Page 91 - All About History - Issue 52-17

Reviews

DESTINATION UNKNOWN

Twelve Holocaust survivors recount their harrowing stories on camera

Certificate TBC Director Claire Ferguson Cast Mietek Pemper, Ed Mosberg, Regina Lewis, Victor Lewis Released 16 June

laude Lanzmann’s Shoah opportunity somewhat and the
(1985) stands like a monolith structure is clumsy.
above all other Holocaust Survivors living in the aftermath
documentaries. The French of profound tragedy, their collective
Cdirector’s epic, which clocks and individual grief is what Ferguson
in at nearly 10 hours, is arguably should have exclusively focused
the greatest film ever made about on. The doc does touch upon these
the ultimate 20th century atrocity. themes, especially toward the end,
It also had a central thesis wrought but it could have done much more
from a sense of existentialist and so. “The pain is wherever I am. I feel
historical investigation, finding much the pain every single day,” as one
in common with Stephen Dedalus’s interviewee starkly puts it.
famous line in James Joyce’s Ulysses An elderly woman proudly showing
(1922): “History is a nightmare from off family photographs on her living
which I am trying to awake.” room wall, pointing out portraits of
Presenting the recollections of 12 long deceased relatives (all killed in
survivors, Destination Unknown (2016) gas chambers by the Nazis), talking
is a swift 78 minutes and mixes with such clarity and love, as if she
talking head interviews with grim saw them just yesterday, is without
footage sourced from global archives. a doubt Destination Unknown’s most
As fascinating and often heart- emotionally devastating scene. It is
wrenching as it is, Claire Ferguson’s unbearably sad in ways most of us
documentary feels like a missed will never understand.

BLOOD AND

BANDAGES

Going to battle without a gun

Author William Earl and Liz Coward Publisher Sabrestorm Publishing
Price £19.99 Released Out now

ith the youngest of the last It took as much mental fortitude and courage
generation of World War II veterans to stretcher men off the battlefield as it did to
approaching a full century, tales from face the enemy down the length of a rifle, and
the battlefields in France, Italy and William experienced the same grim reality
WAfrica are a dying breed. Even rarer as any soldier. Witness to horrific injuries,
are the stories of the non-combatants: former friends dying and subject to daily fear for his
nursing orderly William Earl is 102 now, was own life, William’s four years with the RAMC
26 when he was called into service for the have left mental scars. He tells his story, a
Royal Army Medical Corps, responsible for deeply personal account of the war and his
rescuing and patching up Allied soldiers on movements following the punishing retreat
the front line. They were medical, not military of the German forces through North Africa
men and as such, weren’t armed. They wore and Italy, as historian Liz Coward weaves a
Red Cross brassards on their arms and the broader commentary of the progress of the
Axis forces amassing against the infantry war throughout. It’s an effective dynamic, a
they took care of were supposed to honour few paragraphs of William’s experience of the
the Geneva convention and avoid targeting frontline here, then an overview from Liz that
the RAMC. They usually did, but Red Crosses reveals how lucky he was to make it through
aren’t a physical shield against a stray bullet or the Allied Italy campaign. Illustrated with some
shell, and the ambulance men were frequently of William’s photos, Blood And Bandages is easy
caught in the crossfire and killed during battles. to read and a unique perspective of WWII.
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