The Relief of Belsen (2007) Reviews

• We can save people's lives, by remembering them that they are human

  OJT2008-12-17

  The true filmed history of the liberation of the German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen in 1945, dramatized with good acting. We follow the last 23 days of the World War II, and the struggle to keep people alive from the horrid of the German empire. Even after the liberation of the camp containing tens of thousands of prisoners in the two twin camps, the people are dying from famine and typhus, and shrunken inner organs after years in starvation. Gripping and compelling, but it takes time before the story really takes a hold on you. It might be the lack of budget, making this some kind of a part time documentary. The use of hand held cameras adds to the reality, though it's obvious that the film crew has tried to make the best out of their budget, they rather try to show the reaction and the faces of the nurses and soldiers, than the misery. The scenes of misery is real footage and filming made in 1945, quite good blended in with a history telling voice. This form demands us to get into this way of storytelling, and succeeds after a while. Then you start feeling the despair and disbelief of efforts not working, until it suddenly does, while looking worse than ever. Well done on an obviously too small budget. A compelling storytelling of some of the worst episodes in human history. Life and reality seems on a different planet, and is told so when a military chief gives the message while looking in at the sick-beds. "By the way. Apparently, they say the war is over!"

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• My father was part of the ambulance unit at the relief of Belsen

  John-stephenson10342014-04-19

  I recall my father telling me a long time ago about his experiences at Belsen. It had such a profound effect on him that he only ever spoke once about it and not even once to my two sisters. From his descriptions, the movie is an accurate representation of the events. The army team involved were true hero's who saved hundreds. This should be compulsory viewing for the schools curriculum as it demonstrates both the depravity of human beings to others and conversely, their humanity. Having visited the site in the 80's I recall the oppressive atmosphere felt in the region, and this was before I was aware of the dreadful events that had taken place there.

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• excellent film worth watching, and the actors were cast appropriately.:

  susanlincoln7662015-02-27

  My father was one of those British men that first entered belsen and never after the war could he find the courage to talk about it. I am so very proud of him. Along with the other soldiers who where with him. He served at the front line then was commissioned to undertake the release and care of the captives in the camp.I believe the smells of rotting corpses and the degrading conditions that the prisoners had to endure lived with my father for the rest of his life. He kept this to himself because he did not want to relive the horrors. I would like very much to thank the people involved in the making of this film, and on behalf of my father thank you.

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• Good Docudrama With A Few Flaws

  Theo Robertson2010-01-30

  One thing Nazi Germany achieved was to turn the rest of humanity in to Basil Fawlty . Even today it's impossible to even think of the word " German " without thinking of at least one vision of the second world war . One of the many unfortunate things about this is how much it confuses historical perspective . Before the war the Germans were perceived as being cultured and morally upstanding people not the goose stepping mass murderers they were thought of after the death camps were discovered . There is a common myth that the war started as a crusade against Nazism by the democracies of the world . This is erroneous since the only reason Britain and France declared war on Germany was that it had invaded Poland . There is effectively no difference between fighting Germany in 1914 than in fighting Germany in 1939 It's important to remember this when watching THE RELIEF OF BELSEN . British forces found the camp in the Spring of 1945 . There had be some vague reports of Soviet soldiers finding a terrible camp of some kind in the Polish town of Auschwitz but this wasn't widely reported and should it be since the USSR had millions upon millions of its citizens killed in bloody battles such Stalingrad and Kursk or had entire towns wiped off the face of the Earth and its inhabitants murdered . The Soviets themselves weren't above cynicism themselves as their role - or rather lack of it - in the Warsaw uprising showed . They might have been allies during the war but the end of the war was in sight and the Soviets obviously weren't going to remain allies for much longer The story is told through a bunch of medics led by Lt Col James Johnston who have stumbled upon a prison camp at Belsen . It's like no other prison camp ever seen by British forces since it contains civilians , thousands of them , all of them on the brink of death . Their ignorance and shock as to why and how the Nazis are doing this soon gives way to the frustration of how can they save the wretched survivors ? Hundreds upon hundreds still die every day . What can save these people from the worst atrocity inflicted upon humans by other humans It's well told mixing footage such as Richard Dimbleday's famous commentary along with the drama and the drama does throw a few things that shouldn't be forgotten such as instead of the SS guards being put in a POW camp they were repatriated to the Eatern front and just out a last bit of spite the Nazis sabotaged the camp generator as they left . There are a few flaws to it . One is that it isn't really emphasised enough the effects of feeding a human being starved for years . It was common during this period for liberators to feed the inmates of these camps on their field rations only to watch them die in agony . There's also a blatant lack of budget which means everything is shown in medium shot thereby saving on sets and extras . There's also the irritating director's trick of using the camera lens zoom in and out which might work in a Robert Altman Hollywood satire but not here

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• Faithful recreation of the greatest single thing Britain ever did

  jrarichards2015-11-19

  Brits finding their patriotism wavering might do well to watch this film. If winning the Second World War was our country's greatest achievement, then surely an event that best epitomised what that vast 6-year effort was all about was the stepwise British restoration of civilisation, humanity, kindness, decency and dignity (and of course - but last of all - health) in the wake of the pitiless eradication of all of those fine things by Nazi Germany in the context of the affront to humanity that was the Bergen-Belsen Camp. The moving beauty of what was achieved overall is made all the more poignant by the fact that much of the film (based very clearly on the rather numerous surviving diary accounts, papers and other forms of documentation) is devoted to people arguing, failing, feeling overwhelmed, not knowing what to do for the best, drinking a fair amount to drown their sorrows (this is certainly documented fact), wishing to be elsewhere and genuinely "muddling through" in the time-honoured British fashion that sadly coincided with ongoing deaths from malnutrition, disease and apathy of thousands of inmates even after the Germans had been sent packing. As often with close-to-the-truth recreations of historical events, some of the work looks better and more authentic than others. The near-surreal scenes of arrival at the start of the film are particularly well-done, and it is from that early point that we meet Captain Sington of the Intelligence Corps (whose portrayal by Tobias Menzies continues through to the end of the film as a kind of solid backbone seeming particularly true-to-life). Given his real-life politics, Corin Redgrave does particularly well in offering us a very plausible (and rather cuddly) Brigadier Glyn Hughes - a man in real life loved and appreciated hugely by military personnel and ex-inmates at Belsen alike. A far more complex, but very sympathetic character is Rabbi Captain Leslie Hardman, as played by Paul Hilton. Oliver Ford Davies is also a natural as Col. Lipscomb. There are slightly more doubts about starring-role Iain Glen as Col. James Johnston, but many of these arise because we are a little too much under the impression of "Ser Jorah". Those seeing the "Relief of Belsen" on its release in 2007 would have been blissfully unaware of Glen's post-2011 career! Many other performances that look on paper as if they might be less significant make a major impression in the context of the film itself (especially Frog Stone as Hadassah Bimko and Henry Pettigrew as one of the 90+ students of the London medical schools who were indeed sent out to do this kind of impossibly challenging work, and did indeed have to grow up and wise up very quickly indeed). The biggest problem for me is Lt. Col. Mervyn Gonin, as played in rather sarcastic and bolshie fashion by Nigel Lindsay. Even given the inevitable disputes arising from the overwhelming magnitude of the task and the frustration felt at lack of progress with it, it seems hard to credit that Gonin could have been so sourly critical and insubordinate. Having said that, a talk given by Gonin readily consultable online had more to say about the men under his command (rightly so) and about Hughes than about Johnston, so perhaps there really was something there. The performance jars nonetheless. Overall, though, this is an immensely moving and authentic-looking film (interspersed with real-life footage and quotes) that is all the more patriotic for its juxtaposition of human frailties and an achievement that was nevertheless one of the most truly selfless and noble of any history has to offer. A further element of that eclectic mix comes at the very end of the film when we learn of the humdrum, everyday places that the key heroes of the film eventually returned to, having done their best at a place that was the most extreme antithesis possible of anything humdrum and everyday. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, as it were...

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