In the back of history - The lost villages of Masuria

In the back of history - The lost villages of Masuria (2018)

September 1st, 20180h 36min

Documentary
100%

Overview

In September of 2017 German writer and director Daniel Raboldt accompanied a group of German and Polish scientists and students into the woods of Masuria, Poland. The expedition aimed to find traces of the so-called "lost villages", left by the Masurians around 1945 by the end of the Second World War. Today only some of the old graveyards can be found deep in the woods of the beautiful Masurian landscape. The documentary "In the back of history - The lost villages of Masuria" shows the students at their work in the historic archives and in the woods. How conclusive can this kind of historic research be? How much can we really learn by looking through old files or other sources? And what can we learn from the vanishing of the Masurians? Do we face similar problems today? The film dives deep into themes like the rise of nationalism and identity and uncovers the tragic end of a population that was asked one simple question in the early 20th century: Stay or Leave?


Make sure to check your pop-up blocker!!

Trailer

Similar Movies

Peter Eisenman: Building Germany's Holocaust Memorial

Peter Eisenman: Building Germany's Holocaust Memorial


Released on: 2009-02-20
Documentary

This documentary explores the creation of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin as designed by architect ...

June 1940, the Great Chaos

June 1940, the Great Chaos


Released on: 2010-06-14
Documentary, History, War

From May 10, 1940, France is living one of the worst tragedies of it history. In a few weeks, the co...

Elie Wiesel Goes Home

Elie Wiesel Goes Home


Released on: 1997-02-12
Documentary, History

A documentary chronicling the adolescent years of Elie Wiesel and the history of his sufferings. Eli...

Paper City

Paper City


Released on: 2021-08-16
Documentary

Just after midnight on 10 March 1945, the US launched an air-based attack on eastern Tokyo; continui...

The Ponzán Network

The Ponzán Network


Released on: 2022-10-24
Documentary, History

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Second World War (1939-1945), around three thousand...

Night and Fog

Night and Fog


Released on: 1959-04-27
Documentary, History

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Her War, Her Story: World War II

Her War, Her Story: World War II


Released on: 2022-11-01
Documentary, History, War

Explore the stories of women caught up in World War II, from the American Home Front to Auschwitz Co...

Letters from Wolf Street

Letters from Wolf Street


Released on: 2025-10-16
Documentary

A street in downtown Warsaw transforms into a kaleidoscopic portrait of Polish society. Behind the v...

Admiral Chester Nimitz

Admiral Chester Nimitz


Released on: 2017-04-01
War, Documentary

Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz used submarines, a vessel used to great effect by Germany in WWI and WW...

Cameramen at War

Cameramen at War


Released on: 1943-01-01
Documentary, War

A tribute to the cameramen of the newsreel companies and the service film units, in the form of a co...

The Real Beauty and the Beast

The Real Beauty and the Beast


Released on: 2013-06-14
Documentary

It's a condition known as "hypertrichosis" or "Ambras Syndrome," but in the 1500s it would transform...

Europe by Train

Europe by Train


Released on: 1965-01-01
Documentary

A journalist chats on the unusual excursions possible from nodal stations on Europe's train networks...

The Nazi Jesus

The Nazi Jesus


Released on: 2016-12-30
Documentary, History, War

While Nazi ideology dominated Europe, Adolf Hitler used all dogmas to his advantage and fed the cult...

The Auschwitz Trial

The Auschwitz Trial


Released on: 2013-01-02
Documentary

The biggest trial of Nazi war crimes ever: 360 witnesses in 183 days of trial - a stunning and gripp...

Ghettos in the Holocaust

Ghettos in the Holocaust


Released on: 2023-10-06
Documentary, History, TV Movie

The gruesome story of the Jewish ghettos during the Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe in the dark da...

Palna's Daughters

Palna's Daughters


Released on: 2007-12-31
Documentary

A film about memory, identity and the overwhelming power of love. One-year-old Devi was found starvi...

The 50 Year Argument

The 50 Year Argument


Released on: 2014-06-07
Documentary

Follows the waves of literary, political, and cultural history as charted by the The New York Review...

Leninland

Leninland


Released on: 2013-11-30
Documentary

At the peak of Perestroika, in 1987, in the village of Gorki, where Lenin spent his last years, afte...

WWII: Saving the Reality

WWII: Saving the Reality


Released on: 2013-01-07
Documentary, War

See Kenneth W. Rendell's collection of over 6,000 artifacts that range from the end of World War I a...

Safeguarding Military Information

Safeguarding Military Information


Released on: 1942-01-16
Documentary

World War II propaganda short which focuses on the dangers of inadvertent dispersal of military info...