Films
Aimée & Jaguar (1999)
Directed by Max Färberböck
In Berlin during World War II, Felice (Maria Schrader), a Jewish woman living under a false name and working for an underground organisation, has a passionate affair with Lilly (Juliane Köhler), a mother of four and an occasionally unfaithful wife, despite the danger of persecution and nightly bombing raids.
Schindler's List (1993)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Based on Thomas Keneally's book Schindler's Ark, this multi-Oscar-winning film tells the story of the dissolute Schindler who, almost despite himself, saves more than 1,000 Jews from extermination.
Music Box (1989)
Directed by Costa-Gavras
Mike Laszlo (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a Hungarian who has lived in the US since just after the war, demands that his daughter Ann Talbot (Jessica Lange) defend him in court when he is accused of being a notorious war criminal.
Shoah (1985)
Directed by Claude Lanzmann
A 9.5-hour documentary consisting of interviews with Holocaust 'witnesses': survivors, bystanders, former Nazis and collaborators. The sheer volume of detail is devastatingly persuasive.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Harrison Ford stars in two films as the archaeologist-cum-action hero battling to keep two precious artefacts – the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail, respectively – out of the hands of Nazi representatives of an agency not unlike the Ahnenerbe.
Voyage of the Damned (1976)
Directed by Stuart Rosenberg
Tells the true story of the voyage of the SS St Louis, from Hamburg to Havana in 1939, carrying 937 Jews in search of refuge. The passengers gradually become aware that they were never intended to disembark in Cuba but are being used as propaganda.
The Pawnbroker (1964)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Rod Steiger stars as a pawnshop owner in New York whose attempts to cope with his family and his working life in Harlem trigger flashbacks to his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. This was one of the first films to examine the psychological damage of those who survived the Holocaust.
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Directed by Stanley Kramer
The trial of four former Nazi judges – who facilitated such policies as the sterilisation of those that the regime deemed 'unfit' – poses questions on the morality of following and enforcing laws that are obviously unjust. Also, the film confronts the changing feelings towards Germany after the war – from enemy to friend.
Exodus (1960)
Directed by Otto Preminger
Based in part on the voyage of Exodus 1947, which carried Jewish displaced persons to Palestine where they were refused entry. This film. and the original novel by Leon Uris, were immensely influential in painting the cause of Zionism in a good light.
The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
Directed by George Stevens
The true story of a young Jewish girl (Millie Perkins) in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, who, for more than two years, hides in an attic with her family and others.
The Olympiad (1938)
Directed by Leni Riefenstahl
In this record of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the human body is eroticised in a paean to physical beauty that suggests how compatible fetishism and Fascism can be.
Triumph of the Will (1935)
Directed by Leni Riefenstahl
The legendary propaganda/documentary of the Third Reich's 1934 Nuremberg party rally. Features a cast of thousands as well as Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Hess, Goering and other top Nazi officials.