No collection of films on the Holocaust can be considered complete without this haunting visual record of the infamous Warsaw Ghetto. One will never know why Wehrmacht Sergeant Heinz Joest decided to celebrate his 43rd birthday in 1941 by illegally photographing inside the ghetto. Or why he kept the pictures hidden for some forty years until he knew he was dying. But this German soldier's images of the misery, and also the spirit, of its doomed inhabitants form the core of Jack Kuper's extraordinary portrayal of humanity in a nightmare situation.

The filmmaker, himself a Holocaust survivor, has done a masterful job combining Joest's pictures with a multi-voiced dramatic narration taken from hidden ghetto diaries. Yiddish songs, klezmer music, sound effects and skillful camera work heighten the impact.

Stark images show life behind the ghetto walls. There are beggars with imploring grins, peddlers hawking arm-bands, scruffy urchins, emaciated musicians, and the occasional nattily dressed resident, probably a recent arrival. Though they live in unbearable circumstances, it is apparent that the people have not been completely stripped of their culture and identity. Illegal schools and prayer groups co-exist with disease and hunger. The diaries reveal a chord of humor running through the despair. A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto gives reality to an almost incomprehensible evil.

"An excellent piece...there are many ways it could be used in the classroom." - Compass
"A compelling reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust." - Booklist
"A moving photographic essay on man's inhumanity to man." - Library Journal
"... an enduring cinematic monument to the hapless victims of the Holocaust" - The Canadian Jewish News

Jewish Film Festival San Francisco, 1993
American Psychiatric Association, 1993
Gold Apple, National Educational Film & Video Festival, 1992