Escape from the Third Reich: The Harrowing True Story of the Largest Rescue Effort Inside Nazi Germany

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The true purpose of the Auschwitz death camp was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the Third Reich. Prisoners who tried to escape were killed in public as a deterrent to other inmates, and very few ever made it out alive. Escape From Auschwitz tells the incredible story of two young Slovak Jews, Rudolph Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, who escaped by hiding in a woodpile for three days then fleeing across enemy territory, determined to tell the world about the murders and atrocities being committed by the Nazis at the camp. Reimer, R.C.; Reimer, C.J. (2012). Historical Dictionary of Holocaust Cinema. Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7986-7. Chaplin, Charlie (1964). My Autobiography. New York, Simon and Schuster. p. 392. Had I known of the actual horrors of the German concentration camps, I could not have made The Great Dictator, I could not have made fun of the homicidal insanity of the Nazis Count Folke Bernadotte of Wisborg was born in 1895. His father, Prince Oscar Bernadotte, was the second son of Oscar II, king of Sweden between 1872 and 1907, and also king of Norway from 1872 until the two countries separated in 1905. Sweden's king from 1907 to 1950 was, then, Folke Bernadotte's uncle. The plot focuses on Ángel Sanz Briz, a Spanish ambassador in Hungary during World War II. Operating until early 1944 in Budapest, he helped to save the lives of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.

A condemnation of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis. The film focuses on two men: a ruthless fascist dictator named Adenoid Hynkel (a parody of Hitler) and a persecuted Jewish barber. The Jewish barber is sent to a concentration camp, but manages to escape (and ends up mistaken for Hynkel, while Hynkel is mistaken for the Jewish barber, and sent off to a concentration camp). In one scene, Herring (a parody of Hermann Göring) makes a passing mention that they have discovered a new poison gas, that will kill everybody. In his 1964 autobiography, Chaplin stated that he could not have made the film if he had known about the true extent of the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps at that time. [2] His marriage and his many travels inclined Bernadotte to take more and more interest in international issues. It was now that he received his first Swedish public commissions, all of them, significantly, in the United States. He represented the Swedish king at the Swedish exhibition in Chicago in 1933 and 1934, and was vice-chairman of the committee appointed to celebrate the Swedish colonisation of Delaware in 1638. Finally, he acted as general commissioner at the Swedish pavilion at the New York World Fair in 1939. A Jewish pawnbroker, victim of Nazi persecution, loses all faith in his fellow man until he realizes too late the tragedy of his actions. Documentary film using archived and colorized footage of Warsaw uprising. Polish title: Powstanie WarszawskieThe Danish National Record Office proved to be a veritable gold mine, with more detailed source material in some respects than the Swedish. 'This inquisitive Swede' received enormously kind and obliging assistance from Birgit Lögstrup, Peter Birkelund and Hans Sode-Madsen. Finn Nielsen's son, Ole Finn Nielsen, devoted much of his time to me and granted me the use of his office, where I discovered very interesting documents about his father. Takk til Danmark! Based on true events and is the first major motion picture to dramatize the expulsion of 3 million Germans from Czechoslovakia.

Based on a chapter from Lillian Hellman's 1973 book Pentimento about the author's relationship with a lifelong friend, "Julia", who fought against the Nazis in the years prior to World War II. It received 11 Academy Award nominations including for Best Picture

When the Second World War broke out in Europe Bernadotte was in the United States. According to his own account he had been appointed by a group of prominent Swedes to organise and finance a voluntary body to aid Finland in its war with the Soviet Union. This project collapsed when the two countries declared an armistice in March 1940. Following the German occupation of Norway and Denmark on 9 April 1940, Bernadotte was mobilised into the Swedish army. Promoted to major, he was in charge of the army's recreational section and internment camps for people coming from countries engaged in warfare. This latter field of activity brought him the responsibility for the exchange of prisoners – British and American for German – carried out in Gothenburg in south-west Sweden in 1943 and 1944. His attempts at arranging similar exchanges of prisoners between Germany and the Soviet Union met with no success, however. This was because the Germans did not consider themselves bound by the Geneva Convention regulations concerning the treatment of prisoners of war since the Soviet Union had never ratified the Convention. One of the strengths of Escape From The Third Reich is the way it humanizes the characters on both sides of the conflict. While the Nazis are clearly the villains of the piece, the film takes the time to show that not all Germans supported Hitler's regime, and that many were deeply conflicted about the actions being carried out in their name. Klaus, in particular, is a complex and sympathetic character who is torn between his loyalty to his country and his horror at the atrocities being committed in its name. The reason I am giving this oddity 3 stars is not because of the quality of the acting or direction or writing - pretty dire at times on all 3 counts. It is because it is a real oddity, a curiosity based on the tiniest thinnest sliver of truth in film history perhaps?

First feature film to show mass murder of Jews and hunting for them on the occupied territories. 1946 Venice festival award. Based on a memoir written by Adolf Burger; won the 2007 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 80th Academy Awards. In 1928 Bernadotte married Estelle Manville, the daughter of a wealthy American businessman. Estelle Bernadotte was a remarkable woman, of an intellectual disposition with a fine sense of judgement, and she was to mean a lot in the formation of Folke's future career. Through his wife Bernadotte gained access to leading industrial and bank circles in New York. During 1930 and 1931 he studied banking in New York and Paris and made two unsuccessful attempts in business from 1933 to 1935. He subsequently abandoned the active world of business but remained on the board of a number of Swedish companies: AGA, Facit, NK, Nordisk Resebureau and Reader's Digest, for the last of which he and his wife converted their publication into the more Swedish-sounding Det Bästa. Sune Persson´s book is simply put one of the most important ones for any student of the Nordic states during WWII. This is a fascinating insight into a little known rescue mission at the end of World War II. A well written and informative piece, the photographs give a brief insight into the white buses and how they saved many from death. Until I read this book I did not know the story of the white buses and the determination of those who wanted to save others from the death camps.

It IS true that 20,000 Jews fled Europe mainly to Shanghai which had an established Jewish community as it was a very European place with British and French zones (sadly it was also invaded by Japan so many ended up in camps there; watch Empire of the Sun). China also had a community of Jews from way earlier - 7th. 8th. 9th centuries AD vis the Silk Road from the middle east, Persia etc. A tiny community survives despite Chinese oppression and the fact China does not recognise those 2500 Jews as one of China's minority groups. Netflix documentary that examines how and why thousands of ordinary Germans carried out mass atrocities as members of Nazi police squads during the Holocaust. English title: The Shepherd. The main character is an old shepherd, who lives alone on a ranch. After his daughter was killed by Nazis, he decided in his grief to save as many Jewish lives as possible. English title: Life is Beautiful. Won three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Robert Benigni English title: Night and Fog. Written by Jean Cayrol, an escapee of Mauthausen. Music by Hanns Eisler.