Common Sense Media Review
By Kat Halstead
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Violent, disturbing images in harrowing Holocaust docu.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Night and Fog
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In NIGHT AND FOG, documentary footage portrays the horrors of Nazi German concentration camps during World War II. Concentrating mostly on Auschwitz and Majdanek, disturbing images show officers and imprisoned men, women, and children during the war, as well as the abandoned camps 10 years on, as narrator Michel Bouquet traces some of the history that led to the dehumanization and mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust.
Is It Any Good?
Made a decade after the end of WWII, this short but impactful documentary was one of the first to portray the horrors of Nazi concentration camps on-screen. The idyllic countryside of the opening is in stark contrast with the images that come later in Night and Fog. Haunting footage of imprisoned Jews during the war, archive material of figures like Hitler and Himmler, and the eerie silence of the abandoned camps 10 years on will stay firmly in viewers' minds. The documentary by no means covers the entire history of the camps or the Holocaust, and there's plenty that's left out in its 32-minute runtime, but there's no doubting it's an important film that still serves as a strong reminder today.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how the concentration camps were portrayed in Night and Fog. Did you know much about what happened inside the camps before watching? Did you learn anything new? How to talk with kids about violence, crime, war, and tragedy.
The movie mixes footage from World War II with images of the camps after they were abandoned post-war. What effect did that have?
How did the documentary compare to other films that portray events during the Holocaust—either drama or documentary? Why is it important to make films like these?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : July 19, 2016
- Cast : Michel Bouquet , Reinhard Heydrich , Heinrich Himmler
- Director : Alain Resnais
- Studio : The Criterion Collection
- Genre : Documentary
- Topics : Activism ( Civic engagement , Racial justice ) , Arts , History ( War: Other , War: WWII ) , Faith ( Judaism )
- Run time : 32 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : September 7, 2025
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