Infrarouge (TV Series) Einsatzgruppen, les commandos de la mort (2009) User Reviews

If you haven't seen this, you probably don't know the Holocaust!

[deacon_blues-3 · 9/10 · 18 November 2016]

Most historical summaries of the solution to "The Jewish Question" during World War II start with the Einsatzgruppen, giving it short treatment as the initial method of exterminating Jews and other undesirables. Usually it is described as both inefficient and too stressful for those who did the killing. Then the narrative normally shifts to treat the death camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Sobibor in great detail.

Granted, this is where the greatest numbers of people were exterminated in the shortest time, but it was the work of the Einsatzgruppen that really exhibited the extremes of inhumanity, depravity, and brutality during this period in history. Nor was this operation just a precursor to the subsequent death camps; this extreme brutality continued straight through to the end of the war, especially in the form of "Operation 1005," the cover-up attempted once the Germans understood that they would soon lose the war and be held accountable for these horrors against humanity.

The horrors perpetrated by these death squads cannot be overstated. The massive scale upon which this most extreme horror took place boggles the human mind and soul. Such extremes of mass cruelty, humiliation, torture, and death are beyond the normal understanding. Even the Nazis could not bear to take part in it without constant and copious consumption of alcohol. Further, most of the killing was carried out by non-Germans and even non-Nazis, with the actual Germans normally filling only a supervisory function. The pain reliever of choice for these nationals was once again large amounts of alcohol. Though this dulled their senses, it also removed their inhibitions, causing many to become not only desensitized to the brutality, but even inspiring them to enjoy it. Some even began to get "creative" about how they went about the cruelty and killing.

If you don't know the Einsatzgruppen, you don't know the Holocaust!

Must-see documentary chronicling history of Nazi Death Squads

[Turfseer · 10/10 · 8 February 2010]

Before the concentration camps, the Nazis created four special 'death squads', the Einsatzgruppen, which were assigned to four separate sectors of the occupied Eastern front. This is the subject of Michaël Prazan's brilliant 3 hour documentary, recently shown at the Jewish Film Festival.

During a live talk after the screening of the documentary, Prazan indicated that he had to make a choice as to which areas he would focus on since the massacres and pogroms that the Nazis instigated were spread out over a vast geographical area. Prazan settled on locations where a significant visual record of the mass killings had been made.

The Einsatzgruppen's first actions occurred shortly after Germany's invasion of Russia in June of 1941. Almost in every case, the Nazis would conscript local militias or police forces to do the dirty work. Prazan has a witness who lived across the street from the infamous Babi Yar massacre in Kiev, Ukraine, in late September 1941. The witness, who was a 10 year old girl at the time, had a bird's eye view from her attic, where she saw countless Jewish people murdered and thrown into the ravine at Babi Yar (all in all, over 33,000 Jews were massacred at the site). The witness was puzzled why she overheard Germans speaking perfect Ukranian, only to soon find out that they weren't German at all but members of the local population who carried out most of the killings.

The first half of Einsatzgruppen focuses on the haphazard way in which the Nazis carried out the mass killings of Jews. The documentary features numerous interviews with victims and witnesses (primarily from Lithuania and Romania) who give eyewitness accounts of the horrors. One survivor flips through a scrapbook of photos and can identify most of the people, explaining in a detached, matter-of-fact tone, exactly how each person in the photo met their demise.

There are other chilling interviews, including an elderly Lithuanian man who admitted that he participated in the mass killings, describing how the Lithuanian police force would shoot their victims and if anyone were still alive, SS officers would walk around, shooting them in the head to finish them off. Prazan even went to Germany and utilizing a hidden camera, interviewed two former Waffen SS officers who admitted their role in the commission of various atrocities.

We also learn how the Nazis began utilizing mobile gas vans (predecessors to the concentration camps) which proved to be ineffective since only a small number of people could be gassed at a time. Countless numbers of soldiers ended up drinking heavily as they had a hard time carrying out orders to murder so many people, especially women and children. Others had nervous breakdowns and were sent back to Germany for treatment.

The second half of the documentary focuses on the 'funeral pyres'. This is after the bulk of the killings had been completed and the German Army was in retreat after their defeat at Stalingrad. In 1943, the Germans uncovered a mass grave in the Katyn Forest in Poland where approximately 22,000 Polish nationals (primarily Polish military officers) had been massacred by the Soviet secret police (NKVD). The subsequent publicity was a propaganda coup for the Nazis but they soon realized that they had never properly disposed of the evidence of their own nefarious deeds. The Einsatzgruppen then went back to the sites of all the massacres and conscripted Jews who were now imprisoned in concentration camps or ghettos, and ordered them to dig up the bodies (sometimes these people would end up recognizing a piece of clothing or some other piece of ID of a relative or someone they had known). The bodies were then burned and the bones ground to a pulp.

The final part of Einsatzgruppen deals with the war crimes trials of those involved in the death squads. Only three of the four heads of the Einsatzgruppen were ever brought to justice (a fourth died of Parkinson's disease while in custody). None of the enlisted men in the Einsatzgruppen were even arrested for their crimes. There's also some very interesting footage from Soviet archives of war crimes trials of the Nazi officers.

Einsatzgruppen is a must-see documentary that chronicles the little known history of one of the greatest series of atrocities committed during the modern era. With its detached, reportorial tone, you will be amazed at what you learn here. If you cannot see this in a theater, I recommend buying the DVD as soon as it becomes available.

A needed documentary, but not this one

[ersbel · 15 October 2015]

This is the regular state paid fare in France. Low quality made with less people to maximize the profit. The off voice does say what the talking head following is going to say. Somehow. Because the off voice does not really get what the talking head is saying. For the beginning the errors and innuendos are there. For the Germans (says the voice) Jews are associated with Communism. How about the Stab in the Back mythology? Or... stimulated by the Nazi the nationalist groups in Eastern Europe start the pogroms (says the voice). Only that in the century before the War pogroms were quite common in the area. And so on.

To make things worse the archive footage is mashed together. There is no label. No location. No date. Occasionally there is some "German propaganda" label and that's it.

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