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My wife has an abiding interest in the history of the holocaust and brought this documentary to my attention, although it was made over twenty years ago. This is the story of the largely successful attempt at annihilation by the Nazis of the Hungarian Jewish population in 1944. That date of course is significant as anyone with a basic knowledge of World War 2 would surely know that by that time Germany was clearly losing the war on many fronts and moreover its own High Command knew it. But as the testators here make clear, for Hitler it seemed the war had two aims, the first the military domination of Europe but the second, less credited, being the extinction of the Jewish race. He proved arguably more successful at the latter, sad to say. Rather than divert resources into fighting the Allied Forces on the battlefield, the Fuhrer insanely remained committed to his other vision of racial extermination.

The story is movingly told from the viewpoints of a number of now elderly men and women still alive at the time of filming, all of them survivors of Auschwitz, Birkenald, Bergen-Belsen and other death camps. I refuse to let myself be emotionally fatigued by these horrific eye-witness testimonies of the atrocities carried out daily by their then German masters, no matter how often I see and hear them, all graphically illustrated by contemporary photography and verite footage which even so can only hint at the daily atrocities perpetrated on the prisoners.

We learn that the non-Jewish Hungarian public turned on their fellow citizens immediately the Germans invaded, siding with the occupying Nazis. There is also a chilling interview with an aged Auschwitz doctor who I wouldn't trust an inch as he baldly announces that he was acquitted of war crimes but who today exhibits no emotion or apparent regret for what was perpetrated in the camp, even when confronted by the sister of just one of the thousands who were killed on his watch.

The film, co-produced by Steven Spielberg, tells its horrendous story from its calm, pre-occupation beginning to its barbarous conclusion, ending up with a number of the survivors returning to the scenes of their worst nightmares, equally demonstrating their indomitable survival instinct coupled with a haunted sense of never-ending loss for their loved ones. Tellingly, none are asked their opinions about the German people although I was surprised, confirmed atheist that I am, that so many of them exonerated their God who had seemingly remotely and uncaringly presided over this ultimate example of inhumanity by his own creation.

It has always to be remembered, in addition, that this awful slaughter occurred in other countries the Germans invaded, as well as to think that, unbelievably and shamefully, there are Holocaust deniers out there who would refute what is so heartbreakingly and convincingly related here. As other recent commenters have said, they look to be in the majority here or perhaps are bringing some latter-day political agenda of their own to disrespect the honesty of this film.

Heartbreaking and haunting listening to these survivors of the Holocaust recount the horrors they witnessed. The film itself felt sincere, real people telling real stories. It was nice to have it end on good notes, as the survivors went on to live their lives.

As sad and shocking as these documentaries are, they must be made and watched. I am grateful these stories were recorded since we have less and less survivors left here with us. Never forget. Never let it happen again.

Update: Looking at the large number of thumbs down on previous positive comments is bizzare.

If you like history you must watch this. I know it's hard to watch but we want to know what happened in the past.

There have been a number of Holocaust films, dramatic and documentary, and all have some measure of success in conveying the immense horror of Nazi psychosis. This film is one of the best I've seen. It sticks to personal stories and that makes the difference. Dry written narration removes the vastness of the evil perpetrated.

It took decades for the real horror of the Nazi extermination to be adequately shown to the public. We should use this film as an example of the mindset that drives current holocausts being perpetrated right now or being openly planned by international leaders. It doesn't matter who is being persecuted, the open hated and psychosis of the perpetrators is on display here, you can easily see the same aberrant thought processes in action right now in Africa and the Middle East.

If only the world could show the courage that was clearly lacking in the 1930's.

The Last Days (1998)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Haunting, depressing and hard to watch documentary from director James Moll has five Hungarian Jews talking about their time before, during and after being placed in concentration camps at the end of WWII as Hitler was in the last days of murdering as many people as he could. THE LAST DAYS picked up the Best Documentary Oscar and there's no question that it's a very powerful movie, perfectly put together to show the horrors of these camps. Through the interviews and archival footage, most people will probably want to avoid this film simply because of how graphic the photos are and there's no question that it's incredibly depressing. Yes, there's a bit a hope thrown in for the inspiration to survive but this really doesn't take away the haunting images that we're shown. There are several times throughout the film that the five people break down crying while telling their stories and it really makes you wonder what it would be like having to go through life with these graphic images constantly in your head. Seeing people shot, burned to death, melt down into skeletons and worse is just something that no one should have to go through life witnessing and then having to live with. Another interesting segment deals with the eventual rescue by the American troops. We get to see some interviews with those troops and hearing their stories of being shocked were also very heartbreaking. I thought director Moll did a terrific job at taking all the stories and editing them together just as if the story was being told by one person. THE LAST DAYS isn't an easy film to watch as some of the images are just horrible but for history buffs it's a must see.

I had the opportunity to see "The Last Days" on HBO one night and I will never be the same again. My Family is German, in fact my grandparents were born in Germany, and I have always heard the horrible stories of the concentration camps and How my family was so ashamed to be German. I have seen many pictures and movies concerning the holocaust but nothing could have prepared me for the images shown in this movie. The videos taken of the concentration camp prisoners was so unbelievable. When the first survivor began talking I felt tears begin to rush down my face. The way the Nazi's treated these people was so unbelievable and horrible. Towards the end of the film we see the deceased prisoners of the camps being thrown into large pits of fire to destroy their bodies. At this point in the movie I literally began to gag from the horror of how these people was treated. This movie is life changing- I don't think I will ever be able to read a book about World War II or the holocaust with out feeling my own heartbreak. In my opinion the most touching moment is when we hear the story of how a woman keeps the diamonds her mother gave her secret from the Nazis, and how she still has them and what she has done with them. Another moment that broke my heart is the story of a woman who wears a bathing suit that her father gave her under her clothes to the concentration camp and how she was scared to take it off because she feared she would forget all the good times that she had had before the war. I hope everyone sees this movie so they can understand what hate does, and so that nothing like this ever happens again.

"The Last Days" is an exceptional film where five Hungarian Holocaust survivors tell their stories of their lives under the Nazis. Unlike other documentaries, these Jews did not experience any of this persecution until their country was annexed by the Germans in 1944. Their stories begin in 1944 and they recount the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. Additionally, corroborating accounts from American soldiers and a German doctor working at Auschwitz were included as well as lots of archival photos and film. In many ways, this film is like going to a Holocaust center and listening to accounts of the survivors.

Despite this film being very well made and quite moving, it's a case of preaching to the choir. In other words, those who are not insane or stupid and acknowledge that the Germans slaughtered millions will watch this film and appreciate it. Others probably won't watch it or else they'll dismiss the film as propaganda or an exaggeration or a conspiracy. Frankly, there isn't much you can do with this group. In the future, after successive generations have come and gone, this film will prove invaluable as a record of the Nazi horrors. But, since it only consists of five subjects, the film is naturally incomplete. Other films, such as "Shoah" and "Night and Fog" help to provide a more thorough story and are all worth seeing--but are also very draining. These are all exceptional films--just be sure you have some Kleenex handy as you watch.

Certain parts of this have been exposed as fiction.

The problem is that then jeopardises the rest and casts doubts over it.

The question is was Spielberg duped or was he trying to dupe the audience?

Check out the 45th infantry's page that you can find by searching for Hugh F. Foster III "paul parks"

I'm hoping you discredit this film, "The Last Days" and that Spielberg is made aware that he has been "duped." My interest in the liberation of Dachau is merely that I was in "H" Company of the 157th, 45th Infantry Division. I fought in Africa, Sicily and Italy. I was captured on the Anzio Beachhead, February 22,1944. After being in many POW camps in Italy and Germany, I was transferred to Dachau for being a "trouble-maker." I was in Dachau, November 15, to November 20,1944. Unfortunately, my outfit didn't liberate Dachau until April 29,1945. I didn't wait for them, I escaped on April 8, 1945.

Please bear in mind that these false claims are very painful to the 45th Infantry Division, since they have established an amazing outstanding record of 511 days in combat and suffered 62,560 casualties during World War II, Spielberg owes them an apology.

Respectfully Henry Kaufman.

An absolutely unforgettable documentary and one that should be seen by everyone. The Holocaust images and portrayals that are put forward on screen will remain with you forever and are at times equally emotionally devastating and inspiring. Truly a life-altering film experience. Recommended.

9/10

"Things didn't happen at once things happen slowly - each time a new law came out we said it will blow over" this is a gripping documentary that serves as a grim reminder of what happens when you allow a government to divide its people into sects, strip its citizens of their rights, censor them, disarm them and provide constant propaganda to turn them on one another. The stories shared in this extremely well done documentary are heart wrenching of how the Holocaust occurred and how terrifying and eerily similar to the ongoings of our today are.

This film is one of the better Holocaust documentaries - concise, stomach-turning, and deeply profound. Should be required viewing in all schools and prisons. What's just as troubling as the subject matter are the overwhelming negative (unhelpful) votes to the many thoughtful reviews on this website. There sure are a lot of haters out there ready to anonymously expose their disregard for human suffering, who would likely be complicit in repeating the worst atrocities known to man.

i saw this film on the independent film channel today, since i was off. I basically prepared myself for the typical sob story holocaust testimonies made simply to draw out the sympathy of our generation. this film goes beyond any expectations or boundaries a typical viewer like myself would imply. the film is based on the hungarian-jewish victims of the major death camps in late ww2 europe. the stories of each of the 5 main survivors progress from being forced to wear the star of david in the early days of the hungarian nazi occupation to being forced onto cattle trains going to aushwitz and bergen-belzen death camps to being pushed into gas chambers and crematoriums and finally pushed to mass extermination with hitler's desperate final solution in 1945, realizing that he would indeed lose his war. the survivors revisit the camps and specific sites where they were held along side loved ones, recounting horrific tales of suffering which could only be truly understood by those who survived them. the scene which impacted me the most was one where a jewish woman returns to the aushwitz latrines, which are still visible. she tells the tale of her and her friend singing a hebrew song of praise and how the other jews in the latrine, despite language or culture joined her in the song.

i recommend this film to any human. since this is an unrealistic request, i would recommend it to anyone with a remote interest in ww2 or the holocaust. i've seen numerous films, read numerous books, and done extensive research and this film is w/o a doubt the closest you can get to any sympathetical understanding of the holocaust.

I was fortunate enough to see this film at an advance screening hosted by the National Archive of Jewish Film at Brandeis University. This screening was full of professors and experts in the field of Holocaust study. Also present was one of the interviewees of the film.

This film effected me in ways that no other Holocaust documentary has. I have been learning about the Holocaust for many years, and I naïvely thought that I understood the magnitude of this disaster. What I realized during this movie was that no one can understand the experience of such a tragedy. Some of the most poignant moments were when the survivors walked through the camps with their children, recalling details along the way. Their children stood dutifully beside their parents the entire time, never understanding what their parents experienced.

The film bills itself as "the story of five remarkable people whose strength and will to live represent the extraordinary power of the human spirit." I don't feel that the movie followed this path, but took a different, much more intriguing journey. The audience left the theater understanding that the Holocaust is not something that can be summed up in a movie. Though the movie posed the question "why did it happen?" it never gives an answer. Instead, it shows that there is no way to reach a conclusion when one is faced with such a tragedy.

What can I say that hasn't been said by others who have come across this essential document of the survivors of the holocaust? It goes beyond any kind of rating; watching the people on screen tell their stories, and re-connect with their haunted roots, is about as captivating as it can get, genuinely so, enough to not want to look away. The stories from the five survivors is just enough to make it a crucial piece of history, of something that will survive past their years as their own talked-of memories of what they saw, the people they saw murdered including their families, of being stripped of humanity and more deeply for their souls. The actual footage of almost ten years ago of inside camps of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen is equally powerful to see.

But it's another that other interviews are included with the likes of an ex-Auschwitz Nazi doctor who didn't go along with his other sadistic colleagues; the American soldiers who were appalled to discover what they thought contained German prisoners of war to be thousands of Jews; the one US Congressman (at the time) to survive the holocaust. The history of this period of the early to mid 40's has become abstracted in the view of society, something so enormous it's even more staggering that similar practices go on in other countries today. The notes of what Hitler did is given notice in the film, but the facts are more as a back-drop for what the Last Days focus is. By director James Moll going in for these women's stories, of what they lost and tried to regain, is just as important to see in its own light as Schindler's List as a dramatization of the facts. It's not too much a wonder it got the best documentary prize at the Oscars. Executive produced by Steven Spielberg (speaking of 'Schindler') and the Shoa foundation.

My life changed after my visit to Auschwitz . I had been to Dachau in college, but it didn't affect me the way Auschwitz/ Birkenau had. Perhaps because most of it had been leveled or it could have been the 2 American soldiers who kept trying to video tape me (sigh). For anyone who has any interest in the Holocaust, a trip to Auschwitz with the guided tour is essential.

The movie did an excellent job of weaving together five survivors stories. On the DVD that we got from Netflix, the music was uncomfortably loud to the point of not being able to hear what the survivors were saying. Hopefully, this is just a bum copy and in other screenings the music does not overpower the talking.

I applaud the folks who made this film and especially the survivors who were able to share such deep emotion even in front of a film crew.

Thank you.

If you are looking for an eye opening documentary, you should try this one.

If you are interested on History, this is a must.

If you consider yourself a human being in all senses of the expression, you should definitely watch this documentary.

The holocaust should never be forgotten.

This film has really deserved the oscar and it should be shown in every cinema around the world. Together with Schindler's List that is the most important movie of the 90s and I would like to thank Steven Spielberg for his Shoah Foundation.

I sat & watched this on my own this afternoon, having never seen it when it was released. I'm not ashamed to say there were moment where I cried like a baby, seeing actions of man's inhumanity to erase the Jewish people. If you've not seen it before, please watch it ,even for some of those most harrowing of events - as we must never forget those who suffered and push to make the world a kinder and more tolerant place to live.

This should be shown in schools in history class. The first hand accounts are haunting..

Never forget.

This film needs to be required viewing for every high school student. It is so difficult for me to believe that some Americans believe the Holocaust was a hoax. A extraordinary film.

I saw this movie on a field trip with my class. When I told people I was going to see a movie for our field trip, people thought my class was the luckiest class in the world. My stomach wrenched when I watched, and there were times I had to close my eyes and look away. Look away as people tossed a mass of skin and bones into a pile with others just like that. Look away as people walked in front of the camera, naked with no fat or muscles on their bums, just their pelvises sticking out. This movie was not for the weak as demonstrated by others in the theatre. Other people were brought to tears watching the struggles of these people.