This Israeli film presents one of the most ambitious attempts at a film history of the Holocaust, from Jewish life in pre-Hitler Eastern Europe, through the rise of Nazism in Germany and the German occupation of Poland to various stages of the "Final Solution." Most of this is recorded in footage taken by the Nazis themselves, presumably in anticipation of their days of glory. Some 400 hours worth of captured Nazi films were condensed by producer Avraham Shapiro on behalf of the Beit Lohamei Hageta'ot, the Freedom Fighters Kibbutz. Intercut into the footage of the Polish population taken by Nazi cameramen--images of children going off to cheder, and people going about their obviously innocent business--are still photos taken by the famous photo-historian of the Polish Jews, Roman Vishniac, just before the occupation. Jewish eyewitness testimony, mostly given at the Eichmann trials, adds to the story. The result is a film edited "in a slow, somber and poetic style...(in which) much emphasis is placed on the victims' perceptions of what was happening to them. The film sacrifices some factual detail for the sake of dramatic effect," notes the National Center for Jewish Film.