The 81st Blow (Hebrew: המכה ה-81 and also known as The Eighty-First Blow) is a 1974 Israeli documentary film directed by Haim Gouri, Jacques Ehrlich, and David Bergman.
The film chronicles Adolf Hitler and the Nazis' rise to power, the persecution and destruction of Jews during the Holocaust, and the lasting effects on the survivors.
It uses archival footage to depict these events, with survivor testimonies heard in the soundtrack but their faces not shown on screen.
The title "The 81st Blow" comes from the testimony of Michael (Miki) Goldman, a Holocaust survivor and former police officer who served as an assistant to Gideon Hausner, Israel's Attorney General and the prosecutor in the Eichmann trial.
During the trial, Dr. Buzminski, a dentist from the Pszemysl ghetto, testified about a Jewish boy who received 80 lashes from a Nazi officer. It was later revealed that this boy was Goldman himself. Goldman later referred to the "81st blow" as the reaction of people after the war, who couldn't believe his story or turned away from Holocaust survivors.
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1975, making it a significant contribution to Holocaust cinema.
The 81st Blow is the first film in the Israeli Holocaust Trilogy by Bergman, Ehrlich and Gouri. It was followed by The Last Sea (1984) and Flames in the Ashes (1985).
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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