User reviews

The holocaust was not a myth, as some Neo-Nazis claim. The Third Reich's documents and the films of concentration camps made by the Nazis themselves serve as historical records, as do the reports of the survivors and the allied forces who rescued them.

But this film made by the Nazis themselves in 1944 called "Theresienstadt – the Fuhrer gives a City to the Jews" is pure myth, made for propaganda purposes. The city, now located in the Czech Republic, was then actually an overcrowded transit camp for prisoners en route to the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Goebbels hired the Jewish actor/director Kurt Gerron, who had appeared in Marlene Dietrich's first famous movie, "Blue Angel" in 1930. He shot the film as instructed, depicting the place as a model Jewish settlement, or city of paradise. The overcrowding was temporarily curtailed by sending extra shipments of prisoners off to the gas chambers while the filming took place. It was made to look like a holiday village, a paradise for the Jews and foreigners. There were apparently ideal living conditions, play schools and gyms for the children, theatrical productions, arts and crafts, and as a climax to the film, there was a fine performance by a massed choir of Verdi's Requiem Mass. Even the Red Cross came and saw the town, and was impressed (and deceived by) the apparent excellent living conditions. As soon as the film was in the can, all the participants were shipped quietly away to be gassed at Auschwitz, including Kurt Gerron and his wife. A sad story that turns the stomach, that such inhumanity could be inflicted on millions of innocent people, not only Jews, but just as many others, Germans, foreigners and political dissidents alike.

What remains of the movie is a tragic and ironic record of the Nazis' malevolence, and the circumstances of its making should never be forgotten.

I've just recently seen on a cable tv channel (yes, there is still intelligent life out there) a documentary about the german(and unfortunately for him also jewish)actor and director Kurt Gerron. His life's history impressed me so much that I couldn't help going back to the Holocaust and the open wounds it has left all across Europe even today. "Theresienstadt" (a concentration camp by any other name in what is now the Czech Republic) was a Faust-like bargain. Gerron hadn't directed a film in seven years - since the dutch "Three Wishes". He achieved the impossible portraying a concentration camp that could pass for a normal and much improved jewish ghetto. Some of his inmates proscribed him for it. Others, who have survived, aren't entirely sure they would have done different if faced with the prospect of immediate death for themselves and their families. In any case, the "cast" (mostly children) of this surreal exercise were transported to Auschwitz shortly after completion of the film. As were Kurt Gerron and his family. They were murdered on arrival. This has got to be, with the benefit of hindsight, one of the most disturbing pieces of film ever shot. And quite impossibly to vote for on a scale of 1 to 10. It is still too soon, too fresh, utterly unpardonable.

This Movie is a bad movie of Propaganda , full with lies . It should show the lives of the jews in the KZ's - Konzentrationslagern / Concentraition-Camps ) and if you ever seen a KZ , espspecially Theresienenstadt , you would see the cruel actions of the Nazis.

It has all been said already about this "film". I barely can add anything new.. But...who on Earth would rate it more than 1? I completely fail to understand a reason.

I would've given it 0 if I had a chance but unfortunately I don't. And the rating is 5.2 at the moment of this writing...

What's wrong with people?

Grading it anything more than the lowest possible score certainly serves great injustice to Kurt Gerron and everyone who had fallen a victim of the Nazi's regime.

It was not just another propaganda movie but a death sentence, a mass murder, if I may say....

I wish everyone remembered it......

I saw this a year ago and I still lie awake thinking of it. This is how the Nazis would like you to think of concentration camps. We see the inmates engaged in ordinary work, or at a football match or concert. It looks just like a normal happy society, until you notice that here absolutely everyone is thin to the point of being skeletal. I can still remember the facial expressions of some of the inmates, though those are indescribable. I felt guilty for watching this piece of exploitation. I wonder what reward the inmates were promised for trying not to look too unhappy, a bowl of soup?