The Ascending Path
★ 10 · 1950 · 81m · Documentary
The economic and cultural improvements of the Soviet Occupied Sector are documented with scenes from the years 1945 to 1950. The film deals with the land reform, the founding of the Socialist Unity Party, the expropriation of war criminals, the founding of the GDR and the first Five Year Plan in July 1950. Special attention is dedicated to the setup of the steel industry. All this is shown in contrast to the new Federal Republic of Germany, where unemployment, slums and the West Berlin airlift prevail. The Cold War of those years is reflected in the film as well as a part of the development of post-war Germany.
More Like This

The Nuremberg Trials
2006 · ★ 8
One journalist described it as a chance "to see justice catch up with evil." On November 20, 1945, the twenty-two surviving representatives of the Nazi elite stood before an international military tribunal at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany; they were charged with the systematic murder of millions of people. The ensuing trial pitted U.S. chief prosecutor and Supreme Court judge Robert Jackson against Hermann Göring, the former head of the Nazi air force, whom Adolf Hitler had once named to be his successor. Jackson hoped that the trial would make a statement that crimes against humanity would never again go unpunished. Proving the guilt of the defendants, however, was more difficult than Jackson anticipated. This American Experience production draws upon rare archival material and eyewitness accounts to recreate the dramatic tribunal that defines trial procedure for state criminals to this day.
More info →Eindelijk Vrij! De Bevrijding van Maastricht Gefilmd
2019
Documentary about the liberation of Maastricht.
More info →
To Regain by Work
1946
The silent film To Regain by Work is a remarkable filmed colour portrait of the Netherlands just after World War II. Immediately after the liberation of Deventer in April 1945, Alex Roosdorp and his wife Marie Roosdorp-van den Berg began filming the devastation around them: wrecked towns, destroyed infrastructure and flooded landscapes. Roosdorp and his wife travelled hundreds of kilometres by bike to record everything. They filmed extensively in the region around Deventer, but the film also includes footage of Arnhem, Scheveningen, Walcheren and the Wieringermeer polder. The couple had an eye for the small ways in which everyday life continued in the liberated Netherlands.
More info →
Vltava po válce
1949 · ★ 10
A 4-year-old girl cries, lost in the city. A Soviet soldier on a ferry takes her in and takes her to her home village.
More info →Moje město
1950
Documentary film about the construction of the city of Brno, damaged by air raids during the war.
More info →Kraj vysočiny
1950
Documentary about the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands and its post-war construction.
More info →
The Paper Brigade
2018 · ★ 6
Lithuania, 1941, during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of texts on Jewish culture, stolen by the Germans, are gathered in Vilnius to be classified, either to be stored or to be destroyed. A group of Jewish scholars and writers, commissioned by the invaders to carry out the sorting operations, but reluctant to collaborate and determined to save their legacy, hide many books in the ghetto where they are confined. This is the epic story of the Paper Brigade.
More info →
Vom Nazi zum englischen Fußballidol - Torwartlegende Bert Trautmann
2021 · ★ 6
How could a German Wehrmacht soldier become a celebrated soccer idol of the Britons in the post-war period? The documentary by Radio Bremen shows the moving life story of the soccer star of the 1950s in a torn Europe and how an enemy became a friend. With his legendary appearance in the English Cup Final 1956, in which he played until the end despite a broken neck, Bert Trautmann set up a memorial for himself in the history of sport. Already in the same year, he is chosen as England’s footballer of the year, and by his club Manchester City even as best player of all times. Bernhard “Bert” Trautmann is one of the most popular and best-known soccer players in England.
More info →
Visions in the Dark: The Life of Pinky Thompson
2017
Pinky Thompson grew up in Hawaii during a time when one was punished for being Native Hawaiian. After almost losing his life in the battlefields of Normandy in World War II, Pinky brought his fierce energy to the arena of social service whre he championed a health care system, created invaluable educational programs and strengthened the pride of Native Hawaiians. Pinky fostered new methods of policy collaboration and community testimony. He elevated a new generation of Hawaiian leaders to represent the vibrant cultural identity and value system of the Hawaiian people.
More info →