AllMovie

In this compilation of newsreels and archival footage, director Edgardo Cozarinsky has put together images from occupied France during World War II with readings from a journal by a German officer, Ernst Juenger. The story is rounded out with scenes from concentration camps and views of the devastation wrought by Allied bombings. One segment of the documentary mentions that Maurice Chevalier) was among the French accused of collaboration with the Germans, and although Cozarinsky must feel this is an accurate portrayal, Chevalier was exonerated of any wrong-doing after the war -- perhaps it would have been better to present both sides in this instance, in keeping with the theme of the indiscriminate casualties of war.