Shoah

Who could make a 9½-hour documentary about the Holocaust without using a single second of archival footage? French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann did just that.

JA lot of people are fans of this doc: Judd Apatow brought up “Shoah” on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast (Feb. 16, 2020), calling the film “epic” as the two joked about why they both watch such dark documentaries. Legendary filmmaker Marcel Ophüls calls it “the greatest documentary about contemporary history ever made.” And musician Nick Cave says it’s his favorite documentary of all time.

Trailer for “Shoah”

You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up

• A former Nazi train driver calmly explains on camera how he transported about 3,000 Jews per day to Treblinka. While describing the trip, he imitates the train whistle and admits he knew the passengers would be gassed upon arrival.
• A Polish villager living near Sobibor describes witnessing Jews thrown alive into burning pits in 1943 because the Nazis ran out of time to gas them. He says flames shot about 10 meters into the air as the bodies burned.
• Former SS officer Franz Suchomel admits his role in the murder of 18,400 Jews at Majdanek on November 3, 1943 during Operation Harvest Festival. The largest mass shooting at a Nazi concentration camp.

Watch “Shoah”

You can stream “Shoah” on Philo or buy it on Amazon Prime at JustWatch.

You can also watch “Shoah” for free on YouTube in multiple parts, including a four-part “First Era” version.

• Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr2qLXMI_hU
• Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5qBk9BZKfo
• Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC2ZMZxJj3g
• Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRJq1GthZb4)

Or another upload split into “eras”though that version appears to be missing roughly two hours of the full film.

• First Era Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr2qLXMI_hU
• Second Era Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UybNQnQVZQ0
• Second Era Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UHN6u_u2fA)

Ratings:

• My Rating: 94/100
• IMDB Rating: 8.7/10
• Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 97/100 (Users); 100/100 (Critics)

Runtime: 566 minutes (9 hours 26 minutes)

Director’s Note: Claude Lanzmann spent over a decade making this film. He refused to use archival footage because he believed old images could make the Holocaust feel distant or sanitized. Instead, he filmed present-day locations like Treblinka and Sobibor while survivors and witnesses described exactly what happened there.

Release Date: April 30, 1985

My Review of “Shoah”

The Setup

“Shoah” is a 9½-hour oral history of the Holocaust. Lanzmann interviews Jewish survivors, Polish villagers who lived near the camps, and former Nazis who participated in the killings.

Conversations happen at the exact locations where the crimes occurred. Treblinka forests, railway stations in Poland, and former camp sites now covered with grass.

Instead of archival footage, the horror comes from people calmly remembering what they saw and did.

More Highlights from the Doc

• Survivor Abraham Bomba describes being forced to cut women’s hair at Treblinka minutes before they were sent into gas chambers. He breaks down as he demonstrates how he did it.
• Lanzmann records former SS officers using hidden cameras because many would only talk if they believed they were not being filmed.
• A Polish railway worker recalls seeing constant trains packed with Jews heading toward Treblinka.
• The film shows modern landscapes—fields, forests and train tracks—where extermination camps once stood.
• The documentary was controversial in Poland when it premiered because some officials felt it implied Polish citizens were complicit in Nazi crimes.

Cameos

• Musician Nick Cave has said “Shoah” is his favorite documentary.
• Comedian Judd Apatow discussed the film during a conversation about dark documentaries on Conan O’Brien’s podcast.

Lesser-Known Details from the Doc

• Lanzmann recorded more than 350 hours of interviews but used only about 9½ hours in the final cut.
• Several Nazi interviews were recorded using hidden cameras disguised inside bags.
• The film was shot across 14 countries.
• The title “Shoah” comes from the Hebrew word meaning catastrophe or annihilation.

Wrap Up:

“Shoah” is one of the longest documentaries ever made. it’s also one of the most powerful historical films ever created. It feels less like a movie and more like a permanent archive of testimony about the Holocaust.

Thanks for reading!

Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc