Gifted City

Short films don't come much more significant or disturbing than this measured reportage on the daily life and transports of Theresienstadt, the transit camp 'gifted' by Hitler to the Jews. Scenes of football games, concerts, relaxed dormitory shots and general community business are counterpointed with a calmly delivered listing of the reference codes for trains to the camps, the number of passengers and the numbers who survived - in one case just two out of thousands - making the film both a terrible reminder of the lives extinguished and a chilling memento of Nazi propaganda. Alongside readings of 'letters' sent home to relatives to reassure them about camp conditions, the 'normality' the Nazis faked as a show window to the world ironically reveals more about the culture they were hellbent on destroying than the often seen concentration camp atrocity footage ever could.