Auschwitz Captured in Haunting Drone Footage (and a New Short Film by Steven Spielberg & Meryl Streep)

Drones can give us an extra­or­di­nary view of cities still in their prime — cities like Los Ange­les, New York, Lon­don, Bangkok & Mex­i­co City. They can also give us a rare glimpse of places no longer inhab­it­ed, places qui­et­ed by the unspeak­able. We’ve shown you a drone’s-eye view of Cher­nobyl. This week, it’s Auschwitz. Shot by the BBC, this sober­ing footage car­ries us over the mas­sive Nazi con­cen­tra­tion, built in South­ern Poland, where 1.1 mil­lion peo­ple died dur­ing World War II, most of them (90%) Euro­pean Jews. Many died in the gas cham­bers. Oth­ers of star­va­tion, forced labor, infec­tious dis­eases, and sadis­tic med­ical exper­i­ments.

On this web­site, you can also watch a new­ly-released short doc­u­men­tary on Auschwitz. Pro­duced by Steven Spiel­berg and nar­rat­ed by Meryl Streep, it pre­miered last week before 300 Holo­caust sur­vivors in Auschwitz, help­ing to com­mem­o­rate the 70th anniver­sary of the lib­er­a­tion of the camp.

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Relat­ed Con­tent

How Alice Herz-Som­mer, the Old­est Holo­caust Sur­vivor, Sur­vived the Hor­rif­ic Ordeal with Music

Mem­o­ry of the Camps (1985): The Holo­caust Doc­u­men­tary that Trau­ma­tized Alfred Hitch­cock, and Remained Unseen for 40 Years

The Touch­ing Moment When Nicholas Win­ton Met the Chil­dren He Saved Dur­ing the Holo­caust