‘Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog)’ On December 7, 1941 Adolf Hitler signed a directive (Erlass) from SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler to the Gestapo, resulting in kidnapping and disappearance of many political activists throughout Nazi Germany's occupied territories.
Himmler’s instructions to the Gestapo were: “…it is the will of the Führer that the measures taken against those who are guilty of offenses against the Reich or against the occupation forces in occupied areas should be altered. …in such cases penal servitude or even a hard labor sentence for life will be regarded as a sign of weakness. An effective and lasting deterrent can be achieved only by the death penalty or by taking measures which will leave the family and the population uncertain as to the fate of the offender. Deportation to Germany serves this purpose.”
Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Wilhelm Keitel implemented the directive. Keitel’s letter stated: “Efficient and enduring intimidation can only be achieved either by capital punishment or by measures by which the relatives of the criminals do not know the fate of the criminal. The prisoners are, in future, to be transported to Germany secretly, and further treatment of the offenders will take place here; these measures will have a deterrent effect because - A. The prisoners will vanish without a trace. B. No information may be given as to their whereabouts or their fate.”
Prisoners were arrested in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. They were taken to prisons hundreds of miles away. Those who survived the questioning and torture were taken eventually to the Natzweiler or Gross-Rosen concentration camps.
French director Alain Resnais’ harrowing documentary ‘Nuit et brouillard’ (Night and Fog, 1955) uses the term to illustrate one aspect of the concentration camp system as it was transformed into a system of labor and death camps. - Robert Lane: “Though only a short subject, this groundbreaking documentary remains one of the most influential and powerful explorations of the Holocaust ever made. Director Alain Resnais bluntly presents an indictment not only of the Nazis but of the world community, and the film is all the more remarkable for its harsh judgment considering the time in which it was made, less than a decade after the end of the war, when questions of responsibility were not yet being addressed. Juxtaposing archival clips from the concentration camps across Germany and Poland with the present-day denials of the camps' existence, the film seeks to once and for all expose the horrifying truth of the Final Solution, as well as to address the continuing anti-Semitism and bigotry that existed long after the war's end. An invaluable resource and testament to history, this film was a profound influence on all films to address issues of the Holocaust, from Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and Shoah (1985) to Schindler's List (1993). Night and Fog remains an essential and indispensable document of the 20th century.”
