I came into the film, knowing what to expect, primarily because I have read Primo Levi's novel 'Se questo è un uomo' (1947), in essence a work with the same spirit as this documentary; trying to be lasting proof of the atrocities.
Being mentally prepared beforehand did not make this any easier to watch, it only made it bearable to sit through in its entirety. It is in this realistic style of filming that the film derives its effectiveness and fulfills its goal; it did not invoke any anger (save for the SS-officers handling the bodies of the victims in a most desensitised and inhumane way possible), only realisation of the scope and the way it happened.
There is no propaganda, no sensationalism, but also no abstention or negligence. The facts spoken off in the documentary may not be accurate, they do not represent the primary point; the extent of the inhumanity brought forth of the abstraction and rationality of the Nazi-regime. When humans reduce others to mere objects, this is what they are capable of doing, and this we better not forget.
Being mentally prepared beforehand did not make this any easier to watch, it only made it bearable to sit through in its entirety. It is in this realistic style of filming that the film derives its effectiveness and fulfills its goal; it did not invoke any anger (save for the SS-officers handling the bodies of the victims in a most desensitised and inhumane way possible), only realisation of the scope and the way it happened.
There is no propaganda, no sensationalism, but also no abstention or negligence. The facts spoken off in the documentary may not be accurate, they do not represent the primary point; the extent of the inhumanity brought forth of the abstraction and rationality of the Nazi-regime. When humans reduce others to mere objects, this is what they are capable of doing, and this we better not forget.