Auschwitz: The Nazis And the Final Solution

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This originally started out as a BBC mini series shown once a week for six weeks; they combined it into an omnibus then released it on DVD. Most public libraries have his set to lend but you can set your DVR's to record the series when it airs on the History (H) channel. The material is not rated but I wouldn't suggest it for those under the age of thirteen because of the violence and multitude of decays bodies, forms of execution and torture methods. The episodes run about 47 minutes and this specific collection was released in 2005; it is currently available for viewing on Netflix in the Documentary section. Because this is a six part presentation there is going to be some footage and narration that's going to overlap or appear more than once; with that being said I have to add that there is a lot of rare footage. It would be impossible to trace the entire Nazi period of power so this is basically a summary of the key points of the timeline. Almost everything is spoken in English with the exception of a few interviews but they are accurately sub-titled. The chapters are shown in progressive order starting with “Surprising Beginnings” and “Orders And Initiatives” which deal with the pre-planning of the death camps and how the simple methods blossomed into “death machines”. “Factories of Death” gives you an in-depth look at how the gas cambers created and eventually enlarged. At their peak, several of the gas chambers could accommodate three thousand bodies an hour. The final two chapters cover the eventual downfall of the camps, the foreign invasion of military men liberating the camps. One of the thing that really stuck with me was the bragging about efficiency and how they could “process” a trainload of 'cargo' in two hours. Everything is completely impersonal and the few people that did think the extermination was wrong were never sure who they could trust. For me, the parts that really unnerved me were when they forced the prisoners to dig up the previously executed prisoners. You do see some of the different stages of decomposition and that's something that some viewers may not be able to handle. Photo: holocaustresearchproject.org