Liberation is a documentary focusing on two different fronts being fought across Europe in the 1940s: World War II and the Holocaust.

When it comes to the 1940s, documentaries can either focus on the war or Hitler’s genocidal campaign to exterminate the Jews. What filmmaker Arnold Schwartzman the Moriah Films team choose to do is focus on both. The smart thing here would to be to choose on particular focus. If I’m being honest, there is just so much going on. When it comes to the war, there is an entire subgenre of films that focus on particular battles, soldiers, or generals. The same goes for the Holocaust with a focus that narrows in on survivors, victims, uprisings, etc. What they do here, again, is focus on both. Could they do a better job of doing so? Oh, certainly. Surprisingly, it was only produced on a $650,000 budget!

The film features an all-star cast of narrators–one of which has sadly defended a transphobic bigot. I must note that Whoopi Goldberg is one of the narrators. Given her involvement with the film, it’s really perplexing how she got Holocaust history so wrong on The View. Goldberg narrates the Hollywood Canteen segment, discussing how Black soldiers could fight and die for their country while also being subject to racism. Other than that, the film utilizes archival footage, radio broadcasts and period music.

The opening montage sequence starts with the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939 and Britain declaring war. The US did not enter the war until after the attack on Pearl Harbor but even then, it was too little, too late. It wasn’t enough to just bomb Nazi targets from the air after entering the war. British forces hadn’t even set foot on the continent since withdrawing from Dunkirk in 1940. Among the Allied forces, Russia was taking the brunt of it, waiting for the Allied Powers to open up another front. January 1942 would prove to be a big month. The British and US could start planning the cross-channel invasion that many were hoping for. They delayed, saying conditions were not right. Allied forces headed to North Africa, just in time for the release of Casablanca. They would eventually liberate Paris, Benelux countries, and the death camps.

Barely over a month after America’s entry into the war, Nazi leaders would meet at the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942. Their purpose: the Final Solution to the Jewish Question aka the Final Solution. If you read any history book or watch any documentary about the war or the Holocaust, you’ll learn that the Nazis were losing the battle for Europe while winning in their efforts to exterminate the Jews.

Among the things we learn early on is how Pope Pius XII prays for the swift victory of the Nazis as they go to war with Russia. Despite German Catholics being held at camps or executed for helping Jews, the pope was more worried about Soviet communism. In 1997, Pope John Paul II apologized to the Jewish community for a number of things, stopping short of a full apology for the Holocaust. A formal apology would finally arrive in 1998, over 40 years after the end of the WW2 and the Holocaust. Still though, they defended the actions of Pope Pius XII.

In another sequence, we see a group of rabbis marching in Washington, hoping to meet with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. These rabbis were recent immigrants from Europe. Due to pressure of American Jewish leaders, the rabbis were unsuccessful in meeting the president. You can see more about this in another Moriah Films documentary, Against the Tide. Peter Bergson’s efforts to rescue the Jews of Europe would change the game for organized activism in the Jewish community. But at this point in time, mainstream Jewish organizations were not on board with the likes of Peter Bergson or Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht.

JTA first reported on the British government suppressing a 1942 Joseph Goebbels speech back in 1993. They refused to alert the British public to Goebbels announcing the extermination of 48,000 Jews living in Berlin. Interestingly, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Sol Littman unearthed it by accident. I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure that this is also discussed in other documentaries about the Holocaust.

I have long said that America did not enter the war early enough. You can blame this on the isolationists wanting to keep America out of the war. While my great-grandparents came over early enough, other family members did not. I have very strong feelings about America’s immigration quotas and decision to delay entry into the war for a reason. My strong feelings aside, the film does its best to focus on both fronts at the same time. It doesn’t always succeed in this but it also depends on the person watching the film.

There is a much stronger film that could be made than what we see because Liberation packs way too much history into its 100-minute runtime.

DIRECTOR/SCREENRITER: Arnold Schwartzman
SCREENWRITERS: Martin Gilbert and Rabbi Marvin Hier
NARRATORS: Ben Kingsley, Miriam Margolyes, Patrick Stewart, Jean Boht, and Whoopi Goldberg

Liberation held its world premiere at the Deauville Film Festival in 1994. Grade: 3/5

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