Shoah
Film screening as part of the exhibition Claude Lanzmann. The Recordings
Accompanying the exhibition Claude Lanzmann: The Recordingss, the Jewish Museum Berlin is showing Lanzmann's masterpiece Shoah in its entirety.
Sat 10 + Sun 11 Jan 2026 and Sat 7 + Sun 8 Mar 2026, in two parts, each starting at 12 noon
Where
Old Building, ground level, Auditorium
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
French intellectual and director Claude Lanzmann (1925–2018) devoted almost twelve years of his life to researching, filming, and editing Shoah. This epic work, with a running time of 566 minutes (9 hours and 44 minutes), is still considered a unique cinematic monument to the systematic murder of European Jews and has become a central reference point in the examination of Nazi mass crimes.
In Shoah, Claude Lanzmann refrains from showing historical footage of the victims and the camps. Instead, he shows the disappearance of traces, the absence, and the difficulties of putting the extermination into words. In cinematic arrangements and stagings of reminiscent speech and historical landscapes, Lanzmann follows the past into the present. In this sense, he never understood Shoah as a documentary film, but rather as an attempt to make the invisible visible.
In Germany, Shoah was first shown at the Berlinale in 1986 and soon afterwards on WDR and NDR television. The film received a mixed reception – Shoah challenged the self-image of the Federal Republic of Germany at the time too much. Internationally, however, the film and its director received numerous awards.
In 2023, Shoah was added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register of the World Documentary Heritage, together with Claude Lanzmann's audio archive.
In cooperation with Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art e.V.
Exhibition Claude Lanzmann: The Recordings: Features & Programs
Exhibition Webpage
Claude Lanzmann: The Recordings: 28 Nov 2025 to 12 Apr 2026
Accompanying Events & Tours
Exhibition opening, public tours, screenings, JMB book club and other events related to the exhibition: find all dates in our calendar
Conference
- The Sound of History. Claude Lanzmann’s Preparation for Shoah: conference from 9 to 10 Feb 2026
- The Making of von Claude Lanzmann’s Film Shoah: public evening event as part of the conference with Corinna Coulmas and Irena Steinfeldt-Levy, 9 February 2026, 7.30 pm
Offerings for Groups
- Bookable workshop for groups and school classes: by appointment
- Bookable tour for groups and school classes: by appointment
See also
- Claude Lanzmann, Filmmaker and Journalist
- Shoah (1985) by Claude Lanzmann
- The Lanzmann Collection: Projects to catalog, preserver, and share the legacy of the audio cassettes from this holding of the Jewish Museum Berlin
- The Lanzmann Collection on the Oral-History.Digital (OH.D) online platform: by the end of 2027, all audio recordings from the Lanzmann Collection will be available on OH.D (registration required)
