FILME

1. Come and See (1985)

About a boy

Making the infamous opening of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ look like a Sunday stroll
in the park, Elem Klimov’s hallucinatory masterpiece feels like the nearest
cinema has ever come to recreating the ruthlessly discombobulating sensory
experience of war. After much deliberation we thought it fitting to place this
singular film at the top of our list, not just for its strikingly candid take on the
human toll of warfare but as a work of sublime visual and aural intensity that
uses every tool in the filmmaker’s arsenal to unforgettable and often
nauseating effect.

‘Come and See’ is told from the perspective of Byelorussian lad Flyora
(Aleksei Kravchenko), an army recruit whose plucky optimism is torn away as
the platoon he’s inducted into are massacred. Forced to survive alone in the
wilderness, he suffers unspeakable indignities at every turn. Klimov’s film
argues convincingly that there are no heroes in war, only victims and
perpetrators, and that no amount of guns and ammo will be able to reconcile
the memory of the Holocaust. A disorienting, downbeat and unforgettable
classic. 

2. The Thin Red Line (1998)

Fight or flight

By the time of ‘The Thin Red Line’, Terrence Malick had been languishing in
self-imposed exile for two decades while his first two films, ‘Badlands’ and
‘Days of Heaven’, grew in stature. So it was no surprise that on his return to
filmmaking the Hollywood elite would line up to volunteer. Malick’s adaptation
of James Jones’s memoir of the battle for Guadalcanal features Sean Penn,
John Cusack, Nick Nolte, George Clooney, John Travolta and Woody
Harrelson, with Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Sheen, Gary Oldman and Mickey
Rourke left, amazingly, on the cutting room floor.

The overriding theme in Malick’s work has always been the transition from
youth to adulthood, from innocence to experience, from paradise to reality,
and this is no exception. Malick paints the disputed island as a lost Eden, the
two opposing armies as insignificant in the face of eternal nature. The
soldiers are viewed as individuals, questing souls on their own ultimately
destructive spiritual journeys, but also as mere facets of the natural world, no
more important than the plants, birds and insects that surround them.

It's an extraordinary vision of war, and indeed of humanity – godlike but

ultimately sympathetic, exploring not just hearts and minds, but the souls of
men in combat. 

3. Casablanca (1943)

The fundamental things apply...

Is there anything left to say about this Hollywood melodrama? Well,

newsflash: it’s still a near-perfect movie. Set during the Allied invasion of
North Africa, it focuses on Europe’s displaced flotsam as they pass through
Humphrey Bogart’s Moroccan bar en route to freedom. Of course, ivories are
tinkled and old flames rekindled, with Bergman and Bogie as the
quintessential doomed couple. But on balance, it’s Claude Rains’s Vichy-
appointed police captain who proves to be the film’s most interesting
character, perfectly representing France’s ambiguous situation during the
war. 

4. Shoah (1985)

The unvarnished truth

It’s been four decades since Claude Lanzmann started work on this nine-hour
documentary investigation into the minute details of mass murder. His
method was to dismiss archive images and interviews and to return instead to
the sites of the Holocaust, interviewing afresh those with first-hand
experience of events at Auschwitz, Treblinka, Chełmno and the Warsaw
Ghetto. His subjects range from Jewish concentration camp survivors to
former Nazi guards. This is sweeping oral testimony as conducted by a
filmmaker who is ever-present in his film, bespectacled and smoking, pushing
for detail and honesty above emotion and inexactitude. What emerges is an
unprecedented form for an unprecedented tragedy. 

5. Das Boot (1981)

Deeper and down

Originally made as a five-hour miniseries for German TV, cut to feature length
for worldwide consumption and finally expanded again to a 210-minute
‘director’s cut’, Wolfgang Petersen’s breathless, terrifying U-boat drama
remains the most claustrophobic of all WWII movies. The film is a
masterclass in economical, tight-space storytelling, piling the pressure on
both characters and audience until the sprockets squeak. The infamous
‘tiefer…’ sequence, as captain Jürgen Prochnow pushes his sub to life-
threatening depths, is still almost unwatchable. 

6. Went the Day Well? (1942)

Stiff lips and sharp axes

Those of us who grew up with national treasure Dame Thora Hird being
frightfully lovely on the BBC can only watch in amazement as, at the climax of
Alberto Cavalcanti’s masterful wartime chiller, she gamely starts picking off
invading Nazis with a rusty old hunting rifle. The plot, in which a German
parachutes into a sleepy English village and sets about clearing the way for a
major invasion, may be fantasy, but it’s alarmingly powerful. Released before
the Normandy landings, ‘Went The Day Well?’ was precision-tooled to remind
all those bicycling bobbies, cheeky pub-dwelling chappies and self-satisfied
lairds that they, too, may one day have to take on an entire paratroop division
armed only with national pride and a malacca walking stick. 

7. Dunkirk (2017)

Oh, we don’t like to be beside the seaside

It’s often said that Christopher Nolan doesn’t do things the ordinary way. But
‘Dunkirk’, his visceral, fist-gnawingly tense ticking-clock, actually harks back to
an era of war epics like ‘The Longest Day’ and ‘A Bridge Too Far’. Back then,
casts were so colossal and the props budgets so enormous, you sometimes
wondered if it wouldn’t be easier just declaring war for real. Nolan’s
achievement is giving his film scale and intimacy at the same time. There’s no
an inch of fat on ‘Dunkirk’s bones, just Tommies, citizen sailors and the odd
officer struggling bitterly for salvation in the face of extraordinary odds.

8. The Cranes Are Flying (1957)

Mother Russia

Made in the wake of Stalin’s death, this visually rapturous masterpiece is

more akin in tone to ’40s British morale boosters than Soviet propaganda
pieces of the post-war period. The story – of young lovers torn apart and
dragged where the currents of war pull them – bucked the prevailing trend
towards willing sacrifice and noble collective spirit. Director Mikhail Kalatozov
and cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky would go on to make ‘Soy Cuba’, and
their singular, mesmeric photographic style is evident here too: a startling
blend of audacious framing and hand-held intimacy that wouldn’t filter into
Western cinema for years. 

9. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Stairway to heaven

Powell and Pressburger’s soaring story of love after death was initially
inspired by a government request for a film emphasising the common ground
between the UK and America as the latter entered the war. In the hands of just
about any other filmmaking team this would probably have resulted in
something fairly traditional: a lads-together-behind-enemy-lines actioner,
perhaps. But in the hands of the most imaginative filmmakers this country has
ever produced, such a straightforward narrative was unlikely. Starting in outer
space and incorporating a fatal plane crash, French ghosts, naked pan-pipe
playing children, brain surgery, feverish hallucinations, Abraham Lincoln,
gushing romance and the halls of heaven itself, this is one of British film’s
grandest fantasies. 

10.The Big Red One (1980)

European vacation

The original ‘Band of Brothers’, and one of the most detailed and nourishing
WWII flicks of them all (at least in its epic director’s cut). Essentially a memoir
of director Sam Fuller’s own wartime experiences – and a fitting tribute to the
men who served alongside him – the film takes in almost the entire European
theatre, from North Africa to Italy and up into France, Germany and
Czechoslovakia. But this is far from a straightforward shoot-’em-up, bringing
in bizarre and often cruel humour, marvellous characterisation and one of the
oddest war-movie scenes of them all, as our heroes assist with childbirth in
the belly of a stranded tank.

11.The boy in the striped pajamas (2008)

Through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant
at a German concentration camp, a forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on
the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.

CARTI
1. Razboiul care mi-a salvat viata

Într-o lume nesigură, pe fundalul luptei pentru supravieţuire din întunecaţii ani ai celui de-Al Doilea
Război Mondial, Ada, o fetiţă de nouă ani, are de purtat propria ei bătălie pentru a demonstra că nu
e cu nimic diferită de ceilalţi.Umilită de propria mamă din cauza unui defect fizic, ţinută captivă în
apartamentul lor cu o singură cameră, Ada profită de faptul că toţi copiii sunt evacuaţi din Londra şi,
împreună cu fratele ei, Jamie, fuge departe de răutatea mamei. Aşa ajung să o cunoască pe Susan
Smith, o femeie posacă, dar care îi iubește ca şi cum ar fi copiii ei. Și, în timp ce lumea întreagă se
schimbă și toți cei din jur cunosc suferinţa şi despărţirea, Ada descoperă ce înseamnă iubirea şi
respectful
2. Socoteala diavolului

Atunci când deschizi o ușă te aștepți să intri într-un loc cunoscut, obișnuit, un loc în care
vrei să te afli. Ușa deschisă de Hannah o poartă către o lume dintr-un trecut pe care ea
a tot vrut să-l ignore. E ziua când familia ei sărbătorește Sederul, iar ea ajunge într-un
sătuc polonez din anul 1942. Soldații naziști vin după oamenii din sat. Fiindcă ea știe
istoria celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial, doar Hannah anticipează ororile care-i
așteaptă.
3. Wolf Hollow

Chiar dacă războiul pare fără sfârșit, Annabelle trăiește o viață liniștită într-un orășel din
Pennsylvania anului 1943. Merge la școală alături de frații ei, iar acasă adună puf din
tecile de ceara-albinei, pe care marina îl folosește la vestele de salvare. Pe câmpurile
de la Wolf Hollow Annabelle îl întâlnește uneori pe Toby, un veteran de război retras și
tăcut care fotografiază animale și flori.Apele devin tulburi când apare Betty, o fată
întotdeauna dispusă să le cauzeze celorlalți necazuri. Logica marelui război care a
cuprins lumea pune stăpânire și pe istoriile mici ale sătenilor: pe fronturile de la Wolf
Hollow, bunătatea găsește cu greu sorți de izbândă, iar cruzimea dă amploare
conflictului.
4. Anne Frank

New in the critically acclaimed Little People, BIG DREAMS series, discover the
life of Anne Frank, the writer whose diary captured the hearts of the public.Anne
Frank was born in Germany to a loving family. But when World War II broke out,
Anne and her family had to hide in a secret annex in Amsterdam. Here, Anne
wrote her famous diary, describing her belief in people's goodness and her hopes
for peace. After the war, her diary captured the hearts of the public and she
became one of the most important diarists of the 20th century. This moving book
features stylish and quirky illustrations and extra facts at the back, including a
biographical timeline with historical photos and a detailed profile of Anne's
life.Little People, BIG DREAMS is a bestselling series of books and educational
games that explore the lives of outstanding people, from designers and artists to
scientists and activists. All of them achieved incredible things, yet each began life
as a child with a dream.This empowering series offers inspiring messages to
children of all ages, in a range of formats. The board books are told in simple
sentences, perfect for reading aloud to babies and toddlers. The hardback
versions present expanded stories for beginning readers. Boxed gift sets allow
you to collect a selection of the books by theme. Paper dolls, learning cards,
matching games and other fun learning tools provide even more ways to make
the lives of these role models accessible to children.
5. Baiatul in pijamale cu dungi
Aceasta este povestea unui băieţel german pe nume Bruno, al cărui tată a primit
o slujbă foarte importantă, ceea ce înseamnă că toată familia trebuie să se mute
departe de oraş, într-un loc ciudat, unde casa lor e singura locuinţă adevărată şi
unde în spatele unor garduri nesfârşite se află sute, poate mii de oameni
îmbrăcaţi în pijamale în dungi. Bruno se străduieşte să înţeleagă ce se întâmplă
în jurul său. Cititorul bănuieşte despre ce e vorba, dar bietul Bruno, nu. Porneşte
aşadar să exploreze împrejurimile şi întrezăreşte un punct care devine o pată şi
pata, un băiat. Scrisă într-un limbaj simplu, copilăresc, această carte este mult
mai mult decât o poveste pentru copii. Cititorul se va teme de momentul în care
Bruno îşi va pierde inocenţa copilăriei şi va începe să întrezărească adevărul,
dar poate că lucrurile vor evolua şi mai rău şi el nu va descoperi deloc adevărul.
John Boyne este un scriitor irlandez, născut la Dublin în 1971. A scris
nenumărate cărţi şi povestiri pentru copii. Cartea sa Băiatul cu pijamale în dungi
s-a vândut în lumea întreagă în peste 2,5 milioane de exemplare.
6. Hotul de carti
Este anul 1939. Germania nazistă. Ţara îşi ţine răsuflarea. Moartea nu a avut
niciodată mai mult de lucru, şi va deveni chiar mai ocupată. Liesel Meminger şi
fratele ei mai mic sunt duşi de catre mama lor să locuiască cu o familie socială în
afara oraşului München. Tatăl lui Liesel a fost dus departe sub şoapta unui
singur cuvânt nefamiliar - Kommunist -, iar Liesel vede în ochii mamei sale teama
unui destin similar. Pe parcursul călătoriei, Moartea îi face o vizită băieţelului şi o
observă pe Liesel. Va fi prima dintre multe întâlniri apropiate. Lângă mormântul
fratelui ei, viaţa lui Liesel se schimbă atunci când ea ridică un singur obiect,
ascuns parţial în zăpadă. Este Manualul Groparului, lăsat acolo din greşeală, şi
este prima ei carte furată. Astfel începe o poveste despre dragostea de cărţi şi
de cuvinte, pe măsură ce Liesel învaţă să citeasca cu ajutorul tatălui ei adoptiv,
care cânta la acordeon. În curând, va fura cărţi de la incendierile de cărţi
organizate de nazişti, din biblioteca soţiei primarului, şi de oriunde le mai putea
găsi. Hoţul de cărţi este o poveste despre puterea cuvintelor de a crea lumi. Cu o
scriitură superb măiestrită şi arzând cu intensitate, premiatul autor Marcus Zusak
ne-a dăruit una dintre cele mai durabile poveşti ale timpurilor noastre.
7. Cu pretul vietii
O poveste despre suferințele unui băiat aflat într-un moment teribil, într-un loc
teribil. În tradiția romanelor Night, al lui Elie Wiesel, şi Survival in Auschwitz, al lui
Primo Levi, romanul de memorii al supraviețuitorului canadian al Holocaustului,
Max Eisen, bestseller mondial, ne dezvăluie cu claritate şi sinceritate hotărârea
nestrămutată a autorului de a supravieţui unor situaţii imposibile şi de a face
cunoscute în faţa lumii ororile de la Auschwitz. Umanitatea şi generozitatea lui
strălucesc în aceste pagini de mare forţă – amintirile personale ajung la
suprafaţă pe măsură ce povesteşte despre cruzimea gardienilor SS, dar şi
despre bunătatea şi eroismul zilnic al colegilor săi prizonieri, cu toţii victime ale
unui sistem creat pentru degradare, dezumanizare şi, în cele din urmă, moarte.
8. Numara stelele
Numără stelele este o poveste tulburătoare despre iubire, curaj şi altruism, într-o
lume stăpânită de frică.Este anul 1943, iar pentru Annemarie Johansen viaţa în
Copenhaga e un amestec de îndatoriri pentru şcoală, de lipsuri şi foamete, totul
desfăşurându-se sub privirea atentă a soldaţilor germani aflaţi la fiecare colţ de
stradă.Curajul pare să-şi mai găsească loc doar în poveştile pe care fetiţa i le
spune seara la culcare surorii ei mai mici, Kirsti. Aflând de raziile autorităţilor
germane pentru ridicarea populaţiei evreieşti, familia Johansen hotărăşte s-o
salveze pe Ellen Rosen, cea mai bună prietenă a fiicei lor, dând-o drept propriul
lor copil. Dar asta va fi oare de ajuns?

SERIALE
1. World War Two In Colour
Footage of the most dramatic moments from WW2 is restored in colour and
high definition for this historical documentary series.
2. The War
A seven-part series brings WW2 to life through the harrowing personal
accounts of soldiers and others from “typical” American towns.

3. Hitler’s Circle Of Evil

Surviving power struggles, betrayals and plots, Hitler’s inner circle of Nazi
leaders seizes control of Germany and designs its disastrous future.
4. Einsatzgruppen The Nazi Death Squads
This documentary series examines the Einsatzgruppen, Nazis responsible for the
mass murder of Jews, Romani and Soviet prisoners in Eastern Europe.
DOCUMENTARE
1. Hitler A Career
This documentary examines how Adolf Hitler’s talent for manipulation,
psychology and image-making led him from humble origins to near-world
conquest.
2. Hitler’s Steel Beast
Trace the history of Hitler’s armored private train, a 15-car mobile headquarters
boasting state-of-the-art communication and anti-aircraft cannons.
3. Kill Hitler! The Luck Of The Devil
From politicians to officers, many attempted to kill Hitler—and failed. This
documentary delves into the details of how their plots unraveled.
4. L’affaire Jack King
This documentary explores a bold WW2 operation in which a MI5 agent infiltrated
in a fascist network to intercept stolen documents.
5. Nazi Concentration Camps
Shocking footage shows Nazi concentration camps after liberation, including
Buchenwald and Ohrdruf, where Gen Eisenhower ordered local Nazis to tour

VIDEO URI
1. I survived the Holocaust twin experiment
2. The Nazi psycho doctor- Josef Mengele
3. Mengele’s human experimentation
4. Auschwitz concentration camp reel 2
5. Holocaust survivor recalls time at Auschwitz
6. A Holocaust survivor tells her story
7. Holocaust Buchenwald concentration camp uncovered
8. The Auschwitz Album- visual evidence of the process leading to the mass
murder at Auschwitz
9. Twin Holocaust survivors describe arriving at Auschwitz