It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Great Film overall

Absolutely the worst movie.

Absolutely amazing

If you think that you understand the scope of the German atrocities committed during WWII, even if you have been to the Holocaust Museum, unless you have seen this film, you likely do not. With footage much of which had not seen publicly before this 2014 documentary, this film chronicles the liberation of prison and death camps as filmed by British, American, and Soviet army photographers, as well as the healing of the survivors after liberation, and the prosecution of those who managed the death camp industry. The title comes from the narration, "Unless the world learns the lesson these pictures teach, night will fall. But by God's grace, we who live will learn." A must-see film to understand the catastrophic consequences that hate and bigotry can bring.

This film describes in detail what we already knew about the Nazis. The details of their horrible atrocities need not be gone to in detail here, except as to the contents of the film, itself. Few people realize the immediate effects of the initial sight of the camps on American Generals. Patton toured one camp and emerged so outraged that several adjutants said that they had never seen him so angry. Eisenhower toured a camp and remarked that many US soldiers didn't know what they were fighting for, but now, he could show them what they were fighting against. The large responses to the holocaust were, "oh, it'll never happen again, now!" Look at Uganda 1994, and Serbia 1995. This will never stop unless somebody intercedes. It is the opening of the gateway to hell, with evil piloting the way. If this is not stopped in its tracks, the armies of darkness will march across the earth. It could happen to any one of us, if we don't meet the measures of a tyrannical police state.

The imagery is searing. Yes, the finished documentary is loosely assembled, as others point out. But then it's the graphic horrors that count. At 75, I've seen the hellish horrors in other documentaries. Nonetheless, the tale must be told every generation, and what could be more persuasive than such footage. I'm glad the filming comes from a number of death camps, showing the systematic nature of the extermination, and what, I think, most any of us are capable of given certain conditions.I am sorry that footage showing the gas chambers was apparently not yet available. That would further demonstrate the murderous Nazi intent. I've heard apologists claim that the mounds of emaciated dead resulted from a wartime lack of food, not the result of intentional starvation. Still, those German civilians parading through the camps do look well fed. Too bad that more isn't detailed about how the documentary got caught up in the politics of the day. As a result the film ended up filed away for decades. That appears an interesting story deserving of more explanation. Also, the interviews with survivors bring a bygone time to life, and are often as wrenching as the past is. For them, the reality of the camps is still a vivid presence.No, the 75-minutes are not entertaining, as others point out. Nonetheless, the visible record of "human junk piles" presents an opportunity for our deepest reflection.

'German Concentration Camp Factual Survey' was a powerful Holocaust documentary that spent decades in limbo for very dubious reasons. Filmed at the end of World War II, it was only recently completed in a full-length restoration by London's Imperial War Museum. The project has long been part of forgotten movie history, partly because directing legends Alfred Hitchcock and Billy Wilder were both involved in creating it.The completed documentary adds Brett Ratner and Stephen Frears as producers. The director is André Singer, whose own production credits include multiple Werner Herzog projects and 'The Act of Killing'.In the spring of 1945, with victory in sight, Allied forces encountered the full horror of the Nazi concentration camps as gained more and more ground. The liberation of slave labor and extermination camps including Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and Buchenwald were recorded by traumatized military film crews from the UK, the US and Russia. The horrifying images they collected of corpses and mass graves shocked the world.Under the command of British director Sidney Bernstein, the footage was shipped back to London as raw material for a film designed to inform about the cruelty of the Nazi regime, especially among ordinary Germans who still claimed ignorance of mass murder next door. Bernstein assembled a team including writer and future government minister Richard Crossman. Hitchcock also took a break from his Hollywood career to offer suggestions on style of the film. Billy Wilder edited some of the footage into a 22-minute newsreel-style short for U.S. audiences, called 'Death Mills'. But by the fall of 1945, as the political situation changed in the eyes of the British government, Bernstein's work-in-progress was quietly shelved by the UK government. Though clips from Bernstein's incomplete documentary were permitted to be shown during the Nuremberg trials, it remained unfinished for almost 70 years.The documentation 'Night Will Fall' fills in the back story of the film, from its battlefield origins to its restoration process. Singer and his team blend archive footage and contemporary interviews with elderly military veterans, members of the original film crews, historians and Holocaust survivors, including Branko Lustig, producer of Schindler's List. Wilder appears briefly in library clips. Hitchcock makes does his to be expected cameo. The documentary was already part of Berlinales' 2014 "Work in progress" - section.As an important historical and educational document, 'Night Will Fall' is unquestionably a must see. A little more investigation into the backstage machinations that forced the shelving of the original footage would also have been welcome but nevertheless the film is filled with shocking truth that always is in danger to be ignored.