Horror Stories from Auschwitz - Movie Review Example

We should start worrying about how history can get corrupted like anything and how any extreme act of inhumanity can go unaccounted for as time passes by. It is a truth that holocaust is always understood as a Jewish holocaust but on the fringes of that narrative, we also see Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, and communists. Why should communists take up the Jewish propaganda is a question worth probing. Providing trivial aspects like the growth of Auschwitz into a commercial tourism spot to suggest that ‘Auschwitz’ is more hype than truth, is not adding to the serious tone of this video but only diminish it.

Also, the mocking tone reflects some kind of prejudice. For example, when the presence of shops selling video cameras in Auschwitz is mentioned it is mockingly added that the visitors need not fear about missing a shot of the “final solution” (“David Cole Interviews With Dr Franciszek Piper”). The contradiction in the statement of two ladies about the holes on the roof of the gas chamber is there but the second lady is not asked to explain her statement- that is, why the holes were made if they were not original.

Also, I wonder whether the deaths (of all those people who have been killed by gassing in Auschwitz) have ever been properly documented or not. This information is lacking in this video. Did the relatives and friends of each ‘victim’ not try to locate the person, and the cause of death?Even the revised figure of the number of deaths in Auschwitz given by Dr Franciszek Piper is 1.1 million, which is not a small figure. In any instance of mass death, there happens often controversy about the death toll.

And the version of Dr Franciszek Piper also need not be the authentic version. The truth can be somewhere between these figures but that does not make irrelevant the question, how did people in such great numbers perish. Dr Piper is readily admitting that changes were made to the gas chamber and this proves that he or the museum authorities are not hiding any information. This video also does not consider the innumerable eye witness accounts, the narratives of those who have been prisoners and who have said, they lost their dear ones to the gas chamber.

Even in a legal system, much weight age is given to eyewitnesses. Some horror stories from Auschwitz, like the ‘soap story’ might have been false but it is natural that when the accounts of gas chambers and other atrocities come out regularly, the rumour-mill will essentially start working. But that is no justification to wave off all first-person accounts as well. Dr Piper is not an ultimate authority on holocaust. Nor is Deborah Lipstadt of Los Angeles Times. Hundreds of historians and experts have worked on this topic.

It is curious to note that this video has an interest in Dr Piper alone. Towards the end, this video transforms into a test of Dr Piper and his level of knowledge on the topic. To the most, what can be concluded from this exercise is that Dr Piper is not knowledgeable enough to sit in his present job in Auschwitz. Technically, it can be seen that many questions heard being asked to Dr Piper, were not the actual questions that were asked. They were dubbed over the video later. This can be made out of the fact that they lack the background noise that exists in Dr Piper’s replies.

And the dubbed questions are highly opinionated and leading questions. By dubbing a question on an answer to another question, the very meaning of the answer can be altered. This video suffers the same fault that it accuses the holocaust supporters of. This video is based on a preconceived conclusion.