Death Mills
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Death Mills | |
---|---|
Directed by | Billy Wilder Hans Burger |
Written by | Hans Burger |
Editing by | Billy Wilder (supervisor) |
Distributed by | United States Department of War |
Release date(s) | 1945 |
Running time | 22 min. |
Country | US |
Language | English/German |
All Movie Guide profile | |
IMDb profile |
The Death Mills, or Die Todesmühlen, is a 1945 American propaganda documentary film directed by Billy Wilder and produced by the United States Department of War. It was intended for German audiences to educate them about the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime. For the German version, Die Todesmühlen, Hans Burger is credited as the writer and director, while Wilder supervised the editing. Wilder is credited with the English-language version.
[edit] Synopsis
The film opens with a note that the following is "a reminder that behind the curtain of Nazi pageants and parades was millions of men women and children were tortured to death - the greatest mass murder in human history" then fades into German civilians at Gardelegen carrying crosses to the local concentration camp.
Most of the film is simply footage of the newly liberated camps over a score of stark classical music. The narrator notes that people of all nationalities were found in the camps, including people of all religious or political creeds. There is no mention of the particular fate of Jewish people. The films states that 20 million people were killed and describes many of the familiar aspects of the Holocaust, including the medical experiments and the gas chambers.
[edit] See also
- List of Allied propaganda films of World War II
- List of Holocaust films
- The Nuremberg Trials - Soviet film about the Nuremberg trials
- That Justice Be Done - American film about the Nuremberg trials
[edit] External links
- Complete film at US Holocaust Museum
- Death Mills at the Internet Movie Database (English version)
- Todesmühlen, Die at the Internet Movie Database (German version)
Mauvaise Graine • The Major and the Minor • Five Graves to Cairo • Double Indemnity • Death Mills • The Lost Weekend • The Emperor Waltz • A Foreign Affair • Sunset Boulevard • Ace in the Hole • Stalag 17 • Sabrina • The Seven Year Itch • The Spirit of St. Louis • Love in the Afternoon • Witness for the Prosecution • Some Like It Hot • The Apartment • One, Two, Three • Irma la Douce • Kiss Me, Stupid • The Fortune Cookie • The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes • Avanti! • The Front Page • Fedora • Buddy Buddy