Depending on who you are and where you come from the Holocaust was not a thing to be taken lightly, but it might be something you put in the past and leave there as a means of reminding humanity what kind of evils we’re capable of doing to one another. By putting the horrifying experience into the form of a film it becomes immortalized but also shown from a certain point of view rather than the stark and unyielding truth that documentaries have depicted for those daring enough to watch them. If you’ve ever wondered what the walking dead truly look like then such documentaries would be the best example, as the concentration camps in which so many were interred were nothing to joke about. Yet for all that, humanity must still find a way to live with one another, if only to remember the past and build from it.
Here are some of the best Holocaust movies and scenes from that horrible period in history.
5. X-Men
You would be right in stating that it was just the opening scene and not the whole movie that was like this, but this was the moment when Magneto, still known as Erik, came into his power and was firmly established as a mutant with impressive abilities beyond anything that people had seen before. And if you want to go a little further the whole idea of the holocaust has kind of carried into the X-Men comics since they have for a long time been persecuted and looked down upon simply because of who and what they are, and they’ve even been subjected to worldwide internment and extermination attempts.
4. Life is Beautiful
Good parents do anything and everything for their children in an attempt to show them the joy of the world and help them to withstand the ills and evils that people inflict upon one another. This s exactly what Guido did for his son Giosue when they were taken to a concentration camp, making the experience one giant game that the boy wanted to win no matter the stakes. Guido went to extremes to let his son know that everything was okay, that they were going to make it, and that good boys were those that did what they were told so that they could win. The latter part was fantasy of course, but it allowed Giosue to survive when his father was shot.
3. Inglorious Basterds
There’s not a lot of redemption or even humanism in this film since it’s one side against the other and a kind of winner take all mentality. The Basterds are basically the ideal force to take on the Nazi’s since they don’t care about much of anything when it comes to doing their duty and they’ll willingly die doing it. Some might say that two wrongs don’t make a right but in the case of a group of men that were responsible in one way or another for committing genocide thanks to their maniacal and tyrannical leader some folks think that a group like the Basterds could have done the most good in the most horrific way.
2. The Pianist
The Holocaust and the war that created it were horrible, but many suffered on a far more personal level than any of us today have seen in any of the documentaries or films that have been built around the subject. The pianist in the film is a man that did his best to simply survive during the epic events that were happening all around him and was aided by those that were still inclined to act in a humane manner towards those that had little to nothing. He escaped persecution more than once it would seem and in the end was allowed to lead a long and fruitful life, while the man that took care of him near the end perished in captivity in an ironic twist.
1. Schindler’s List
Oskar Schindler was a man that was out to make a profit and did just that for a while until he noticed that the atrocities that were committed all around were affecting the same people he had hired to work for him. Eventually he began to work against the same party that he had been a member of for so long while keeping the appearance of still being on the up and up. Schindler managed to save a great many lives through the use of his fortune but never thought that he did enough, no matter that those he saved assured him that saving one life was akin to saving the entire world in a sense.
This time in human history was one that many would love to forget and some still deny ever happened to this day, but despite what anyone wants to believe it was real, as not even time can wipe that kind of shame away.
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