Rex Bloomstein
Auschwitz and the Allies, Part 1
Summary
Rex Bloomstein discusses and shows part 1 of his film Auschwitz and the Allies, which reviews the evolution of policies toward Jews in Nazi Germany from deportation to extermination. Additionally it examines the disbelief and inaction among the Allies, and questions the extent to which they are responsible for the atrocities. Part 1 of 2.
Rex Bloomstein
Rex Bloomstein has produced films on human rights, crime and punishment, and the Holocaust. He pioneered the modern prison documentary with films such as Lifers (1983) and Strangeways (1980), which won two British Academy Awards. As well as other television productions such as Auschwitz and the Allies, and his three-part history of anti-Semitism, The Longest Hatred, he produced KZ, described as one of the first post-modern Holocaust documentaries. Other feature documentaries include An Independent Mind (2008), on freedom of expression, This Prison Where I Live (2010), on imprisoned Burmese comedian, Zarganar, and The World of Jewish Humor (1990), which traces the evolution of Jewish humor from New York’s turn-of-the-century Lower East Side to the present.
Well, it belongs to the BBC. It isn’t shown publicly. It’s only shown through people like Trudy who make use of it. So it’s … It was only shown once, I think, repeated once, and it lays on the shelf somewhere in the BBC archive. And, you know, it’s like a lot of one’s work. I attempt to revive it if I can. ‘Cause I think there is relevance there. There’s relevance there, but you can’t get it, as it were, publicly.
That is a complicated question, Stuart. The Japanese … A lot of Jews made it to Shanghai. That was then under Japanese occupation. The Japanese regarded the Jews … There was a plan called the Fuji Plan. And the Fuji is a delicacy, it’s a puffer fish. And if you eat it in the wrong place, it kills you. But it’s the greatest delicacy in the world. That is a very complex story. And please don’t forget, there were Japanese consult in Kaunas, Sugihara, and he gave thousands of visas to Jews. You see, it’s not countries, it’s people. And there were some magnificent people everywhere.