Overview
- Description
- This film features Claude Lanzmann's interview with Maurice Rossel, conducted in 1979 for Lanzmann's epic film "Shoah". Rossel was the Swiss delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Berlin. The central task of the delegates was to visit camps to control the observance of the Geneva Convention and the delivery of aid packages. In an official capacity, Rossel was asked to inspect Theresienstadt, a ghetto where Nazis housed wealthy and socially prominent Jews who were being temporarily spared from execution, in June 1944. Rossel admits that he gave Theresienstadt a clean bill of health and would probably do so again today, and that he was also given a tour of Auschwitz, which he did not realize was a death camp despite the sullen, haunted looks he received from the inmates. Lanzmann's questioning raises the issues of to what degree Rossel and others like him were manipulated by the Nazis and to what degree they were willing to be manipulated as a consequence of their own politics and prejudices.
- Duration
- 01:05:14
- Date
-
Event:
1979?
Production: 1997
- Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Claude Lanzmann
- Contributor
-
Director:
Claude Lanzmann
Producer: Claude Lanzmann
Camera Operator: Dominique Chapuis
Camera Operator: William Lubtchansky
- Biography
-
Claude Lanzmann was born in Paris to a Jewish family that immigrated to France from Eastern Europe. He attended the Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand. His family went into hiding during World War II. He joined the French resistance at the age of 18 and fought in the Auvergne. Lanzmann opposed the French war in Algeria and signed a 1960 antiwar petition. From 1952 to 1959 he lived with Simone de Beauvoir. In 1963 he married French actress Judith Magre. Later, he married Angelika Schrobsdorff, a German-Jewish writer, and then Dominique Petithory in 1995. He is the father of Angélique Lanzmann, born in 1950, and Félix Lanzmann (1993-2017). Lanzmann's most renowned work, Shoah, is widely regarded as the seminal film on the subject of the Holocaust. He began interviewing survivors, historians, witnesses, and perpetrators in 1973 and finished editing the film in 1985. In 2009, Lanzmann published his memoirs under the title "Le lièvre de Patagonie" (The Patagonian Hare). He was chief editor of the journal "Les Temps Modernes," which was founded by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, until his death on July 5, 2018. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/claude-lanzmann-changed-the-history-of-filmmaking-with-shoah
Physical Details
- Language
- French
- Genre/Form
- Documentary.
- B&W / Color
- Color
- Image Quality
- Excellent
- Time Code
- 01:02:06:00 to 02:07:20:00
- Film Format
- Master
Master 2891 Video: Digital Betacam - color - NTSC - large
Master 2891 Video: Digital Betacam - color - NTSC - large
Master 2891 Video: Digital Betacam - color - NTSC - large
Master 2891 Video: Digital Betacam - color - NTSC - large- Preservation
Preservation 2891 Video: Betacam SP - color - NTSC - large
Preservation 2891 Video: Betacam SP - color - NTSC - large
Preservation 2891 Video: Betacam SP - color - NTSC - large
Preservation 2891 Video: Betacam SP - color - NTSC - large- User
User 2891 Video: DVD - color
User 2891 Video: DVD - color
User 2891 Video: DVD - color
User 2891 Video: DVD - color
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- You do not require further permission from the Museum to access this archival media.
- Copyright
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, State of Israel
- Conditions on Use
- Third party must sign the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's SHOAH Outtakes Film License Agreement in order to reproduce and use film footage. Contact filmvideo@ushmm.org
- Copyright Holder
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Yad Vashem
State of Israel
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Note
- Edited by Sabine Mamou.
With English subtitles.
Outtakes of the entire interview can be seen in RG-60.5019 on Film IDs 3248 to 3253. - Film Source
- Claude Lanzmann
- File Number
- Legacy Database File: 5278
- Record last modified:
- 2024-02-21 08:03:18
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1004374
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- See Rights and Restrictions
- Terms of Use
- This record is digitized but cannot be downloaded online.
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