These are the Holocaust films we have sat with on the show, from a prisoner in the Auschwitz Sonderkommando to a Swedish civil servant who fought with paperwork. No jokes on this page. We do keep asking what we always ask: whose story is this, who gets to act, and what did the film leave out?
The answers are not always comfortable. Schindler’s List is close to perfect and still hands the rescue to one German man. The Pianist is a great film by a director many people won’t support, so Sam’s advice is to read Szpilman’s memoir. And Son of Saul, which keeps the horror at the edge of the frame, is the one Maartje would pick if she could only watch one.
A note before you start: these episodes deal with genocide, mass murder and persecution, and some of them are hard to listen to. Each card links to the full episode.
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Inside the Ghettos and Camps
2015 · Hungarian Holocaust Drama
About 36 hours in the life of Saul Ausländer, a fictional member of the Auschwitz Sonderkommando, who tries to bury a boy he believes is his son while the prisoners plan a revolt. Sam brings in the real history: the Scrolls of Auschwitz, the secret photographs and the women who smuggled the gunpowder for the uprising of 7 October 1944.
Our angle: “It’s not Hollywood. It doesn’t look pretty.” You hear more than you see, and we think keeping the horror at the edge of the frame is the honest choice.
What we thought: Maartje gives it 8 and Sam 9.5 out of ten, one of the highest scores Sam has ever given. Maartje: “If I only had to watch one movie about the Holocaust, it would probably be this one.”
2002 · Biographical War Drama
Władysław Szpilman survives the Warsaw ghetto, the deportations and both uprisings with almost no control over his own fate. Roman Polanski’s film is built on Szpilman’s 1946 memoir, which Sam read in one sitting and thinks everyone should read.
Our angle: How do you deal with Polanski? Sam’s answer: if you won’t support his work, that is valid, so read the memoir. That is where the film’s power comes from anyway.
What we thought: Maartje gives it 9 and Sam 8 out of ten. Sam: “He was at the mercy of other people’s monstrousness, but also often at the mercy of other people’s kindness.”
1993 · Historical Drama
Spielberg’s film, from Thomas Keneally’s novel, follows Oskar Schindler from the Kraków ghetto to his factory at Brünnlitz. Sam has read the book and takes us through the Jewish council and police, Amon Göth, who really drew up the list, and the survivor testimony archive Spielberg founded after the film.
Our angle: Spielberg’s best film, Maartje says, and we still name the white-saviour problem: Jewish people get little say in their own rescue, and Emilie Schindler deserves far more credit.
What we thought: Maartje gives it 9.8 and Sam 9 out of ten. Maartje holds back the last bit for the white-saviour angle and the small roles for women. Sam: “He uses the privileges at his disposal to benefit people who don’t have those privileges.”
1997 · Italian Tragicomedy
Guido turns a camp into a game to protect his young son Giosuè, translating the guards’ rules into the rules of a contest. Sam first saw it in her university Fascism on Film course; Maartje came to it fresh.
Our angle: Can a Holocaust film be funny? We say yes, if the jokes serve the story: here they make the sad parts land harder. Sam brings in Mel Brooks, who disagreed.
What we thought: Maartje gives it 8.5 and Sam 9 out of ten. Sam loves it; for Maartje it was a first watch.
Rescue and Hiding
2026 · Swedish Rescue Drama
Gösta Engzell runs the legal department of the Swedish Foreign Ministry and finds out that paperwork can save lives. Sam fills in Swedish neutrality and trade with Germany, the White Buses and Raoul Wallenberg, who turns out to be the film’s narrator.
Our angle: Sam calls it the banality of doing good: rescue as quiet desk work. We like the women too, composites of real women whose names history did not keep.
What we thought: Maartje gives it 7.5 and Sam 7 out of ten. We both enjoyed it, though the tone wobbles between drama and satire.
2013 · Hungarian Rescue Drama
Inspired by Pinchas Tibor Rosenbaum, who is said to have worn a uniform to rescue Jews in occupied Budapest. Our friend Katie, who lives in Hungary, explains the Jewish laws, the German occupation of 1944 and the yellow-star houses, and we talk about the Shoes on the Danube memorial.
Our angle: “The inspired by at the beginning is doing a lot of heavy lifting.” A rescue story most people have never heard of, in a film that tries to tell two stories at once.
What we thought: Katie gives it 7 and we give it 6.5 each out of ten. All three of us like the story and the acting more than the pacing.
2011 · Dutch Resistance Drama
The true story of Waldemar Nods, a young man from Suriname, and Rika van der Lans, who ran a guest house in Scheveningen, hid Jews there and were arrested in 1944. We both read Annejet van der Zijl’s biography: Maartje in Dutch, Sam in English as The Boy Between Worlds.
Our angle: If you thought the Netherlands was a model of progress in the 1940s, it wasn’t. We talk about Suriname’s colonial history and colourism, which the book handles far better than the film.
What we thought: The book wins easily: about 9.5 and 9 out of ten, against about 6.5 and 6 for the film, which we find flat. Read the book first.
2023 · Drama Series · Part One
The Frank family went into hiding on 6 July 1942, after Margot’s call-up, and that morning Miep Gies took Margot there by bicycle in heavy rain, with no star on her coat. Miep and her husband Jan, a social worker in the resistance, kept the people in hiding going: Jan found ration coupons and brought them books. Miep later told her side in Anne Frank Remembered (1987), written with Alison Leslie Gold.
Our angle: The best-known Holocaust story, told from the side of the people who hid the Franks, with Tess standing for everyone who chose to look away.
What we thought: No score yet: we rate the series at the end of Part Three. Maartje liked it even more on a second watch, even while marking where it departs from Miep’s book; Sam finds it well paced.
2023 · Drama Series · Part Two
From August 1942 to the end of 1943, the Hollandsche Schouwburg in Amsterdam was the assembly point for Jewish deportations. Across the road, the childcare centre on the Plantage Middenlaan, run by Henriette Pimentel, worked with the theatre’s manager Walter Suskind to get children out; estimates of how many were saved run from 400 to 1,100.
Our angle: We know how the Franks’ story ends, and the series still makes us hope it ends differently. The rescue of children happened right under the Nazis’ noses.
What we thought: No score yet: we rate the series at the end of Part Three. Unlike Schindler’s List, Sam says, it is not even a teeny tiny bit white saviory, because the hidden families keep their agency; Maartje wants to talk to the writers about the tension.
Berlin Under the Deportations
1999 · German Wartime Love Story
Lilly Wust, the wife of a Nazi officer, falls for Felice Schragenheim, a Jewish woman living under a false name in Berlin. Sam has read Erica Fischer’s book, built on the women’s own letters and diary entries, and adds the Factory Action, the Mother’s Cross and what became of Lilly after the war.
Our angle: Hiding in plain sight is the resistance. Sam calls out Lilly’s “white lady obliviousness”, and we picked the film up on Samuel Clowes Huneke’s tip in Ep 120.
What we thought: Maartje gives it 6.5 and Sam 7 out of ten. Maartje says the score is her mood that day, not the film; Sam is glad to finally see a lesbian WWII story.
Keep Listening
These episodes are not mainly about the Holocaust, but they belong next to this list:
- Ep 53: Black Book (Zwartboek): Rachel Stein, a Jewish singer in the Dutch resistance, and an ending we read as victims becoming perpetrators
- Ep 3: Band of Brothers (Part 3): the liberation of Kaufering IV, seen through Webster, who just wanted to survive and bear witness
- Ep 23: Generation War (Part Two): our guest Anna on how German schools teach the war, and Sam on ordinary people: “You don’t have to be a frothing anti-Semite to have supported the infrastructure of the Holocaust.”
- Ep 120: Samuel Clowes Huneke interview: queer women in Nazi Germany, and the conversation that sent us to Aimée & Jaguar
Sonny Boy and Aimée & Jaguar also appear on our guides to Women in WW2 and The Netherlands in WW2.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Holocaust Films
What are the best films and series about the Holocaust?
If you only watch one, Maartje would pick Son of Saul, and Sam gave it one of her highest scores ever. Schindler’s List and The Pianist are close behind. For a rescue story most people have never heard of, try The Swedish Connection or Walking with the Enemy.
Are Holocaust films accurate?
It varies, and we say where each film departs from the history. Son of Saul follows a fictional prisoner, but the Sonderkommando revolt of 7 October 1944 it builds towards really happened. The Swedish Connection ends by crediting the diplomat Gösta Engzell with 100,000 rescues, while historians credit him and his staff with 30,000 to 40,000.
Is Schindler's List a true story?
Largely, yes. Oskar Schindler was a real industrialist, and he and his wife Emilie were named Righteous Among the Nations in 1993. About 1,200 Jews were saved. The film is based on Thomas Keneally’s novel Schindler’s Ark, which won the 1982 Booker Prize. We still think Jewish people get too little say in their own rescue on screen.
Should I watch The Pianist, given Roman Polanski directed it?
That is your call, and Sam says choosing not to support his work is valid. If you skip the film, read Władysław Szpilman’s memoir The Pianist instead: most of the film’s power comes from it.
