The Yellow Star: The Persecution of the Jews in Europe - 1933-1945 (1981)

Using archive sourced from Berlin, Paris, Washington and London this is quite a comprehensive and harrowing documentary depicting the rise of the Nazi party in Germany and the ultimate decimation of the Jewish, Romany and homosexual populations in the ever increasing expanses of Europe that Adolf Hitler ended up controlling. From his vaguely democratic legitimacy in the 1930s when the ageing President Hindenburg agreed to suspend the Weimar constitution, the writing was soon on the walls for those who did not confirm to the Arian societal norms. The imagery here illustrates really effectively the gradual encroachment of the state into the lives of those whom it determined to ostracise and persecute, and whilst some were able to make good an escape, the vast majority were condemned to their grisly fate - even those who had made it to Austria or Poland or, even, France. I saw this in it’s recently restored English language version but to be honest, the commentary really isn’t so very necessary. Just watching this ghastly and unrelenting series of films, supported by some out of vision commentaries taken from contemporaneous writings and diaries does quite enough to make one shudder. I have seen much of the photography before in strands like “The World at War” but never quite so intensely as are edited together here and in a world where it is so easy to become immune to pictures of violence and despair, these really do cut through and are truly shocking.