The Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes's first documentary "is a short, stark shock" that might well contain some of "the most disturbing images ever shown on British TV", said Jack Seale in The Guardian. It is a straightforward combination of two "precious artefacts" from the vaults of London's Imperial War Museum: film footage shot by Sergeants Mike Lewis and Bill Lawrie of the British Army Film and Photographic Unit, documenting the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945; and audio interviews from the 1980s, in which the two cameramen recall the sights they encountered.
It's clear that they had no idea what to expect when they were sent to film a camp for "political prisoners": Lewis, himself Jewish, remembers thinking the assignment would be "dull". But what they witnessed there would "change them and stay with them for ever".
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Roofman: a ‘stranger than fiction’ taleThe Week Recommends Channing Tatum walks ‘effortlessly’ between comedy and tragedy
-
Political cartoons for October 23Cartoons Thursday’s political cartoons include Mike Johnson's pumpkin patch, great news for crypto scammers, and a suspicious white sheet
-
The UK-made Storm Shadow missiles Ukraine is using in RussiaThe Explainer Ukraine reportedly deployed the long-range British missiles this week, following a tense meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump
-
Film reviews: A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
-
Book reviews: ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’ and ‘Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It’Feature Gertrude Stein’s untold story and Jane Leavy’s playbook on how to save baseball
-
Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into ArtFeature Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Dec. 7
-
Music reviews: Olivia Dean, Madi Diaz, and Hannah FrancesFeature “The Art of Loving,” “Fatal Optimist,” and “Nested in Tangles”
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
Ready for the apocalypseFeature As anxiety rises about the state of the world, the ranks of preppers are growing—and changing.
-
A little-visited Indian Ocean archipelagoThe Week Recommends The paradise of the Union of the Comoros features beautiful beaches, colourful coral reefs and lush forests
-
Diane Keaton: the Oscar-winning star of Annie HallIn the Spotlight Something’s Gotta Give actor dies from pneumonia at the age of 79
