Monday, March 25, 2013

"A Film Unfinsihed" - Alyssa Vandiver


Alyssa Vandiver

ENG Comp 101-135

Mr. Neuburger

25 March 2013

Essay

“A Film Unfinished”

“A Film Unfinished” is a moving documentary about the Nazis staging the Jewish people in different scenes in the Ghetto to be used for propaganda. The films were taken during WWII in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest Ghetto built by the Nazis. There were over 400,000 Jews in a 1.3 square mile radius. For a long time the films were just thought as documentation and no one knew that the films were staged. It wasn’t until recently that a film that was unfinished had showed the Nazi soldiers filming and doing re-takes was discovered. The Nazis filmed these to prove that the Ghetto wasn’t a bad thing; they were used as propaganda to show that the Ghetto life wasn’t bad. They showed the Jews dancing, playing games, talking, and going about their days. They made the films look as realistic as possible. In one scene they even fired gun shots in to the air to cause panic. They would do as many retakes as possible to make the scene seem as real as possible. They would shoot from different angles over and over again. The retakes showed that everything was staged and unreal. The Nazis made the Ghetto look like a nice place for the Jews when in reality they were so cramped they had to step over dead bodies just walking down the streets. The Nazis were starving the Jews in the Ghetto. They were so cramped that there was nowhere for people to walk without being next to someone else. The films showed the Jews happy when they were actually starving, scared, and cramped. After the Nazis were finished with the Jews in the Ghetto they were sent to concentration camps where many died. When the film with all the retakes was finally found it had shown what life was actually like for the Jewish people in the community, it also proved how far the Nazis would go to change the minds of others to make what they were doing seem ethical and to get the country to stand behind them.

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