Claude Lanzmann was born in Paris to a Jewish family that immigrated to France from Eastern Europe. He attended the Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand. His family went into hiding during World War II. He joined the French resistance at the age of 18 and fought in the Auvergne. Lanzmann opposed the French war in Algeria and signed a 1960 antiwar petition. From 1952 to 1959 he lived with Simone de Beauvoir. In 1963 he married French actress Judith Magre. Later, he married Angelika Schrobsdorff, a German-Jewish writer, and then Dominique Petithory in 1995. He is the father of Angélique Lanzmann, born in 1950, and Félix Lanzmann (1993-2017). Lanzmann's most renowned work, Shoah, is widely regarded as the seminal film on the subject of the Holocaust. He began interviewing survivors, historians, witnesses, and perpetrators in 1973 and finished editing the film in 1985. In 2009, Lanzmann published his memoirs under the title"Le lièvre de Patagoni" (The Patagonian Hare). He was chief editor of the journal"Les Temps Modernes" which was founded by Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, until his death on July 5, 2018. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/claude-lanzmann-changed-the-history-of-filmmaking-with-shoah
Claude Lanzmann spent twelve years locating survivors, perpetrators, and eyewitnesses for his nine and a half hour film Shoah released in 1985. Without archival footage, Shoah weaves together extraordinary testimonies to render the step-by-step machinery of the destruction of European Jewry. Critics have called it"a masterpiec" and a"monument against forgetting" The Claude Lanzmann SHOAH Collection consists of roughly 185 hours of interview outtakes and 35 hours of location filming.
The location filming of Lodz and Czestokova could relate to the interviews with Paula Biren RG-60.5001 or Abraham Bomba RG-60.5011.
Location filming in the Polish cities of Łódź and Częstochowa, including train stations, the ghetto, and landscape. FILM ID 4643 -- White 38 Łódź et Paysage Chutes Bte.38 (04:36) Travelling shots on a cloudy day, a snowy, slushy field rushing by, power lines overhead. (0.53) A man driving a cart pulled by horses in a town. Camera zooms out to reveal a church on the right side of the cart. (1.18) A barn-style house, faded brick sides and a thatched roof. Street in Lodz, a cyclist, and the church. A field, trees next to the church. Man driving a cart full of coal, saying something to the camera person, he looks back several times as he continues down the street. (2.49) A map and a clapperboard with “Pologne 2” on the dashboard of the crew's car. (2.53) Cut to another field. (3.25) A road, snow is piled up on either side of the road. They drive into a town. (4.36) Two tombstones amidst overgrown grass and weeds. Long building in BG. (4.40) Ruins of a building surrounded by trees, snow, and overgrown vegetation. FILM ID 4644 -- White 86 Łódź: Gare et ville et Czestokova Bte.67 (29:08) Clapper board. Arrival/departure board for Łódź Kaliska, one of two main railway stations in the Polish city of Łódź. People converse and look at the schedule. Stairs. (1.07) Train sign “Łódź Kaliska” - only the “Łódź” part of the sign is illuminated, while “Kaliska” is in the dark and partially covered by a pillar. A street light shines brightly, and in the distance the lights of a train are visible. (2.35) Trains pass in different directions, with one of them stopping at the station. A man gets off the train, crew says"cu" (5.24) Take 17. A wet road in a city on a cloudy day, pan to railway track on right with a tram. Cars driving on either side of the railway. Camera follows a tram. People walk about. (6.19) Another cloudy day, with a red car driving down the road in front of a grand building. “Take 19, Poznański's Palace”. (7.19) Sound cuts out, and the camera slowly pans to the left, showing another side of the palace and the road. (7.40) Soundman says: “Street sounds atmosphere at the Posinski factory.” (7.49) A tall, ornate, wrought iron gate with flags on either side. The side of a long, five-story brick building. There are fire escapes along the side of the building, and a fence surrounding it, with Polish flags all along the top. (10.30) A building with a small store front. A tram comes in from the left, and the camera follows it. A statue in the distance as well as an ornate building. (11.13) An apartment complex courtyard, with identical, three-story apartment buildings on three sides. Some of the apartments have balconies. (11.42) Take 22. A wide alley. Building that is smaller and older looking. (13.18) CU, one of the windows of a building, where a person in a pink shirt has pulled back the lace curtain and is looking out the window. (13.52) A child is walking down the sidewalk, bundled up in winter clothes. The scene repeats once more. (14.10) Red flag hangs above. Camera reveals a dark corridor that opens to a courtyard of the ghetto. The cameraperson continues through the open space to another dark hallway, which leads to an old building. (15.21) “Pionier”building. A woman in a red coat and a red stroller walks by. Another person walks up to the building, stopping to look at the sign, and then peers into the windows on the doors. (16.50) A red brick building, zoomed in on a balcony that has green windows. (18.38) A lower angle of the same balcony. The camera pans to the left, showing a street and then a large, ornate church. (19.37) Small hanging sign reads “Łódź Kaliska.” Train platform and a building, then the stairway from earlier. People are walking about. (21.33) Main train station building, “Łódź Kaliska” and a clock. (21.54) The camera zooms back out. (23.16) The camera moves to the left, stopping on an entryway and then zooms in as people walk in and out. “wyjście na perony-1,2,3” [exit to the platforms] is on a sign above the entryway. (24.22) Filmed from the perspective of a passenger in a car, traveling down a road in a city. (26.14) A green sign is passed on the right, stating the city Opole and Katowice are to the left, and Wielun and Warszawa are to the right. (26.33) Walking-only zone, in the distance is a large statue, in Czestochowa. (26.49) Czen 2. A sidewalk with only a few people walking. People cross the street in front of the zone. (27.52) Building with sign “Dworzec Częstochowa-Stradom” [Częstochowa Stradom Station] on the front. (28.15) A green field with the sun setting on water in the BG. (28.42) A fenced in yard and a structure, still at sunset. Chickens are in the yard. FILM ID 4645 -- Doubles Łódź Ghetto / Dres 12.13.16.17 (10:34) A street profile in wintertime. Snow on the ground. (00:54) Clapperboard: “Lodz Ghetto.” A walkway leading up to a house. The front porch is painted green. (1.08) A city street. A few people are walking on the sidewalk. (1.22) Two covered walkways that share a courtyard between buildings. A woman and a child are walking away, the child poking at the snow with a stick. A woman look for something in her purse. (1.49) The front of a small house with door and windows painted green. A man walks through. Apartment building. (2.33) A woman walks by with two dogs. Behind her are several buildings. (2.46) The balconies of an apartment building. (3.04) Someone carries bags down the street away from the camera. Another person walks by. (3.19) A long, wooden, two-story building and a more modern building behind. (3.34) Clapperboard: “Pologne Hiver Bobine.” (4.03) Cars driving on the street. Tram tracks cut through the middle of the street. People on the sidewalk. (4.17) Tram tracks on the road. An older wooden building. (5.07) People walk by on the sidewalk. A red building with decorative designs. (5.46) A bucket loader dump truck drives by people waiting at a tram stop. Bus. The tram arrives. (6.26) An empty street. People enter the frame, walking by. Tram. (7.37) Graves amidst overgrown grass. Rows and rows of graves in the cemetery. (8.23) A man walks towards and past the camera. Behind them is a closed gate, with a tall brick archway. (8.49) Graves. (9.39) Many people are walking about in an open area of the city. Market.
Łódź