This is a superbly produced documentary, based largely on information that has come to light since information from the eastern bloc countries and former Soviet Union became accessible.
The documentary comprises mainly of interviews with surviving SS soldiers and surviving prisoners from the Auschwitz and similar camps. It uses CGI special effects, combined with film of the Auschwitz camps to achieve the most realistic reconstruction of how it looked, and how it operated. Dramatisations of various meetings and events have been authentically reconstructed with well cast actors.
The stories from the survivors, particular in the episode about children, are the most moving I've ever seen in a documentary. The combination of original photographs, moving music and a first hand account from a survivor make these stories most poignant.
It does not demonize the Nazi's, but gives in insight into the mentality that pervaded the regime. It shows them as lacking empathy. We see evidence that not only the Germans, but many French, many Hungarians and many Slovakians were only too willing to help deport their Jews; even the British Police, on the Nazi occupied Channel Islands, were willing to send Jews to the east. Finally, the documentary shows how the surviving Jews, or their return to their homeland, were treated badly by their fellow countrymen.
This documentary shows that what happened in the holocaust happened because humans, not just Nazi's, are capable doing terrible things to humanity, given a certain set of circumstances.
