MrGKB ...in communicating the monstrosity of Nazi racism and mass murder, "Kz" (the German abbreviation for concentration camp) is a somewhat meandering little documentary that manages to hook itself into the viewer's conscience with deceptive ease. For those interested in the subject (and I realize that few really are), "Kz" is more than worth a watch.In brief, director Rex "Kids Behind Bars" Bloomstein gives us a quietly disturbing look at the picturesque Austrian village of Mauthausen (site of the last Nazi concentration camp to be liberated in the final days of the European Theater of WWII), along with a discomfiting peek into the minds of several tour guides at the location and a number of elderly Austrians who were complicit witnesses to the camp's horrors. What is most interesting (at least to this viewer/writer) is that Bloomstein accomplishes the job so effectively without using any archival footage or any manipulative soundtrack. Everything he records utilizes simple, natural sound, and his journalistic efforts are strictly rooted in the here-and-now. Strangely, it works, and works well.Moments I remember, after watching the film several days ago: the inexpressible pain in one tour guide's voice as he recounts the cruelties that took place in a now-empty pasture. A schoolgirl's sudden distress as she is awakened to the sheer brutality of what happened before she was even born. The look on an old woman's face as she is confronted with the realities of the gas chamber in which she stands. A young man, caught unaware as he fights back tears."Kz" is and is not a "Holocaust film." It is in the sense that Mauthausen was part and parcel of Hitler's "Final Solution;" Jews were being shuttled into the camp (and liquidated) right up to the last days before the German surrender. It isn't in the sense that it was only in those last horrendous weeks that Mauthausen saw many Jewish inmates at all; it was primarily a hard labor camp for captured Poles, Russians, and other non-Jewish prisoners. Still, the effect was the same regardless of who the prisoners were: they suffered, they died, and a very, very few survived. The people who lived in the town and the surrounding countryside did their very best to ignore (or discount) the hell that had been created in their midst. And, finally, the people who remain, and those who came later, unknowingly or otherwise, have been undeniably affected by the legacy of grief that Nazi savagery has left to them. To all of us, for that matter.Do not expect "entertainment" while watching "Kz." Do not expect expiation, nor forgiveness, nor even much in the way of "understanding." Expect only a cold, unsympathetic look at how the worst impulses of humanity affect us all, generation after generation after generation, and be glad that you are as far removed from such horrors as you are. Then you may go re-watch "Schindler's List" and be "entertained," if you must.

zippyflynn2 Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.For those of you who have thoroughly educated yourselves about history, there is not really much new here. You already know about atrocities, including the concentration camps like the one depicted here in Mauthausen, Austria, which were nothing more than slaughterhouses for humans. But this really is not a documentary about a horrible period, place and people of the past that we can neatly define and conveniently cubby-hole as a historical event long ago while we pat ourselves on the back because we're so relieved we've advanced beyond such barbaric monstrosities. This is a documentary about a human condition that is still with us and being practiced this very moment as you read this, perhaps much closer to you than you'd care to admit.The people that were murdered in Mauthausen are long gone and for the most part long forgotten, other than a reference to some categories we file them under "Russians" "Poles" "Jews" "children". As we think of a vague, generic picture of them (not too much in detail or else it becomes too painfully real and horrifying) we are mostly amazed how man's inhumanity to man could be so systematically orchestrated in such a cold blooded massive effort. This documentary is about the tourists and tour guides of Mauthausen and therefore, if you have the courage, ourselves. Starting with the chattering lively young kids who are shocked solemn the moment their young tour guide starts off immediately by explaining in careful detail life, torture and murder in the camp. The guide does not soften the blow of what happened or use sterile euphemisms, instead he leaves all the life, death, suffering and reality in as he explicitly details the murder and torture that took place. No one was disposed of in Mauthausen nor did unspeakable acts take place, instead they were murdered and the acts are openly detailed. The guides speaks vividly, frankly about their agony and deaths, as he walks the tourists through the same places these acts took place, discussing clearly what happened as they are crammed together in the gas chamber or facing the wailing wall or elbow to elbow in the barracks just like the prisoners who once lived their last moments as they were tortured and murdered there. This film shows a diverse selection of tourists from young international students to shocked elderly Germans and Austrians who never saw or fully admitted what was committed by their relatives, husbands, perhaps even themselves. Surprisingly the filmed responses by the tourists are extremely on target, particularly the young students many of whom say mankind is failing to learn from history because these same atrocities, perhaps in slightly different moderations and form, are going on today, right now. But then again, their responses are not so surprising. These people did not come here to go on a fun ride or eat a double cheeseburger, they came, for the most part, to look at an ugly piece of history and perhaps learn something about the human condition, maybe even themselves. Mostly they're the better part of the general public. The lesser part of the public that commit such acts, or allow them to happen or vicariously enjoy it when they do, usually will never go to such a place. But as one of the guides pointed out at one of the memorial plaques, a picture had been removed and someone has etched in a swastika in the marble. Either a prank in extremely bad taste or, probably more accurately, proof that genocide, war and mass murder are not likely to vanish any time soon.Perhaps if we showed this film in every school everywhere it would be a start to reducing the frequency and degree of man's barbarism. With such a monumental effort being put into such horrific acts just think of what could be accomplished if that energy and force could be channeled into positive, life affirming deeds. This is a real must see movie. Shelve the blond bimbo parade or boyish shoot em up or whatever "must see" crap and watch this for a change. Change is completely possible here and now all you need is to make some positive moves toward change. Education is the necessary start, we must know who, where and what we are in order to do something about it.This film was riveting from the beginning. There are very few films I watch in a single sitting as most are either not exceptional or real enough to be truly interesting. I do however wish the film had been edited better, it did lack a seamless flow that such an exceptional effort on such an important subject deserves. Nevertheless there are images I know will stick with me for quite some time. Particularly the young tour guide who so effectively, chillingly led his tour group through the camp and later admitted his grandfather had been an SS officer. As well, the head tour guide, who by his own admission was burned out and alcoholic, being eaten away by the pressure of working at such a place with so many ghosts and terrible karma. He reminded me of a policeman I knew who was all but destroyed by his job yet was inexplicably drawn to it, much like a moth to flame. An exceptionally chilling moment is when he points out that despite the vast size of the camp there are no animals or birds living there, even today. It is as though they can sense it is a place of death, even now. Perhaps these silly little creatures we like to pretend we're so vastly superior to really have a little more sense, and humanity, than we do at times.

slake09 Most of the message in Kz comes between the lines; in the expressions on people's faces, in their postures while they are touring the concentration camp. That's as it should be.This documentary on the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria is excellent for it's view not only of what it was, but how people feel about it now. Everyone from those who would forget the past to those who feel a national or personal guilt is interviewed. Much of the footage is from tours of the complex, with a focus on the guides and the tourists rather than the buildings. That is a unique and interesting viewpoint which provides more information than a simple history lesson.Two of the guides, in particular, are excellent in their commitment. You can see they take the job seriously and really want to get the horror of the whole thing across to the tourists; they do that, and well.This is a documentary that does something new with the whole Holocaust subject; not just a horrified look into the past, but a look at how it's being seen now, and how it might be seen in the future. Watch it.

SONNYK_USA If you like documentaries that can knock you for a loop, then get your tickets ASAP for this one when it comes to your town on the Human Rights Watch Festival caravan. By forgoing archive footage and musical underscoring, this film offers instead a great mix of grim reality along with the completely absurd.The docu opens with a montage of scenes depicting the now picturesque village of Mauthausen, Austria. Then the camera crew joins up with a group of madly chattering high school students who are about to take a tour of the Memorial but have no idea what they are about to witness. The guides that are employed at the Mauthausen Museum are extremely dedicated and do a great job of intensifying people's limited understanding of what really went on inside the camps. The graphic descriptions nearly cause one of the students to faint.Luckily for viewers of this film, the incredibly, emotional tour is broken up into three segments. One can only imagine the magnitude of the experience for those that visit in person and are forced to try to decipher the madness that was Hitler's Final Solution. This particular camp started as a men-only forced labor camp featuring the usual suspects of any regime change: political prisoners, homosexuals, homeless people, and other "undesirables." In the final years of the war women and Jews were added to the camp as Hitler tried vainly to complete the Jewish genocide before the Allied invasion.Throughout the film there are also interviews with local Austrians who lived through and profited by the Nazi experiment, both then and now. It also showcases the absurdity of real life after the Holocaust. Several local women offer eyewitness accounts of atrocities that occurred while living among the SS officers (one woman admits marrying a handsome Nazi). Others freely admit to the prosperity that the German army brought to the very poor town (pre-WW2) and the continuing business growth (a tavern is located directly across from the main walls of the death camp) as a result of being situated near the infamous site for which their village will always be remembered.Excellent documentary, totally blew me away. The power of this film lies in the unexpected anti-semiticism that is revealed by what the tourists do and how they react to what is shown to them.