Some of My Best Friends
- Westminster
- 1969
Britain welcomes children liberated from the notorious Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Britain welcomes children liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Knowing what we do of the horror - and murdered family members - they’d left behind, these newsreel images of happy kids eating and dancing assume an unbearable poignancy.
Although the finished issue of British Paramount News would have been released with commentary and music, the material in the BFI National Archive is mute; it may also not represent the final edit of the images.
This collection uncovers insights, injustices and hidden histories across a century of Jewish life on British screens. It brings together documentary and first-person accounts of Jewish life in the UK, alongside historical dramas and artists’ work exploring the 20th century Jewish experience. The earliest surviving depictions of Jewish characters in British cinema offer a troubling insight into antisemitic representation, yet prejudice was later tackled head-on, with newsreels documenting the anti-fascist movement of the 1930s.
Drop in on joyous family weddings and community gatherings, and see the ways in which UK Jewry supported Jews young and old, and those fleeing persecution, in a selection of fascinating films from the 1900s to the 1980s.
This collection is generously supported by the Neil Kreitman Foundation, Shoresh Charitable Trust, John S Cohen Foundation, and Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation.