This 33 Photos from the Ghetto review takes a look at a piercing new documentary on HBO Max that arrives as a stark reminder: we do not know everything about the Holocaust. After generations of survivors speaking out, after countless films and books, there is always more to know.
The word “holocaust” derives from a Greek word meaning “burnt offering.” What followed Hitler’s Nazi culture was the racially motivated participation of German, Ukrainian, Slovak, Romanian, Croatian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Vichy French, Norwegian, Belgian, and Dutch citizens in the murder of millions of Jews across Europe. Military, law enforcement, and private citizens all took part in the attempted eradication of a people.
In 1943, Nazis emptied Jews out of Warsaw proper and built a walled ghetto to house those who remained. Residents were closely watched and guarded. No photographs were to be taken, as images could serve as future evidence against the Reich.
33 Photos from the Ghetto Review
Documentarian Jan Czarlewski reveals what happened inside, thanks to the extraordinary bravery of Jewish amateur cameraman and firefighter Zbigniew Leszek Grzywaczewski. He secretly photographed the vicious treatment of residents by Nazi soldiers: the terror, murders in broad daylight, deaths by starvation, bodies piled in the streets, and the torching of the Ghetto with its people still inside. Those who left did so on trains to the camps. Rebellions were stoked but silenced by Nazi gunfire.
A cache of 33 photos was recently discovered under a floorboard in a family home, giving Grzywaczewski’s courage new and lasting meaning. His images are horrifying. They are also proof, preserved for future generations to judge and mourn. One survivor couldn’t bring herself to look at them. She had spent her whole life trying to forget.
Ten percent of Jews survived. These photographs are a record of the rest.
33 Photos from the Ghetto streams on HBO Max.
