Great Films About the Holocaust That Are Not Schindler's List

When you think of Holocaust films, you probably think Schindler's List. Steven Spielberg's 1993 film about Czech businessman Oscar Schindler's efforts to save eleven hundred Jewish people from being sent to Auschwitz, has become the movie about the Holocaust. For most people, it is probably the only film about the Holocaust they can mention by name. If there is another that people have heard of it is probably The Pianist, the story based on Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoirs, which nabbed Academy Awards for actor, director, and screenplay in 2003. There are some truly great films about the Holocaust available besides Schindler's List and The Pianist. Here are three of the best that I have seen.

The Grey Zone is based on the true story of the only group of Jews chosen to work the gas chambers at Auschwitz to ever lead a mutiny against their Nazi oppressors. The film delves into the experience of those Jewish people who were chosen to be a part of the system to exterminate Jews in Poland and Germany. It depicts the tasks they were willing to perform in return for their own lives, and the different kind of suffering they faced as a result. The dark and gritty story focuses on events leading up to the uprising, which destroyed two Nazi gas chambers, before the revolt was finally stopped.

The German film Aimee & Jaguar is also based on a true story. Almost all films about the Holocaust made thus far have been loosely based on a real person. This one, adapted from the memoirs of Lilly Wust, a German mother of four, focuses on her relationship with Felice Schragenheim, a Jewish woman known by the nickname of Jaguar. With the backdrop of the Holocaust, the film follows Lilly and Felice's lives as they meet, become lovers, and eventually are forced to separate. The effort of Felice's Jewish friends to integrate into German society, and their struggle to stay hidden and survive, is a large side story.

Most people have probably heard of Sophie's Choice, but a lot of them probably don't realize that the primary focus of Sophie's Choice is the Holocaust, even though the film is set in Brooklyn in the year 1947. Polish refugee Sophie is haunted by her experiences during World War II. Her lover Nathan, a Jewish American, is obsessed with the events of the Holocaust. Stingo, their new neighbor, is narrator to Sophie and Nathan's actions. The sequences that depict the Holocaust are actually flashbacks of Sophie's memories, and the title says it all. Meryl Streep begged the director to give her this role and went on to win the best actress Academy Award.

If movies about the Holocaust were easy to watch, then they would not be effectively getting their point across. These films all have their very dark moments, but they all have moments of hope too. With any one of them, you can relive one of the darkest times on earth, so if you are in the mood for a good cry, any of the above films should fit the bill.