List of documentary films about World War II

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Anti-aircraft guns fire at night in Moscow Strikes Back (USSR, 1942)

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

1940s[edit]

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

1950s[edit]

Year Country Title Director
1952 United States Victory at Sea M. Clay Adams
1955 France Night and Fog Alain Resnais

1960s[edit]

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

1970s[edit]

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

1980s[edit]

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

1990s[edit]

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

2000s[edit]

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

2010s[edit]

Year Country Title Director
2010 War Music David Porteous
2011 United States We Were There Jarod O'Flaherty
2011 Netherlands 900 Days Jessica Gorter
2011 Russia Soviet Storm: World War II in the East Anna Grazhdan
2012 United States Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States Oliver Stone
2013 United States The Ghost Army Rick Beyer
2014 United States Second War Diary: The War Day by Day José Delgado
2015 Germany Hostages of the SS [de] Christian Frey
2016 Australia A Long Way Back Samm Blake
2018 Italy Visconti's Eagles Claudio Costa
2019 United Kingdom Greatest Events of WWII in Colour Sam Taplin, Nicky Bolster, Kasia Uscinska, Josh Whitehead & Ailsa Fereday

2020s[edit]

Year Country Title Director
2021 United Kingdom WWII in Color: Road to Victory Sam Taplin, Lou Westlake, Kim Lask, Stan Griffin & Katie Boxer

See also[edit]