Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final

Solution'
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Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution'

BBC DVD cover

Genre Documentary
 Doris Bergen

 Megan Callaway
Written by
 David Orenstein

 Laurence Rees
 Laurence Rees
Directed by
 Catherine Tatge
 Linda Ellerbee

Starring  Horst-Günter Marx

 Klaus Mikoleit
  Samuel West (UK)
Narrated by
 Linda Hunt (USA)
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language English
No. of episodes 6
Production
Producer Mary Mazur
 Alan Lygo
Editors
 Douglas Varchool
Camera setup Laurie Conlon
Running time 48 minutes
Distributor BBC
Release
Original network BBC Two
Picture format 16:9 (576i)
11 January –
Original release
15 February 2005

Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution' is a BBC six-episode documentary film
series presenting the story of Auschwitz concentration camp from its early operations in 1940
to the legal prosecution of Nazis involved in the operation of the camp. It combined
interviews with former inmates and guards with authentic re-enactments of relevant events. It
was first televised on BBC Two[1] on 11 January 2005. In the United States, this series first
aired on PBS television stations as Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State in early 2005 and was
released, under that title, in a 2-DVD box set (Region 1), by BBC Warner, on 29 March 2005.
[2][3]

Production
The series uses four principal elements: rarely seen contemporary colour and monochrome
film from archives, interviews with survivors such as Dario Gabbai and former Nazis such as
Oskar Gröning, computer-generated reconstructions of long-demolished buildings as well as
detailed, historically accurate re-enactments of meetings and other events. These are linked by
modern footage of locations in and around the site of the Auschwitz camp.

Laurence Rees stressed that the re-enactments were not dramatisations but exclusively based
on documented sources:

There is no screenwriter… Every single word that is spoken is double – and in some cases
triple – sourced from historical records.[4]

This reflects the conception of the earlier BBC/HBO film Conspiracy, which similarly
recreates the Wannsee Conference (an event briefly portrayed in programme 2 of this series)
based on a copy of the minutes kept by one of the attendees, although that film also includes
speculative dramatised sections.
The computer-generated reconstructions used architectural plans that only became available
in the 1990s when the archives of the former Soviet Union became accessible to Western
historians. The discovery of these plans is described in the 1994 BBC Horizon documentary
Auschwitz: The Blueprints of Genocide.

Music featured
 Main Theme: Harpsichord Suite No. 4 in D minor, HWV 437, composed by Handel,
for the DVD Menu & End Credits.
 Symphony No. 3, composed by Polish composer Henryk Górecki
 Fratres and Spiegel im Spiegel, both composed by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt
 Piano Trio No. 2 (Schubert), composed by Schubert.
 The Twins (Prague) and Embers, both composed by Max Richter.

The last episode of the series also features Introitus from Mozart's Requiem in D minor,
which is played just before the ending credits start to roll.

Episodes
Episode Original UK
Title
number broadcast
1. Surprising Beginnings 11 January 2005
2. Orders & Initiatives 18 January 2005
3. Factories of Death 25 January 2005
4. Corruption 1 February 2005
5. Frenzied Killing 8 February 2005
6. Liberation & Revenge 15 February 2005

Media information
DVD releases

 Released on Region 2 DVD by BBC Video on 2005-02-14.[5]

 Also included in the BBC World War II DVD Collection.[6]
 Released on Region 1 DVD (2 DVD box set) by BBC Warner on 29 March 2005.
(Dist. PBS Video.)[3]

Companion books

 Rees, Laurence (6 January 2005). Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'. BBC
Books. ISBN 978-0-563-52296-6.

 Rees, Laurence (4 January 2005). Auschwitz: A New History. Public Affairs Books.
ISBN 978-1-58648-303-6.
On-Demand Broadcast

 Netflix: Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution[7] Deadlink Saturday, 12
February 2022 @ ~Midnight UTC−05:00.

References
1.

 Duke, Katy (14 February 2005). "BBC documentary prompts war crimes investigation".
The Guardian. London. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State: About This Series" (Web). Public Broadcasting
Service (PBS). Archived from the original on 24 July 2008. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
  "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State". BBC Warner (dist. PBS Video). 29 March 2005. ains
400. Archived from the original on 22 November 2007. Retrieved 30 August 2008.
  Jinman, Richard (29 September 2005). "Hearts of Darkness". The Sydney Morning
Herald. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  "Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution'". BBC. 14 February 2005. Archived from
the original on 1 September 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2008.
  "The World War Two Collection". BBC. 25 April 2005. Archived from the original on 30
April 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2008.
7.  "Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution". Netflix. Retrieved 15 September
2017.

External links
 Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution' at IMDb