The Holocaust: Popular Films

The Diary of Anne Frank. (1959) Based on the diary of a Dutch-Jewish family in hiding.

Enemies, a Love Story. (1989)  Survivors deal with the consequences of the war in New York City. PJ5129.S49 S5913

Escape from Sobibor (1987) Based on the true story of the revolt by inmates of this death camp. STREAMINGVIDEO

Everything is Illuminated (2005) A young man goes to Russia to find the woman who rescued his grandfather.  PN1997.2 .E947 2006

The Garden of the Finzi-Contini (Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini). (1970) A wealthy Jewish Italian family meets their fate. PN1997 .G484 2001

Judgment at Nuremberg. (1961) Fictionalized account of the War Crimes Tribunal. PN1995.9 .T75 J83 2004

The Juggler. (1953) A well-known juggler before he survived a concentration camp runs from the police and his own troubling memories. PN1997 .J79934 2010

The Pawnbroker. (1964) A survivor now in New York has a difficult time living in the light of his past. PN1997 .P38 1985

The Pianist. (2002) True story of a noted pianist (Wladyslaw Szpilman) who survives the Warsaw Ghetto.  PN1997.2 .P53 2002

God on Trial (2008) A group of Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz put God on trial as they blame him for the tragedies of the Holocaust. STREAMINGVIDEO

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. (2008) The nine-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp becomes friends with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence.

Defiance. (2008) Based on the book by Nechama Tec

Playing For Time (TV) (1980) True story of a women’s prisoner orchestra in Auschwitz. PN1997 .P5375 2010

Schindler’s List. (1993) Based on the true story of how one man saved 1,000 Jews. PN1997 .S314 2004

Sophie’s Choice. (1982) A Polish woman in Auschwitz makes a choice that ultimately she cannot live with.  PN1997 .S66 1999

The Shop on Main Street. (Obchod na korze.) (1965) Relationship between a non-Jewish man and elderly Jewish woman whose shop he’d taken over. PN1997 .O126 2001

The Wall. (TV) (1982) Based on the novel by John Hersey. A dramatic re-enactment of the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish uprising in April 1943 were 650 armed members of the Jewish Fighting Organization of Poland held off a 3,000 strong Nazi force in which only a handful of Jews survived. Tom Conti plays Dolek Berson, a Jewish smuggler who joins the resistance movement and is aided on the Aryan side of the wall by a former teacher named Regina Kowalski played by Rachel Roberts in her final role.