The Holocaust itself was a terrible nightmare. More awful than that, is the false representations set forth by Nazi propaganda. Taking advantage of the technology of their time, it was a goal to promote as much propaganda as possible, often slanted and inauthentic.This film was lost among thousands of other rolls of footage. Watching the images of the ghetto flash on the screen, without sound, without music, without anything is extremely haunting. This very real set up was the movie set for a 30 day Nazi venture to capture the conditions of the Ghetto. The most effected I felt when watching the film was observing the treatment of corpses and starvation. People had reached a point in which seeing a dead body a few steps ahead was not only normal, it was expected. Somehow, their world had manifested into a murderous draconian hell and they had no choice but to submit to its rule.
of course, intentions of propaganda was to to promote Hitler and his belief. The promotion of the ideal type, physically and ethnically was subject to adherence as well. The promotion of a high life lived by Jewish people at this time was an utter fabrication, and so I am left wondering was that the goal of this film? to compare the impoverished to the wealthy? Both parties were Jewish, so what was the real purpose of ordering the cameramen to capture this duality?
I have a hypothesis that to the third Reich, perhaps it was a means to compare the acceptable and the unacceptable. Despite all Jewish being identified then, as unacceptable, perhaps here it was to capture the range of a person. Whatever the origin, it is disgusting to see such conditions. Conditions that had no future plans of hope other than greeting death just outside of its gate. In the film, the survivors discusses how the people being filmed felt perhaps that would save them. It is so saddening that the goal of propaganda to promote hope and livelihood, kept its sole main character and protagonist (The Jewish people in Warsaw) completely from the goal it wished to gain.