“Night and Fog” AKA “Nuit et brouillard” was released in 1956 and was directed by Alain Resnais. It is a French documentary short film. The film was produced ten years after the end of WWII and the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. The script was written by Jean Cayrol, a survivor of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.
At only about 32 or 33 minutes long, the documentary is a combination of newsreels, stock footage and new footage (from the 50’s) as well as still photos from various concentration camps taken by the Nazis and the liberators. Archival footage of Reinhard Heydrich, Julius Streicher, Heinrich Himmler and Adolph Hitler are included. It is simplistically done but has quite an impact. Some of the images are stark and extremely graphic.
During the film, Nazi ideology is explained, and dramatic photos are shown of the atrocities inflicted on prisoners of various camps. Piles of dead prisoners are shown and narration from Michael Bouquet explains the trauma endured by the inmates including medical experiments, rape and starvation. Images of the gas chambers and prisoner housing units are shown as well as pictures of property that the Nazis confiscated when the inmates entered the camps.
The title of the film is from the German saying Nacht und Nebel or Night and Fog. The term comes from a German policy created by Himmler to instill fear in the populace. The plan incorporated abductions and disappearances of citizens that were so fast people referred to the occurrences as people disappearing without a trace into the night and fog.
It is believed to be the first film about the holocaust. Director Resnais makes a point of noting that not all of the victims were Jews and not all of the perpetrators were Nazis. The film experienced censorship from the French who objected to a French officer being shown as one of the guards at a camp. The film is a dire warning of what could be repeated if history does not learn from the past.