Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single frame of archival footage. This epic documentary changed the way we think about the Holocaust. Featuring interviews with survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators from across Europe, mostly Poland and Germany, Shoah is drawn from over 300 hours of contemporary conversations with these witnesses, along with footage of overgrown sites of unspeakable horrors, including the concentration camp at Auschwitz. The monumental film grew out of Lanzmann's concern that the genocide perpetrated only 40 years earlier was already being forgotten. In response, he relied entirely on accounts from witnesses, rather than historical footage or reenactments, sometimes resorting to hidden cameras or other deceptions to coax stories and memories from those with whom he spoke.
Claude Lanzmann
Simon Srebnik
Richard Glazar
Paula Biren
Michael Podchlebnik
Motke Zaidl
Jan Karski
Abraham Bomba
Inge Deutschkron
Ruth Elias
Filip Müller
Rudolf Vrba
Raul Hilberg
Hanna Zaïdl
Jan Piwonski
Itzhak Dugin
Helena Pietyra
Pan Filipowicz
Pan Falborski
Czeslaw Borowi
Henrik Gawkowski
Franz Suchomel
Joseph Oberhauser
Alfred Spiess
Franz Schalling
Martha Michelsohn
Moshe Mordo
Armando Aaron
Walter Stier
Franz Grassler
Gertude Schneider
Itzhak Zuckermann
Simha Rotem
Francine Kaufmann
Barbara Janicka
Mrs. Apfelbaum
Charlotte Hirschhorn