Adolf and Eva

Starring:Adolf & Eva
Studio: Delta
Product Type: DVD
Editorial Review:
Description
When Hitler rose to power, he could have had the pick of any number of women...yet he chose a simple girl from Munich to be his mistress. Eva Braun was only seventeen when she first met Hitler and her relationship with him remained a secret until after their death together. This program uses home movie footage and interviews with the people who knew them to help explain the attraction they had for one another and to reveal for the first time the full extent of their intimacy.
Average customer rating:
- tremendously moving
- Good but a glaring ommission
- i will never shake the image of the swastika balloons
- Painfully well done
- A moving documentary told by adults speaking as children
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Into The Arms Of Strangers - Stories Of The Kindertransport
Starring: Franzi Groszmann , Eva Hayman , Judi Dench , Ursula Rosenfeld , and Lory Cahn
Director: Mark Jonathan Harris
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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- My Knees Were Jumping - Remembering the Kindertransport
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- The Last Days
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ASIN: B00005MEPJ
Release Date: 2001-08-28 |
Amazon.com
This Academy Award®-winning documentary (produced with the cooperation of the United States Holocaust Museum) chronicles one of the lesser-known stories of the Holocaust: that of the kindertransport, which saved the lives of 10,000 Jewish children. In the late 1930s, England agreed to accept these children seeking refuge from Nazi oppression. They were placed in foster homes and hostels. Narrated by Dame Judi Dench and directed by Mark Jonathan Harris (who received an Oscar® for his 1997 Holocaust documentary The Long Way Home), this devastating and deeply moving film bears witness to the kindness of these "simply wonderful people" and to the resilience of the kinder, now elderly, who recall in haunting stories the unimaginable grief of being suddenly torn from their parents, the trauma of not knowing whether they would ever see them again, and the difficulties some faced in their new homes. Recalls one, "None of the foster parents with whom I stayed could stand me for very long. But all of them had the grace to take in a Jewish child." But despite having their youth uprooted, many possess an indomitable spirit. One woman speaks of devoting her adult life to human rights and social justice causes. "I can't pay back or thank some of the people who helped me," she states, "But I can do something for other people." --Donald Liebenson
Customer Reviews:
tremendously moving.......2007-04-11
This film about the evacuation of Jewish children to Britain just before World War II is the kind you don't forget in a hurry. It portrays the horror of war in a much more personal way that statistics and figures ever could. The makers have a great subject at the end - the few children who ended up with two families. It's shattering.
The early 2000s may have been the greatest period in film history for documentaries - "Capturing the Friedmans," "Touching the Void," and "Grizzly Man" being three other fine examples. Make sure you see "Into the Arms of Strangers" if you missed it.
Good but a glaring ommission.......2006-10-12
"Into the Arms of Strangers," covers the British kindertransport program that saved some 10,000 Jewish youngsters from annihilation at the hands of the Nazis. Using interviews and actual footage it follows the lives of some of the children as they went from peaceful upbringing to the wrenching experience of seeing their parents perhaps for the last time as their train left the station to the trauma of finding out what happened to them after the war.
At the same time, this documentary is missing an important piece of the historical picture. Most of the children (the majority of whom originated from observant homes) ended up in non-observant or Christian homes. By contrast, there was a kindertransport program organized by Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld, who placed 3,000+ children escaping Nazi-occupied Europe into dormitories in Britain run by observant Jews -- yet Rabbi Schonfeld's kindertransport is not even mentioned in this documentary!
This is a stunning ommission. From a purely sociological point of view, it would be interesting to compare the experiences of the children placed in the home of individuals vs. those in Rabbi Schonfeld's group homes. It would also be fascinating to find out how the placements may or may not have affected their religious lives before, during and after. And if you cannot do that, at least interview one child from Rabbi Schonfeld's group. At least mention he existed. Rabbi Schonfeld was one of the true heroes of Holocaust rescue. I was disappointed to find out he and his efforts receive no attention in this documentary.
Nevertheless, the fact that lives were saved and that an emotional impact/solidarity with the children is achieved without resorting to the graphic images (often associated with Holocaust material) makes this documentary a worthwhile experience for the student, teacher, parent or interested individual.
i will never shake the image of the swastika balloons.......2006-09-06
without a doubt, the best documentary film about the holocaust. by this time ive seen most of them, and while i may appear a trifle jaded when writing about them, its partly out of a sense of discomfort and partly out of a sense of anger at filmmakers trivializing the subject by turning images into cliches. the people who made this movie have avoided that, in finding a fascinating new angle by focusing on the lives of the few thousand children who were saved in the days leading up to war by being sent to england -- usually (though not in all cases) never to see their parents again. the archival footage time and again shocks with images we have never seen before: color film of the pogroms, actual footage of kristalnacht, and in arguably the most haunting image ive ever seen on screen, the swastika-marked balloons launched in celebration of the anschluss. heroism comes about when its not sought after. this is among the best films ill ever see.
Painfully well done.......2005-03-26
The first moments in the movie refer to a child who is about eight years old - the same age as my daughter as I watched the DVD. Perhaps that set a different tone for me because suddenly, this wasn't a documentary about some monumental thing that happened half a century ago, it was a documentary about the pain of a child who was the same age as my own daughter - and my imagination did the rest of the work for the mothers and the fathers.
This film speaks to the potential goodness in everyone and how the most trying times can create the most remarkable situations. I would highly recommend it to everyone.
A moving documentary told by adults speaking as children.......2005-01-28
During that relatively small window of time, prior to the beginning of Hitler's conquest of Europe, when exportation rather than extermination was still the prudent solution to the "Jewish Problem", a rescue plan called the Kindertransport was begun which provided for the relocation of Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia into Great Britain. INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS is a documentary that examines the Kindertransport program through the eyes of the participants. No broad social commentary here, just remembrances of parents that had to send their kids away to a foreign land and into the arms of strangers so that they might survive the Nazi barbarians. The difficulty of having to provide a whole life's worth of instruction to children just before those devastating last goodbyes. A little girl wondering why, just after Hitler annexed Austria, none of her long-time Austrian friends showed up for her eighth birthday party. Parents desperately trying to keep the harsh reality of Nazi occupation from the innocent little people oblivious to the evil of man. And once the children were safe in Britain, their desperate attempts to get sponsors for parents left behind and for those lucky enough to be re-united with family after the war, having to say goodbye once again, only this time to broken hearted foster parents. This documentary is made more effective by snap-shots of the children, archival footage of Nazi Germany during the late 1930's ( a veritable sewer of anti-Jewish destruction and propaganda), and in this context, the painfully frightening sound effects of broken glass, trains and the voices of children singing in German, which seem strangely perverted - an unfortunate consequence which Germans should never forgive the Nazi's.
Average customer rating:
- Better than the original
- It's OK, but.....
- Worth the money, good addition to any collection.
- The very rare footage
- Interesting glimpse into history
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The THIRD REICH In Color
Starring: John F. Kennedy , Marlene Dietrich , Joseph Goebbes , Eva Braun , and Adolf Hitler
Director: Spiegel
Manufacturer: International Historic Films, Inc.
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ASIN: B0000646UC
Release Date: 2001-08-31 |
Customer Reviews:
Better than the original.......2006-03-27
Like other reviewers, I think the sequel is better than the original. One only hopes that a 3rd installment will be issued with even better footage than the first two, especially if more 35mm films are found. Color adds a lot to the drama and presentation, mixing the horror of war and the death camps with pompous Nazi celebrations. Seeing these period films, it's hard to believe the Nazis were members of the human race.
Nowadays, top college football players to be drafted by the National Football League have to take a test of basic intelligence, the Wonderlic test. A score of 30, out of a possible 50, is considered a good score. Hitler and the other top Nazis would have been lucky to score a 10 on this test, because they simply couldn't count. What else could possibly explain attacking Russia and declaring war on America? At the same time, leaving Great Britain unconquered, and available later for a Western Front. The Nazis were outnumbered and had no chance to win, in the long run. For all their self-proclaimed superiority, these guys were simply not that smart.
Another thing that strikes me, especially in seeing atomic bombs exploding over Japan, is how incredibly lucky the Germans were. Hitler launched his last western counteroffensive in December, 1944. This was the "Battle of the Bulge," in American terms. If he had succeeded, World War II could have been stretched out 3 months or more. If that had happened, atomic bombs may have and probably would have been used on Nazi Germany. Thank heaven that didn't happen but it could have.
Excellent DVD's like this one should make us all appreciate what we have today, despite current happenings in the Middle East and elsewhere. There's a lot of kindness and decency to be seen around us, things that were in short supply 60-70 years ago. In 1940-45, the world stood on the brink of total destruction and we found a way out. Let's hope and believe good will triumph over evil again.
It's OK, but............2006-02-25
The problem is they put in a lot of footage that is NOT of the Third Reich; such as, of Japan, England, America, etc. etc....
It was sort of like they did not have enough real footage, so they threw in a lot of off-topic stuff as filler.
Its OK, but not truely what it pretends to be. As for the on-topic footage it has, it was great.
Worth the money, good addition to any collection........2005-10-14
The color film from the 1930's is of surprisingly good quality and the segments showing life in Germany at this time are quite interesting. An added bonus in the Special Features is a short promotional for Berlin from 1936 - in preparation for the summer Olympics held there that year. Beautiful. War related footage is good and most I had not seen before in 20+ years of collecting color video from WWII. The minus, in my opinion, is the mournful, tragic tone of the British narration and funereal-sounding background music which cycles maddeningly over and over. Subtly insulting to anyone who is knowledgeable about this period in history.
The very rare footage.......2005-09-24
The real treasure of documentary footage. Thanks digital technology for possibility to have it remastered with maximum available quality.
Interesting glimpse into history.......2005-03-27
This film is largely a vignette, in the style of home movies, of scenes in the lives of Germans during the Nazi period. It is a remarkable glimpse into the past. You see an ordinary, generally good natured people doing ordinary things. Yet in the background you see the pervasive organizing principle of the Nazi movement: the swastika is everywhere, the uniforms, the marches, the rallies. You sense the Germans willingly put all their eggs in Hitler's basket and he was the Fuehrer, for better or worse.
I'm grateful for the unguarded candid glimpses into the past. Some are awesome. Some are awful. It's a great movie if you are interested in the period.
Average customer rating:
- A fine inexpensive documentary on Adolf and Eva
- A good Hitler DVD
- All about Adolf and Eva B.
- For historians and neo-Nazis only
- Surprisingly good
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Adolf and Eva
Starring: Adolf & Eva
Manufacturer: Delta
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ASIN: B000096I8V
Release Date: 2003-05-06 |
Description
When Hitler rose to power, he could have had the pick of any number of women...yet he chose a simple girl from Munich to be his mistress. Eva Braun was only seventeen when she first met Hitler and her relationship with him remained a secret until after their death together. This program uses home movie footage and interviews with the people who knew them to help explain the attraction they had for one another and to reveal for the first time the full extent of their intimacy.
Customer Reviews:
A fine inexpensive documentary on Adolf and Eva.......2006-12-14
Written and directed by Marion Milne and nicely narrated by Michael Kitchen, who stars in Foyle's war, this 2001 documentary treats the relationship between Adolf Hitler (20 Apr. 1889-30 Apr. 1945) and his mistress Eva Braun (6 Feb. 1912-30 Apr. 1945), who married two days before they committed suicide in their Berlin bunker. The documentary (TT49:10, 4:3 aspect) is excellent and is mostly in color, consisting of color and especially B&W newsreel footage and portraits, Eva Braun's famous color home movies, dramatizations that are occasionally overwrought, and informative interviews. Interviewed are authoress Gitta Sereny (Albert Speer, 1995), Hitler's housekeeper, his SS bodyguard, Braun's housemaid, and her cousin. Not interviewed is Hitler's stenographer, Traudl Junge (1920-2002), who recently appeared in Blind spot (2002) as well as in World at war (1973-74). Adolf & Eva also has readings from Hitler's speeches and writings and from Braun's 1935 diary, The video quality is very good to excellent, including of the newsreel footage and, significantly, of Braun's home movies. This DVD is far superior to another DVD, Eva Braun: Hitler's mistress (2005?), which I reviewed elsewhere.
A good Hitler DVD.......2005-08-20
An Accurate, mostly color, history of Hilter and his mistress. I would recomend this to Hitler and WWII buffs.
All about Adolf and Eva B........2005-08-18
A fascinating portrait of Adolf and his otherwise little-known mistress Eva Braun. The content was interesting; I liked the orginal film footage provided of the two; a very thorough documentary.
For historians and neo-Nazis only.......2004-03-25
It's both bizarre and a little bit scary to see such a sympathetic prortrait of Hitler these days. Watching it does help you to understand what Hannah Arendt meant went she spoke of "the banality of evil", but it also makes you wonder how the producers could make a film that portrayed Hitler with none of the context of the world he tried to create. Scary.
Surprisingly good.......2004-03-06
I admit I wasn't expecting much when I ordered this DVD, but I was pleasantly surprised. If you've seen the color home movies of Eva Braun, then much of the material here will not be new to you. But the quality of Eva's movies varies, and this program uses high-quality, non-grainy footage, which added to its appeal. There are also some interviews with Hitler intimates through the years. They say nothing new, but their inclusion strengthens the overall effect. There are some questionable recreations here using actors, and they mis-identify Gretl Braun (Eva's sister) as Eva several times. I would have liked to have seen modern footage of the various Munich haunts of Hitler and Eva. But for the price, this is quite a good look at the relationship between the Fuehrer and his mistress.
Average customer rating:
- 10% Hitler
- EVA BRAUN HER HOME MOVIES COMPLETE AND UNCUT 1
- Hitler in color
- Revisionist Review
- I agree, terrible transfer!
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Eva Braun ¿ Her Home Movies Complete and Uncut Vol. 1
Starring: Adolf Hitler , Albert Speer , Josef Goebbels , Heinrich Himmler , and Reinhard Heydrich
Director: Kent Kiefer
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- Eva Braun Her Home Movies Complete and Uncut Vol. 3
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- Ruins of the Third Reich
- Hitler in Colour
- The THIRD REICH In Color
ASIN: B0002OFM4I
Release Date: 2004-07-01 |
Customer Reviews:
10% Hitler .......2007-02-11
This review is for all 3 DVDs. They were exactly what I assumed they'd be, so I do not at all regret purchasing them.
There is, of course, no narration or subtitles, so unless you are very familiar with the assorted characters surrounding Eva, you'll only be able to guess who most of them are. (If those who produced these DVDs could at least have imprinted as many names as possible on the screen as they were introduced, I would've given these a 5.) Hitler is only in about 10% of each DVD, and since Eva is usually the one operating the camera, (plus due to his policies) you'll never see anything regarding Hitler's affections towards her.
As far as anything revealing about Adolf Hitler's private times, you do see him interacting with children more so than anywhere else.
90% of these home movies are about Eva's relatives, times spent with them at lakes & mountain resorts, her vacation getaways, and so on.
You are left with a feeling that these could be anyone's private home movies, that is, except for Hitler being in them.
EVA BRAUN HER HOME MOVIES COMPLETE AND UNCUT 1.......2006-07-25
I LIKE IT IVE SEEN BITS AND SHORT CLIP OVER THE YEARS BUT IT WAS FUN TO SEE THEM UNCUT!
Hitler in color.......2006-07-03
A fascinating inside look at one of the worlds most evil-doers.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up watching Hitler in color and a glimpse in to his everyday life. I was not alive during those years so seeing the nazi flags and the unifroms up close for the first time made this so very real to me. It honestly frightened me and for the first time hit home that this man was real and all of these horrible things happened. Eva Braun was an attractive and from what i've read intelligent and kind woman. Why would she love this man Hitler? Why would she stay with someone who did the awful things he did? If its possible, you see Hitler for the first time as a human being. Watching his interaction with children and with his beloved dog Blondi fascinates and repels at the same time. Did Eva know of the things he was doing? Her life was pretty much leisure as these home movies show. These people actually laugh and sunbath and ski and hold their children and play with dogs just like anyones home movies would show. Yet they were a part of some of the most vile atrocities ever known to man. An eye opener for me for sure.As these are home movies alot of the quality is not great but in my opinion worth every penny of the dvd. A glimpse of the dark side. The color sequences will mesmerize you.
Revisionist Review.......2006-02-19
Yes, there are some scenes that are washed out or too dark & there are plenty of wateraction scenes, but keep in mind that this young lady was filming with her camera for her own entertainment and certainly had no ideas of her home movies being captured by the US Army or published for the world's critique some three quarters of a century later. These movies are just that, the good, the bad and always the interesting. Simply put, these movies reflect what was important and enjoyable to Eva Hitler nee Braun. She was a young lady thrust into the political vortex of great power and somehow still maintained her balance, sense of humor and happiness. There are scenes of children, flowers, lakes, snow capped mountains, the Berghof, the Fuhrer, top National Socialist leaders, her friends, her sister's wedding, etc. Take them for what they are and learn from them. The format of no commentary and using classical music as a background is probably the best way to present them since any comments would only be negative and take away from her original intent. Afterall we have heard enough anti-Hitler propaganda to last ten generations since 1933 and for once it is a pleasure to be able to study her films without distraction. This set of films on three cd's is an outstanding historical assest for research and gives one, if they should allow, a peek into the mind of one Bavarian girl who enjoyed life as much as her circumstances would allow and who also had a touch of being an modest film artist.
I agree, terrible transfer!.......2005-05-06
Many scenes in this video are very dark. It is sometimes hard to make out where people are standing and chatting. I have seen some of the footage in these home videos in many other documentaries and they really do come out much sharper.
They must rerelease this archived material again with better picture quality!
Average customer rating:
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Eva Braun Her Home Movies Complete and Uncut Vol. 2
Starring: Adolf Hitler , Reinhardt Heydrich , Martin Bormann , Joseph Goebbels , and Albert Speer
Director: Kent Kiefer
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ASIN: B0002TP8I8
Release Date: 2004-07-01 |
Average customer rating:
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Eva Braun Her Home Movies Complete and Uncut Vol. 3
Starring: Adolf Hitler , Albert Speer Reinhardt Heydrich , Martin Bormann , and Joseph Goebbels
Director: Kent Kiefer
Manufacturer: Kiefer Entertainment
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- Ruins of the Third Reich
- The THIRD REICH In Color
ASIN: B0002TP8HY
Release Date: 2004-07-01 |
Average customer rating:
- Am I supposed to read lips or just guess what's going on?
- Appalling lack of quality
- Someday Maybe a Good One
- A basic DVD which doesn't go far enough
- A very good insight, though could be more objective.
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Eva Braun: Her Life with Adolf Hitler
Starring: Eva Braun , and Adolf Hitler
Manufacturer: Simitar Ent.
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- Eva Braun Her Home Movies Complete and Uncut Vol. 2
- Eva Braun Her Home Movies Complete and Uncut Vol. 3
- Eva Braun ¿ Her Home Movies Complete and Uncut Vol. 1
ASIN: 6304481225
Release Date: 1997-04-22 |
Customer Reviews:
Am I supposed to read lips or just guess what's going on?.......2004-08-09
This is a half-assed attempt that could have been done out of someone's garage. A few good tidbits here and there, but nothing 'new' or 'earth shattering'. All the material here is from the national archives. The color portions are home movies made at Der Fuhrer's mountain retreat where Eva spent most of her time before she was exiled with Adolf to the bunker. Only very novice historians will learn anything here.
Appalling lack of quality.......2003-07-13
Problems, problems abound in this shoddy and unprofessional production. First and firemost, the audio is virtually nil. I turned the volume up to its highest notch, a setting which would be ear splitting normally, and I still could scarcely make out what the narrator said. Considering the overall quality of this abysmal production, that might have been a blessing. Occasionally, the audio improved and then the words almost burst open the speakers of the TV. The narration was inconsequential and inaccurate drivel: "Here is Eva in her special tea house dress, frolicking for the Fuehrer in the Berchtesgaden twilight." Ho hum.
The bulk of the movie consists of material culled from the National Archives and these are Eva's home movies, filmed primarily in color between 1936-1943. The quality of the movies are superb in their natural form, they are less stellar in this film. Many are faded and obviously second-rate copies. Nothing of consequence is learned from the inaudible narration and the canned background music sounds like something from a Kindergarten class rehearsing Wagner.
I suppose some people completely new to Hitler or WWII might find the home movies enchanting. Trust me, you can do better than this tenth rate production, it's embarrassingly awful, seemingly produced on a whim in someone's garage.
Someday Maybe a Good One.......2001-01-18
Another review of this no-longer-available DVD may seen like beating a dead horse. But here goes.
I've had the disc for some time but just got around to watching it. I agree with all the criticisms in the previous reviews, especially those about poor audio mixing. But I'm reminded of the apocryphal story told on the Carson show: One woman to another:"The food there is terrible;" the other: "Yes, and such small portions!" Even if every word of dialog were crystal clear, you wouldn't like it any better. In our world of excellent TV documentaries like PBS's American Experience, A&E's Biography, and stuff on the History Channel, this one is a dud. But, how many stars you give it depends on what you're looking for. I could just as easily given it four stars. As observed in another review, the photographic record is priceless, and those who are locked into WWII (the biggest event of the century and, even though I was just a child, a most prominent influence on my life) will not want to miss it. Someday maybe somebody will take these films and do them justice with time and character identifications and other provenance information -- and a good audio track. While Eva Braun was not herself a player on the world stage, she is the kind of character which authors invent to help tell their versions of real history.
Eva Anna Paula Braun was born 2/6/12, and died by poison 4/30/45, at Hitler's side in his Berlin bunker, where she had gone against his wishes. He met her when she was 16 or 17. He was 23 years older. She became his mistress in 1932 and went to live at the Berghof, where most of these movies were taken. She was attractive in a simple way, somewhat athletic if not graceful, and has been considered shallow and self-centered.
From the brief, anonymous DVD notes, apparently from the Richard Diercks Co.: "Eva Braun was fresh out of a convent school when she met Adolf Hitler. Their attraction was immediate, and, over the objections of her parents, she became his mistress. For the next 16 years, she lived in luxury as millions suffered and died at the hands of her maniacal "Wulf." [Her pet name for Hitler.]
Through the movies she shot with a 16-mm [movie] camera -- her first gift from Hitler -- we see the shallow concerns of an immature woman who didn't care what happened around her as long as she was having fun. [These movies were mostly in color, at a time when home movies were, at least here in the U.S., rare, and usually 8-mm and in black and white.]
Narrated with excerpts from Eva's diary, these intimate films take us deep into Hitler's life the way no movie ever has. And they show us that her evil was equal to his: for example, when told of the cruel atrocities her beloved Hitler was committing, she replied, "It's just a waste of time to look at the negative things.""
I see the immature woman and the childlike devotion, but not the evil this writer specifies. I think he's making a prejudiced leap. My opinion is that she just never "got it." Most of the world didn't know what was going on under the Nazis until very late in the war, and they had better info than she did, since she was completely isolated. (There's no evidence here that she was ever told of the actual "cruel atrocities," but from her diary we know she was aware that Hitler himself was jealous, vengeful, and a dangerous personal foe.) The note writer follows the tradition of referring to Eva as Hitler's "mistress", which she was for those years; but they were both single, and today we would call her a "girlfriend." The day before the end they were married. Usually when people die married, the woman is not subsequently referred to as a "mistress."
A basic DVD which doesn't go far enough.......2000-12-09
Yes the DVD is out of print but there seem to be a lot of them out there in auctions etc. Not too hard to track one down without paying the earth.
The other reviewers have summed it up as far as quality is concerned. This is a DVD built around Eva Braun's home movies. It is not put together well, the narration is often inaudible and there are no chapters. The sound is dreadful and the whole thing feels like the producers couldn't put it out as just mute home movie footage although it would probably have come across better if they had.
As for Hitler I noted that no child or animal looks him in the eye and even his pet dog seemed uncomfortable being petted by him. So much for a "gentle side". Sorry I just don't buy that.
The footage itself is of good quality. It is a collector's item I am happy to have but there isn't much else to say in its favour except that it seems to have gathered together most if not all the footage of her that is around (and she's the only thing worth looking at.)
A very good insight, though could be more objective........1999-09-19
This video is very important historicaly. I was offended by the snide remarks made by the commentator throughout. I was also offended by the soundtrack, the trains, the baying dogs, etc.. This was NOT objective by any manner. We are all adults, present the information straight forward and let the viewer draw their own conclusions. Despite these offensive distractions I still found the films to be informative and enjoyable. I would have like to seen more footage of the Führer and less of Frau Hitlers friends though. Also, it was obvious from the scenes showing the Führer and the children that he really loved the children and had a kind and gentle side to him in contrast to the often mis-portrayed image of a monster. Propaganda is propaganda no matter who puts it out EVEN when it's the US Government!
For those interested in history and seeing a side to Adolf Hitler that few have seen before, watch this video and try to ignore the commentator.
Average customer rating:
- A propaganda film about Nazi propaganda films
- Still a chilling, frightening film
- A long lost treasure!
|
Swastika [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]
Director: Lutz Becker , and Philippe Mora
Manufacturer: Umbrella Entertainment
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- The Double Headed Eagle: Hitler's Rise to Power 1918-1933
ASIN: B000HKKZQ2 |
Product Description
Australia released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), SYNOPSIS: SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Documentary, Cast/Crew Interview(s),
Customer Reviews:
A propaganda film about Nazi propaganda films.......2006-10-11
Swastika was really quite an excellent film and the DVD release quality is very good. The only bad elements about the DVD were the grandiose commentaries by the original production team, which are peppered with inaccuracies, distortions and , pardon the term, propaganda. Buy the DVD, watch the film, avoid the so called "special features". There is an especially vicious little vignette on "The Leni Riefenstahl Myth" which undoubtedly has her spinning in her grave.
Still a chilling, frightening film.......2006-08-24
I first saw this documentary in 1976. It took several days for me to shake the chilling, disturbing effect it had on me at the time. I just bought the DVD and watched about half of it. It still has the same effect, particularly if you have not seen it before.
What makes it so upsetting? It's not what you've come to expect in a documentary about Nazi Germany. This is the Nazis through their own eyes. The entire film is archival footage from the time. There is no narration. There are no post-facto talking heads. In short, there is no editorializing, and, lacking that, you start to see why the German people were willing to follow such evil people.
The bulk of the film is from before the war. The highlight is Eva Braun's home movies of Hitler and the Nazi leadership. We see Hitler relaxing at Obersalzburg, talking to friends, greeting children, petting dogs. As the film says at the beginning, it is necessary to see the human face of evil in order to recognize it the next time.
A long lost treasure!.......2006-08-14
I sincerely hope this is marketed for US/Canadian audiences in the correct regional format. I have been looking for this for decades on VHS/DVD. It is a classic film and is referenced in most any documentary on Hitler worth watching, but has not been available for home viewing, at least that I can find. If anyone who can get it done sees this please, please release it in US regional DVD format. Thank you!
Average customer rating:
- tremendously moving
- Good but a glaring ommission
- i will never shake the image of the swastika balloons
- Painfully well done
- A moving documentary told by adults speaking as children
|
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport [Region 2]
Starring: Inge Sadan , Kurt Fuchel , Lory Chan , Eva Hayman , and Judi Dench
Director: Mark Jonathan Harris
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- The Last Days
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- The Devil's Arithmetic
ASIN: B00005TNZ6 |
Amazon.com
This Academy Award®-winning documentary (produced with the cooperation of the United States Holocaust Museum) chronicles one of the lesser-known stories of the Holocaust: that of the kindertransport, which saved the lives of 10,000 Jewish children. In the late 1930s, England agreed to accept these children seeking refuge from Nazi oppression. They were placed in foster homes and hostels. Narrated by Dame Judi Dench and directed by Mark Jonathan Harris (who received an Oscar® for his 1997 Holocaust documentary The Long Way Home), this devastating and deeply moving film bears witness to the kindness of these "simply wonderful people" and to the resilience of the kinder, now elderly, who recall in haunting stories the unimaginable grief of being suddenly torn from their parents, the trauma of not knowing whether they would ever see them again, and the difficulties some faced in their new homes. Recalls one, "None of the foster parents with whom I stayed could stand me for very long. But all of them had the grace to take in a Jewish child." But despite having their youth uprooted, many possess an indomitable spirit. One woman speaks of devoting her adult life to human rights and social justice causes. "I can't pay back or thank some of the people who helped me," she states, "But I can do something for other people." --Donald Liebenson
Customer Reviews:
tremendously moving.......2007-04-11
This film about the evacuation of Jewish children to Britain just before World War II is the kind you don't forget in a hurry. It portrays the horror of war in a much more personal way that statistics and figures ever could. The makers have a great subject at the end - the few children who ended up with two families. It's shattering.
The early 2000s may have been the greatest period in film history for documentaries - "Capturing the Friedmans," "Touching the Void," and "Grizzly Man" being three other fine examples. Make sure you see "Into the Arms of Strangers" if you missed it.
Good but a glaring ommission.......2006-10-12
"Into the Arms of Strangers," covers the British kindertransport program that saved some 10,000 Jewish youngsters from annihilation at the hands of the Nazis. Using interviews and actual footage it follows the lives of some of the children as they went from peaceful upbringing to the wrenching experience of seeing their parents perhaps for the last time as their train left the station to the trauma of finding out what happened to them after the war.
At the same time, this documentary is missing an important piece of the historical picture. Most of the children (the majority of whom originated from observant homes) ended up in non-observant or Christian homes. By contrast, there was a kindertransport program organized by Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld, who placed 3,000+ children escaping Nazi-occupied Europe into dormitories in Britain run by observant Jews -- yet Rabbi Schonfeld's kindertransport is not even mentioned in this documentary!
This is a stunning ommission. From a purely sociological point of view, it would be interesting to compare the experiences of the children placed in the home of individuals vs. those in Rabbi Schonfeld's group homes. It would also be fascinating to find out how the placements may or may not have affected their religious lives before, during and after. And if you cannot do that, at least interview one child from Rabbi Schonfeld's group. At least mention he existed. Rabbi Schonfeld was one of the true heroes of Holocaust rescue. I was disappointed to find out he and his efforts receive no attention in this documentary.
Nevertheless, the fact that lives were saved and that an emotional impact/solidarity with the children is achieved without resorting to the graphic images (often associated with Holocaust material) makes this documentary a worthwhile experience for the student, teacher, parent or interested individual.
i will never shake the image of the swastika balloons.......2006-09-06
without a doubt, the best documentary film about the holocaust. by this time ive seen most of them, and while i may appear a trifle jaded when writing about them, its partly out of a sense of discomfort and partly out of a sense of anger at filmmakers trivializing the subject by turning images into cliches. the people who made this movie have avoided that, in finding a fascinating new angle by focusing on the lives of the few thousand children who were saved in the days leading up to war by being sent to england -- usually (though not in all cases) never to see their parents again. the archival footage time and again shocks with images we have never seen before: color film of the pogroms, actual footage of kristalnacht, and in arguably the most haunting image ive ever seen on screen, the swastika-marked balloons launched in celebration of the anschluss. heroism comes about when its not sought after. this is among the best films ill ever see.
Painfully well done.......2005-03-26
The first moments in the movie refer to a child who is about eight years old - the same age as my daughter as I watched the DVD. Perhaps that set a different tone for me because suddenly, this wasn't a documentary about some monumental thing that happened half a century ago, it was a documentary about the pain of a child who was the same age as my own daughter - and my imagination did the rest of the work for the mothers and the fathers.
This film speaks to the potential goodness in everyone and how the most trying times can create the most remarkable situations. I would highly recommend it to everyone.
A moving documentary told by adults speaking as children.......2005-01-28
During that relatively small window of time, prior to the beginning of Hitler's conquest of Europe, when exportation rather than extermination was still the prudent solution to the "Jewish Problem", a rescue plan called the Kindertransport was begun which provided for the relocation of Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia into Great Britain. INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS is a documentary that examines the Kindertransport program through the eyes of the participants. No broad social commentary here, just remembrances of parents that had to send their kids away to a foreign land and into the arms of strangers so that they might survive the Nazi barbarians. The difficulty of having to provide a whole life's worth of instruction to children just before those devastating last goodbyes. A little girl wondering why, just after Hitler annexed Austria, none of her long-time Austrian friends showed up for her eighth birthday party. Parents desperately trying to keep the harsh reality of Nazi occupation from the innocent little people oblivious to the evil of man. And once the children were safe in Britain, their desperate attempts to get sponsors for parents left behind and for those lucky enough to be re-united with family after the war, having to say goodbye once again, only this time to broken hearted foster parents. This documentary is made more effective by snap-shots of the children, archival footage of Nazi Germany during the late 1930's ( a veritable sewer of anti-Jewish destruction and propaganda), and in this context, the painfully frightening sound effects of broken glass, trains and the voices of children singing in German, which seem strangely perverted - an unfortunate consequence which Germans should never forgive the Nazi's.
Average customer rating:
- tremendously moving
- Good but a glaring ommission
- i will never shake the image of the swastika balloons
- Painfully well done
- A moving documentary told by adults speaking as children
|
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport [Region 2]
Starring: Inge Sadan , Kurt Fuchel , Lory Chan , Eva Hayman , and Judi Dench
Director: Mark Jonathan Harris
ProductGroup: DVD
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Similar Items:
- My Knees Were Jumping - Remembering the Kindertransport
- Secret Lives - Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII
- The Last Days
- Anne Frank Remembered
- The Devil's Arithmetic
ASIN: B00005QDN0 |
Amazon.com
This Academy Award®-winning documentary (produced with the cooperation of the United States Holocaust Museum) chronicles one of the lesser-known stories of the Holocaust: that of the kindertransport, which saved the lives of 10,000 Jewish children. In the late 1930s, England agreed to accept these children seeking refuge from Nazi oppression. They were placed in foster homes and hostels. Narrated by Dame Judi Dench and directed by Mark Jonathan Harris (who received an Oscar® for his 1997 Holocaust documentary The Long Way Home), this devastating and deeply moving film bears witness to the kindness of these "simply wonderful people" and to the resilience of the kinder, now elderly, who recall in haunting stories the unimaginable grief of being suddenly torn from their parents, the trauma of not knowing whether they would ever see them again, and the difficulties some faced in their new homes. Recalls one, "None of the foster parents with whom I stayed could stand me for very long. But all of them had the grace to take in a Jewish child." But despite having their youth uprooted, many possess an indomitable spirit. One woman speaks of devoting her adult life to human rights and social justice causes. "I can't pay back or thank some of the people who helped me," she states, "But I can do something for other people." --Donald Liebenson
Customer Reviews:
tremendously moving.......2007-04-11
This film about the evacuation of Jewish children to Britain just before World War II is the kind you don't forget in a hurry. It portrays the horror of war in a much more personal way that statistics and figures ever could. The makers have a great subject at the end - the few children who ended up with two families. It's shattering.
The early 2000s may have been the greatest period in film history for documentaries - "Capturing the Friedmans," "Touching the Void," and "Grizzly Man" being three other fine examples. Make sure you see "Into the Arms of Strangers" if you missed it.
Good but a glaring ommission.......2006-10-12
"Into the Arms of Strangers," covers the British kindertransport program that saved some 10,000 Jewish youngsters from annihilation at the hands of the Nazis. Using interviews and actual footage it follows the lives of some of the children as they went from peaceful upbringing to the wrenching experience of seeing their parents perhaps for the last time as their train left the station to the trauma of finding out what happened to them after the war.
At the same time, this documentary is missing an important piece of the historical picture. Most of the children (the majority of whom originated from observant homes) ended up in non-observant or Christian homes. By contrast, there was a kindertransport program organized by Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld, who placed 3,000+ children escaping Nazi-occupied Europe into dormitories in Britain run by observant Jews -- yet Rabbi Schonfeld's kindertransport is not even mentioned in this documentary!
This is a stunning ommission. From a purely sociological point of view, it would be interesting to compare the experiences of the children placed in the home of individuals vs. those in Rabbi Schonfeld's group homes. It would also be fascinating to find out how the placements may or may not have affected their religious lives before, during and after. And if you cannot do that, at least interview one child from Rabbi Schonfeld's group. At least mention he existed. Rabbi Schonfeld was one of the true heroes of Holocaust rescue. I was disappointed to find out he and his efforts receive no attention in this documentary.
Nevertheless, the fact that lives were saved and that an emotional impact/solidarity with the children is achieved without resorting to the graphic images (often associated with Holocaust material) makes this documentary a worthwhile experience for the student, teacher, parent or interested individual.
i will never shake the image of the swastika balloons.......2006-09-06
without a doubt, the best documentary film about the holocaust. by this time ive seen most of them, and while i may appear a trifle jaded when writing about them, its partly out of a sense of discomfort and partly out of a sense of anger at filmmakers trivializing the subject by turning images into cliches. the people who made this movie have avoided that, in finding a fascinating new angle by focusing on the lives of the few thousand children who were saved in the days leading up to war by being sent to england -- usually (though not in all cases) never to see their parents again. the archival footage time and again shocks with images we have never seen before: color film of the pogroms, actual footage of kristalnacht, and in arguably the most haunting image ive ever seen on screen, the swastika-marked balloons launched in celebration of the anschluss. heroism comes about when its not sought after. this is among the best films ill ever see.
Painfully well done.......2005-03-26
The first moments in the movie refer to a child who is about eight years old - the same age as my daughter as I watched the DVD. Perhaps that set a different tone for me because suddenly, this wasn't a documentary about some monumental thing that happened half a century ago, it was a documentary about the pain of a child who was the same age as my own daughter - and my imagination did the rest of the work for the mothers and the fathers.
This film speaks to the potential goodness in everyone and how the most trying times can create the most remarkable situations. I would highly recommend it to everyone.
A moving documentary told by adults speaking as children.......2005-01-28
During that relatively small window of time, prior to the beginning of Hitler's conquest of Europe, when exportation rather than extermination was still the prudent solution to the "Jewish Problem", a rescue plan called the Kindertransport was begun which provided for the relocation of Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia into Great Britain. INTO THE ARMS OF STRANGERS is a documentary that examines the Kindertransport program through the eyes of the participants. No broad social commentary here, just remembrances of parents that had to send their kids away to a foreign land and into the arms of strangers so that they might survive the Nazi barbarians. The difficulty of having to provide a whole life's worth of instruction to children just before those devastating last goodbyes. A little girl wondering why, just after Hitler annexed Austria, none of her long-time Austrian friends showed up for her eighth birthday party. Parents desperately trying to keep the harsh reality of Nazi occupation from the innocent little people oblivious to the evil of man. And once the children were safe in Britain, their desperate attempts to get sponsors for parents left behind and for those lucky enough to be re-united with family after the war, having to say goodbye once again, only this time to broken hearted foster parents. This documentary is made more effective by snap-shots of the children, archival footage of Nazi Germany during the late 1930's ( a veritable sewer of anti-Jewish destruction and propaganda), and in this context, the painfully frightening sound effects of broken glass, trains and the voices of children singing in German, which seem strangely perverted - an unfortunate consequence which Germans should never forgive the Nazi's.
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