Alan Rosenthal Movies
The figures are astonishing and deeply unsettling: historians now estimate that during World War II, approximately 150,000 part-Jewish men served in the Nazis' Wermacht army, thus unwittingly contributing to the planned, systematic annihilation of the Jewish race. According to the confused Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which defined these men of mixed Jewish ancestry as 'Mischlinge,' such conscriptions were in fact perfectly acceptable to the Nazis. This paradox even resulted in a recruitment poster for the German army picturing a half-Jewish man named Werner Goldberg. Loosely adapted from Bryan Mark Rigg's tome Hitler's Jewish Soldiers, Larry Price's haunting documentary revisits this disturbing aspect of the Second World War, using a combination of interviews and rare archival footage. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Part nine of this documentary chronicles Jewish history after Britain's Balfour Declaration of 1917 supports establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, part of the Ottoman Empire. After the U.N. validates the declaration in 1922, Jews begin migrating to Palestine. The influx increases as Jews flee Nazi Germany. After the Nazis murder six million Jews in World War II, surviving Jews flock to Palestine. To appease angry Arabs, Britain halts immigration. Jews continue to enter the country secretly. Finally, in 1947, the U.N. votes to partition Palestine and designate Jerusalem a neutral city. In 1948, the British withdraw from Palestine, and Jews proclaim the birth of a new country: Israel. In the next three years, half a million Jews migrate to Israel from 42 countries. Many of them work at kibbutzim (collective farms), where everyone is equal. Meanwhile, Israel creates its own army and repels Arab attacks, winning the admiration of Jews everywhere. In the 1967 war with Egypt, Israel captures a great prize, Jerusalem, and Jews worldwide then bend their efforts toward liberating Soviet Jews, eventually winning concessions. Whether or not lasting peace will bless Israel, the documentary says, depends on whether Arabs and Israelis can learn to co-exist. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
- 1984
The Jewish people have one of the oldest and richest civilizations in the world, with over 5,000 years of history and traditions. This nine-volume documentary chronicles the story of the Jews, from the birth of a people in the Middle East's cradle of civilization through the creation of the state of Israel in 1947. Archival film footage and photographs, art and artifacts, journals and personal accounts, and commentary by scholars provide the particulars about a people that have long been persecuted, and yet have given so much to world culture. This eighth volume in the series examines the critical period between 1919 and 1947. Two World Wars, Hitler and the Holocaust, and the turbulent times in Europe forever changed the face of Zionism. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
