The 81st Blow (1975)
4.2 of 5 from 45 ratings
1h 32min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
The title refers to the tragic story of a boy who was given eighty blows by a Nazi officer while living in a Jewish ghetto; when he later told his tale to the people he met in Israel after his miraculous survival, he declared that their disbelief in his story was the eighty-first blow. This absorbing documentary chronicles the years leading up to the Holocaust and uses tons of stock footage that shows the shift in culture in Germany and its subsequently occupied neighbors, during which Jews were declared enemies of European life. Propaganda is followed by ghettoization which is followed by internment camps, all of it narrated in voice over while only actual footage from the period is screened. It’s a terrific historical resource because this film deals quite a lot with aspects of history that have been dramatized in other films, but the original footage is rarely seen. - Directors:
- David Bergman, Jacques Ehrlich
- Writers:
- Haim Gouri
- Others:
- Jacquot Ehrlich, David Bergman, Haim Gouri
- Aka:
- Ha-Makah Hashmonim V'Echad
- Genres:
- Documentary
- Countries:
- Israel