THREE PERFECT MOVIES FOR INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

Today is the International Remembrance Day and we want to do our part and contribute a post regarding the Holocaust.

We live in a society that need to remember and not to forget the past,  what has been must not  happen anymore. We must learn from the past and make the horrible stories we know about become lessons we truly understand. The world is not all pink and flowers, it has never been and it will never be. What is important is our commitment for the right causes, our will to do our part. Things may change thanks to each one of us!

So, as we are cinema staff here on Let’s Blog,  we have chosen a few  movies to remember.

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

Guido, from Tuscany and of Jewish origin, falls in love at the end of the 30s with a schoolteacher,  Dora. He courts her in extravagant ways and finally he marries her. Then they have a son named Giosuè. Six years later came the racial laws, the war and deportation. Guido and his son Giosuè leave for the concentration camp. His wife, who is not a Jewess will follow them out of love.

In the camp, Guido knows the terrible fate that his people are forced to suffer. To  save Giosué, Guido succeeds with great ability in  convincing his son that everything that was happening was a game in which the winner would get a tank.

    Benigni's film is a hymn to love and life even if you live in one of the most tragic periods in human history. What is most surprising in the film is its sweetness, which never abandons the viewer, but also the constant prompt to reflect and excite,  avoiding making this important part of history  banal or overrated.

SARAH'S KEY

In Paris, on the night of July 16, 1942, the Nazis rake Jews and pile them in the Winter Velodrome; then they deport them to concentration camps. Among the Jews deported, there is little child: Sarah Starzynski, who is only ten years and has managed to hide her brother Michel in a wardrobe before the arrival of the Nazis, promising that one day she would return. Sixty years later, the American journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to make a report on the raid. During her research, she finds the story of Sara. With determination, she will reconstruct the terrible story of this little girl.

The film introduces us to one of the lesser-known pages of the Holocaust: the Jewish roundup of the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris.

SCHINDLER’S LIST

The German industrialist Oskar Schindler, into business with the Nazis, detects a factory and uses the Jews first as a cheap labour force, an opportunity to get rich. However, with the passage of time and the growing of persecution,  his factory becomes a refuge for Jews who managed to escape from deportation to concentration camps and certain death. Schindler feels more and more involved, and with the help of Itzhak Stern, his Jewish accountant, compiles a list of 1,100 Jewish people because they are entrusted to him as labourers. After the war, Schindler has completely exhausted its patrimony, but he has saved more than a thousand Jews.

  In addition to being a masterpiece, Spielberg’s film with its black and white style, tells us the real story of a man who,   in front of so much pain, opened his eyes and realized the truth. A story that makes us realize that in a hate-filled world there are people who refuse to be intimidated and struggle for good.

 

"Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire."

History has taught us many hard lessons, we must treasure them and never forget.

Chiara, Federica, Ludovica, Sofia.