The world should never forget.
This documentary tells the tales of several Hungarian Jews who survived the camps in World War II.
Their stories are heartbreaking and still fresh in their minds more than 50 years later.
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One woman tells of how she wore her favorite swimsuit under her clothes when she was forced out of her home. Such a simple thing yet it resonates with the audience.
Another survivor talks about how she took great pains to hide diamonds he mother gave her in order to somehow buy bread with them.
The people being interviewed also travel back to Hungary (parts of which are now Ukraine) to see where they lived. They also return to Auschwitz and recall what it was like during the war.
Their travels are so emotionally charged it is hard for the viewer to remain neutral.
Produced by Steven Spielberg, “The Last Days” is part of a larger project: survivors of the Shoah (Hebrew word for holocaust) Visual History Foundation. The foundation seeks to educate the world about the Holocaust by recording the remembrances of the victims.
Some of the images are difficult to look at – especially the color films of people who are like walking skeletons.
The film is rounded out by interviews with a doctor who conducted experiments on the captives in the camps, US Congressman Tom Lantos (himself a survivor), a sonderkommando who helped kill Jews in Birkenau and US soldiers who liberated the camps.
While a testament to man’s inhumanity to man, “The Last Days” is about survival.
“The Last Days” is available on DVD.
Murphy can be reached at Lojano@comcast.net