In the early days of WWII Nazi forces began concentrating large populations of Jewish people in small areas of cities under their control in Germany and throughout Europe. Once contained in ghettos, the men, women and children were shipped to concentration camps in outlying areas for extermination as part of Hitler’s Final Solution.
In 1942, Nazi propagandists made a film purporting to show life in the infamous Warsaw Ghetto. After their original population of some 400,000 had been reduced to a quarter of that via deportation to Treblinka the remaining Jews rioted in 1943 and engaged Nazis in urban guerilla warfare that ultimately resulted in the ghetto’s destruction.
Directed by Yael Hersonski, A Film Unfinished is based on a roll of film that was discovered after the war ended that dramatized the extent to which Nazi filmmakers went in manipulating Jewish residents of the Warsaw ghetto for propaganda purposes. It plays tonight at the RPL Theatre at 9 p.m. Here’s the trailer.
