Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades to be shown in its Entirety

Sunday, November 7- Michael Prazan's documentary, Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades will be shown in its entirety with a brief intermission. After the screening please join us for a question and answer session with the filmmaker and gain further insights into the making of this important film.

St. Anthony Main Theater
115 Main St SE
Minneapolis
Tickets: $6.00 students /senior $8.50 general admission

To purchase advanced tickets please visit the Minnesota Film Arts site.

What Turns "Ordinary" Citizens into Mass Murderers?

This question is often asked when studying the Holocaust and other genocides. This week French filmmaker Michael Prazan will touch on this question with his groundbreaking documentary Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades, being shown exclusively in the Twin Cities on Thursday, November 4 and Sunday November 7 at the St. Anthony Main Theater. Prazan and the film are being sponsored by the University of Minnesota's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS) with Minnesota Film Arts.


"Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades is an essential film for those eager to understand the mechanics of evil and prevent its recurrence," said, Bruno Chaouat, director for CHGS.

"I think we all have a concept of what we individually believe evil to look like, but as we have found it isn't quite as clear cut as it would seem. Hannah Arendt in her controversial report Eichmann in Jerusalem identified the men who perpetrated the crimes representing what she called the banality of evil. Christopher Browning, in his landmark work Ordinary Men took Arendt's argument one step further focusing on the many so called "normal" Germans who turned into mass murders. Prazan's film, blending Claude Lanzmann's (the director of the acclaimed Holocaust documentary Shoah) method of interviewing witnesses, survivors and perpetrators with archive footage, adds his own, original voice to this descent into the night of human soul."


When asked why he wanted to make the film Prazan replied, "I thought there was an important part of Holocaust history that had been overlooked by the West. They seemed mostly concerned with the extermination of Western Jews and obsessed with Auschwitz. I felt it important that the actions of the Einsatzgruppen were explored more in depth."
The catalyst for the film was based on Prazan's experience while making his film Nanjing Massacre. "What I discovered in making that film was the willingness of the soldiers to tell me their stories-and I thought why not the Germans? I knew I would have to act quickly as time was not on our side."
In addition to the testimonies of witnesses, perpetrators and scholars, Prazan uses previously unseen archival footage, some in color, shot by the Germans. Prazan's mosaic of hatred has a startling immediacy that moves well beyond a historical document.
"Seeing this film is to stand in the eye of the storm." Said Bruno Chaouat, "and should not be missed."
Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades will be screened Thursday, November 4 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, November 7 at 6:30 p.m. followed by a question and answer session with filmmaker Michael Prazan. St. Anthony Main Theater, 115 Main Street SE, Mpls. Tickets: $6.00 for students, $8.50 for adults. Tickets can be purchased on line at Minnesota Film Arts. For more information contact CHGS at 612-624-0256, or email chgs@umn.edu.

The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota presents the groundbreaking documentary Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades

Thursday, November 4 at 7:00p.m.
Sunday, November 7 at 6:30p.m.

Followed by a question and answer session with filmmaker Michael Prazan
Moderated by Rembert Hueser
Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch Studies
and Moving Image Studies

St. Anthony Main Theater
115 Main St SE
Minneapolis
Tickets: $6.00 students /senior $8.50 general admission



Michael Prazan's documentary details the SS killing squads charged with destroying entire Jewish populations in occupied Eastern Europe during World War II. Referred to as the "Holocaust by Bullets," the mobile death units moved through Eastern Europe into Soviet territories in 1941, recruiting assistants in the Baltics and the Ukraine to help them carry out the extermination of the Jews in towns, cities and villages. The brigades were only a prelude to the mass exterminations that followed at the death camps in Poland.
The film contains previously unseen archival footage, much of it in color, some shot as home movies by the Germans themselves. Prazan interviews historians, Holocaust survivors, witnesses, and perpetrators to give a complete view of the horror and scale of this operation which was responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent Jewish families.
French filmmaker Michael Prazan lived in Japan for several years while making his first two films The Nanking Massacre: Memory and Oblivion (2006) and Japan, the Red Years (2002), about the terrorist tendencies of some of Japan's May '68 children. He has written a book on the making of the Einsatzgruppen film, which will be published in France later this year.
Co-sponsors: Minnesota Film Arts, University of Minnesota Department of History, Department of French and Italian, Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch Studies, Moving Image Studies, Center for Jewish Studies and the Human Rights Center at the School of Law.
To read a review of the film click here.
For information on Einsatzgruppen click here