Bernstein. United Kingdom, 1945-2014. 75′

The death camp film that the Allies showed to all German prisoners of war, but which remained unseen by the general public.

Ordered in April 1945 by the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, the film is an official documentary on German atrocities and concentration camps, compiled from footage shot by combat operators and newsreels accompanying troops during the liberation of occupied Europe. It was to be the film shown in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich-shown to German prisoners of war wherever they were held.

Sidney Bernstein (1899-1993) was a prominent British media executive who founded Granada Television in Manchester in 1954. He had a dominant influence on the growth and development of commercial television in Britain.