Kansas City Union Station announced that it will present the documentary film “Auschwitz Untold in Color” to accompany its popular Auschwitz. Not Long Ago. Not Far Away. exhibition.
Hundreds of documentaries have made about the Holocaust, many of them focusing on the horrors of Auschwitz. In this context and as the title suggests, “Auschwitz Untold” (narrated by Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley) succeeds at providing new insights into one of the greatest crimes in human history and telling the story in a new way.
‘Auschwitz Untold’ was commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. One of the distinguishing features of this feature film is colorization. From the outset, the idea of colorization of Holocaust-related archives was highly controversial, and opinions among Holocaust scholars was deeply divided (several were consulted beforehand, including the director of the Auschwitz Museum).
The consensus was that colorization would make events closer to what actually happened and introduced a degree of humanity to the archive that was losing its power to convey the realities of Nazi horrors. The colorization process succeeds as an innovative dimension in Holocaust education for a new generation of young viewers today who otherwise might find it hard to connect to black and white archive.
“Through historic footage, survivor testimonials, personal artifacts and detailed documents, there is absolutely no reason the tragic realities of the Holocaust should ever be forgotten nor deemed long ago and far away,” said George Guastello, Union Station president and CEO. “In fact, the voices of millions of victims and survivors are clear and compelling through documentaries and exhibitions like those now available at Union Station. Further, this powerful movie adds to our substantial community outreach that already includes an extensive speaker series and other special programming.”
Public tickets to “Auschwitz Untold in Color” are available at www.unionstation.org. For organized school field trips, contact Jordan Clark at (816) 460-2283 or jclark@unionstation.org.
–Metro Voice
