Produced in 1955, Alain Resnais’s historic short was one of the first documentary films to reflect on the experience and meaning of the Holocaust. A decade after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, Resnais trains his lens on the deserted grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek, filming them in vibrant color. With the passing of time, the structures have been abandoned and the grass has returned, yet the artifacts of unspeakable crimes—train tracks, barracks, gas chambers—remain, man-made scars from horrific acts of war. Resnais carefully weaves these observations with archival footage and photographs, unflinching black-and-white images made during and just after the war. Moving between past and present, Resnais narrates this synthesis with provocative questions around memory, the lasting imprint of violence, and the perils of turning a blind eye.  ST