Hitler's Holocaust Railways

Rome, Open City

October 1945 •Italian

In WWII-era Rome, underground resistance leader Manfredi attempts to evade the Gestapo by enlisting the help of Pina, the fiancée of a fellow member of the resistance, and Don Pietro, the priest due to oversee her marriage. But it’s not long before the Nazis and the local police find him.

Night and Fog

April 1959 •French

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory

March 1895 •French

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

The Pianist

September 2002 •English

The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

Schindler's List

December 1993 •English

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

Łódź Ghetto

March 1989 •English

The Polish city of Łódź was under Nazi occupation for nearly the entirety of WWII. The segregation of the Jewish population into the ghetto, and the subsequent horrors are vividly chronicled via newsreels and photographs. The narration is taken almost entirely from journals and diaries of those who lived–and died–through the course of the occupation, with the number of different narrators diminishing as the film progresses, symbolic of the death of each narrator.

Morituri

September 1948 •German

As the end of the Second World War approaches and the Soviet Red Army is advancing, a group of concentration camp inmates is helped to escape by a Polish doctor. They hide in a wood where they meet other fugitives, who have been there for months, constantly in fear of being discovered. Out of fear of the German army patrols, they do not dare to leave the forest, even as the food supplies run low.

Flannery

October 2019 •English

Explore the life of Flannery O’Connor whose provocative fiction was unlike anything published before. Featuring never-before-seen archival footage, newly discovered journals, and interviews with Mary Karr, Tommy Lee Jones, Hilton Als, and more.

My Life for Ireland

January 1941 •German

A Nazi propaganda movie from 1941 directed by Max W. Kimmich, covering a story of Irish heroism and martyrdom over two generations under the occupation of the British.

Regina

April 2013 •English

The first woman rabbi in the world, Regina Jonas, comes to light, courtesy of Rachel Weisz – who plays her – and her father George Weisz, who was the executive producer for this poetic and beautiful documentary. The daughter of an Orthodox Jewish peddler, Jonas was ordained in Berlin in 1935. During the Nazi era and the war, her sermons and her unparalleled devotion brought encouragement to the persecuted German Jews. Regina Jonas was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. The only surviving photo of Jonas serves as a leitmotif for the film, showing a determined young woman gazing at the camera with self-confidence.

The Enemy General

October 1960 •English

OSS agent, working with the French underground, ambushes Nazi convoy with high-ranking general, who escapes. Later they take him from a Nazi prison and smuggle him to England.

Henry V

October 1989 •English

In 1415, in the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France.

The Champion

August 2021 •Polish

It is 1940. The first transport of prisoners arrives at the newly created concentration camp Auschwitz. One of them is Tadeusz “Teddy” Pietrzykowski, pre-war boxing champion of Warsaw. The camp officers force him to fight in the ring for his and other prisoners’ lives. However, his every win strengthens the hope that Nazis are not invincible. Auschwitz officers notice the growing resistance. The confrontation with the authorities of the camp becomes inevitable.

To Auschwitz and Back: The Joe Engel Story

November 2017 •English

This is a story of faith, renewal and redemption. Joe Engel, with an unwavering will to live, overcame unimaginable horrors to become a treasured citizen, community leader, teacher and philanthropist.

Europa Europa

November 1990 •German

A Jewish boy separated from his family in the early days of WWII poses as a German orphan and is taken into the heart of the Nazi world as a 'war hero' and eventually becomes a Hitler Youth.

Auschwitz: Countdown To Liberation

January 2025 •English

When Giants Roamed: The Golden Age of Steam

January 2005 •English

In the first half of the 20th century, America's railroads were radically transformed by the innovation of gargantuan steam locomotives. Pushed by the need to haul ever longer and heavier trains, the nation's locomotive works responded with the invention of awe-inspiring articulated engines. Delivering up to 7,500 horsepower, these steel behemoths could haul mile-long, 15,000-ton trains. In this riveting program, journey back to the golden age of steam for an up-close look at these legendary locomotives. See the Union Pacific's famed "Big Boy" in action and ride the rails of the Chesapeake & Ohio and Norfolk & Western railways. Meet the men who drove engines like the Allegheny and Yellowstone, and visit the museums and yards where the largest steamers ever built remain preserved in time. THE HISTORY CHANNEL' proudly presents this rollicking retrospective, sure to set any rail fan's heart pounding

The Last of the Mohicans

August 1992 •English

In war-torn colonial America, in the midst of a bloody battle between British, the French and Native American allies, the aristocratic daughter of a British Colonel and her party are captured by a group of Huron warriors. Fortunately, a group of three Mohican trappers comes to their rescue.

Third Time

April 1963 •Russian

The film is based on the real fact — football «The Death Match» between the German team and a team of Soviet prisoners of war, former "Dinamo". It happened in Kiev on June 22, 1942. Anticipating the possibility of losing, the Germans made a condition — defeat or death. If the Germans won, the Soviet footballers were promised freedom...

Train of Life

September 1998 •French

In 1941, the inhabitants of a small Jewish village in Central Europe organize a fake deportation train so that they can escape the Nazis and flee to Palestine.