List of documentary films about World War II

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Anti-aircraft guns fire at night in Moscow Strikes Back (USSR, 1942) Moscow Strikes Back 14-24 AA guns muzzle flash.jpg
Anti-aircraft guns fire at night in Moscow Strikes Back (USSR, 1942)

The following is a list of World War II documentary films.

Contents

1940s

YearCountryTitleDirector
1940Nazi Germany Deutsche Panzer (German Panzer) Walter Ruttmann
1940Nazi Germany Deutsche Waffenschmieden (German Weapons-Forge) Walter Ruttmann
1940Nazi Germany Feldzug in Polen (Campaign in Poland)
1941Canada Churchill's Island Stuart Legg
1941Canada Inside Fighting China Stuart Legg
1941USA Kukan Rey Scott
1941Kingdom of Italy Uomini sul fondo (Men on the bottom) Francesco De Robertis
1942Nazi Germany Männer, Meer und Stürme (Men, Sea and Storms) Heinrich Hauser, Hubert Schonger
1942United Kingdom The Soldier's Food unknown
1944Nazi Germany Panorama
1944United States The Battle for the Marianas Gordon Hollingshead
1944Japan Calling Australia (Japanese : オーストラリアを呼び出します, romanized: Ōsutoraria o Yobidashimasu)Dr. Huyung (formerly known as Hinatsu Eitaro, Hae Yeong, and Hŏ Yŏng)
1944United States Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress William Wyler
1945Denmark Danmark i Lænker (Denmark in Chains) Sven Methling
1946United States Let There Be Light y Huston
1947United States Lest We Forget n.a.

1950s

YearCountryTitleDirector
1952United States Victory at Sea M. Clay Adams
1955France Night and Fog Alain Resnais

1960s

YearCountryTitleDirector
1962United States Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler Louis Clyde Stoumen
1962Canada Canada at War  ?
1964Canada Fields of Sacrifice Donald Brittain
1965Canada Memorandum Donald Brittain, John Spotton
1965United States France: Conquest to Liberation Aram Boyajian
1965United States Prelude to War: Beginning of World War II Alan Landsburg
1965Soviet Union Ordinary Fascism (Обыкновенный фашизм) (Obyknovennyy fashizm) Mikhail Romm
1968United States The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Jack Kaufman
1969France The Sorrow and the Pity (Le Chagrin et la Pitié) Marcel Ophüls

1970s

YearCountryTitleDirector
1973United Kingdom The World at War Miscellaneous
1974Israel The 81st Blow (המכה ה-81) Haim Gouri
1976United Kingdom The Memory of Justice Marcel Ophüls
1977United Kingdom The Secret War (TV series) Various
1978Soviet Union The Unknown War (Neizvestnaya voyna) (Неизвестная война) Isaac Kleinerman, Roman Karmen

1980s

YearCountryTitleDirector
1980West Germany The Yellow Star - The Persecution of the Jews in Europe 1933-45 Dieter Hildebrandt
1981United States The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter Connie Field
1982United States Genocide Arnold Schwartzman
1982Sweden The Story of Chaim Rumkowski and the Jews of Lodz Peter Chohen, Bo Kuritzen
1982United States Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die Laurence Jarvik
1985France Shoah Claude Lanzmann
1985United States Unfinished Business Steven Okazaki
1987Japan The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On Kazuo Hara
1988France Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie Marcel Ophüls
1989France De Nuremberg à Nuremberg Frédéric Rossif
1989United Kingdom Fascist Legacy Ken Kirby
1989Sweden The Architecture of Doom Peter Cohen

1990s

YearCountryTitleDirector
1990United States Days of Waiting: The Life & Art of Estelle Ishigo Steven Okazaki
1990Germany Mein Krieg Harriet Eder, Thomas Kufus
1992Canada The Valour and the Horror Brian McKenna
1993France L'Œil de Vichy Claude Chabrol
1994United States Battlefield Miscellaneous
1994Germany The Jewess and the Captain Ulf von Mechow
1994Spain Memory of Water Héctor Fáver
1995United Kingdom Anne Frank Remembered Jon Blair
1995United States One Survivor Remembers Kary Antholis
1995South Korea Najeun moksori Young-Joo Byun
1996United States Fire on the Mountain Beth Gage, George Gage
1997United States The Long Way Home Mark Jonathan Harris
1997United Kingdom The Nazis: A Warning from History Laurence Rees, Tilman Remme
1997Estonia We Lived for Estonia Andres Sööt
1998United States Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy Tracy Atkinson, Joan Baran
1998United States Pola's March Jonathan Gruber
1998United States The Last Days James Moll
1998Netherlands The Saved Paul Cohen, Oeke Hoogendijk
1998United States Voices of the Children Zuzana Justman
1998Canada Unwanted Soldiers Jari Osborne
1999United Kingdom The Second World War in Colour Polly Bide
1999United Kingdom War of the Century Laurence Rees

2000s

YearCountryTitleDirector
2000Czech Republic A Story about a Bad Dream Pavel Stingl
2000United States From Swastika to Jim Crow Lori Cheatle, Martin D. Toub
2000United States Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport Mark Jonathan Harris
2000Germany Paragraph 175 Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
2000Germany Shadows of Memory Claudia von Alemann
2000United States Sisters in Resistance Maia Wechsler
2000United Kingdom The Children Who Cheated the Nazis Sue Read
2000United Kingdom World War II׃ The Complete History Matthew Hall
2001United Kingdom Horror in the East Laurence Rees, Martina Balazova
2001Japan Japanese Devils Minoru Matsui
2001France Sobibor, Oct. 14, 1943, 4 p.m. Claude Lanzmann
2001United States The Color of War Peter Coyote
2002United States A Yiddish World Remembered Andrew Goldberg
2002Austria Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary André Heller, Othmar Schmiderer
2002United States Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers During WWII Aviva Slesin
2002Canada The Boys of Buchenwald Audrey Mehler
2003United States Marion's Triumph John Chua
2003Denmark Med ret til at dræbe (With a Right to Kill) Morten Henriksen, Peter Øvig Knudsen
2003Canada Prisoner of Paradise Malcolm Clarke, Stuart Sender
2003United States The Holocaust Experience Oeke Hoogendijk
2004United Kingdom Dunkirk Alex Holmes
2004Netherlands Goodbye Holland Willy Lindwer
2004United States Hidden Fuhrer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
2004United States Hiding and Seeking Menachem Daum, Oren Rudavsky
2005Germany 2 or 3 Things I Know About Him Malte Ludin
2005United States A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin Eric Simonson
2005United Kingdom Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution' Laurence Rees, Catherine Tatge
2005United Kingdom Hiroshima Paul Wilmshurst
2005United States The 11th Day: Crete 1941 Christos Epperson
2005United States The Mushroom Club Steven Okazaki
2005Poland The Portraitist Ireneusz Dobrowolski
2005Austria Unwanted Cinema Petrus van der Let
2006Russia Blokada Sergei Loznitsa
2006United States Forgiving Dr. Mengele Bob Hercules, Cheri Pugh
2006United States The Rape of Europa Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, Nicole Newnham
2006Estonia The Blue Hills Raimo Jõerand
2007United States A Distant Shore: African Americans of D-Day Douglas Cohen
2007Canada My Opposition: The Diaries of Friedrich Kellner Fern Levitt
2007United States Nanking Bill Guttentag, Dan Sturman
2007United States Order Castles of the Third Reich R.J. Adams
2007United States Ruins of the Reich R.J. Adams
2007Israel Stalags Ari Libsker
2007United States The War Ken Burns, Lynn Novick
2007United States White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Steven Okazaki
2007United States Wings of Defeat Risa Morimoto
2007Japan Yasukuni Li Ying
YearCountryTitleDirector
2008United States Battle 360° Tony Long
2008Germany Harlan – In the Shadow of Jew Süss Felix Moeller
2008Netherlands Tulip Time: The Rise and Fall of the Trio Lescano Tonino Boniotti, Marco De Stefanis
2008Latvia The Soviet Story Edvīns Šnore
2008United Kingdom World War II Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West Laurence Rees, Andrew Williams
2009France Apocalypse: The Second World War Isabelle Clarke, Daniel Costelle
2009United States The Inheritance of War Ashley Karras
2009Netherlands Patton 360° Tony Long
2009Finland Sisters Across the Gulf of Finland Imbi Paju
2009United Kingdom The Week We Went to War Malcolm McKissock, Louise Pirie
2009United Kingdom World War II in HD Colour Robert Powell, Matthew Barrett
2009United States WWII in HD Frederic Lumiere, Matthew Ginsburg
2009United States Valor With Honor Torasan Films

2010s

YearCountryTitleDirector
2010War Music David Porteous
2011United StatesWe Were ThereJarod O'Flaherty
2011Netherlands 900 Days Jessica Gorter
2011Russia Soviet Storm: World War II in the East Anna Grazhdan
2012United States Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States Oliver Stone
2013United States The Ghost Army Rick Beyer
2014United States Second War Diary: The War Day by Day José Delgado
2015Germany Hostages of the SS  [ de ]Christian Frey
2016AustraliaA Long Way BackSamm Blake
2018ItalyVisconti's EaglesClaudio Costa
2019United Kingdom Greatest Events of WWII in Colour Sam Taplin, Nicky Bolster, Kasia Uscinska, Josh Whitehead & Ailsa Fereday

2020s

YearCountryTitleDirector
2021United KingdomWWII in Color: Road to VictorySam Taplin, Lou Westlake, Kim Lask, Stan Griffin & Katie Boxer

See also


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