THE LAST STAGE

The Last Stage: translation

(akaThe last Stop, Ostatni Etap, 1948)

The landmark film byWanda Jakubowskathat shows the monstrosity of Auschwitz and draws on her firsthand experiences— she was imprisoned in Ravensbruck and the women's concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. With its dramatization of the camp experience,The Last Stageestablished several images easily discernible in laterHolocaustnarratives: dark, "realistic" images of the camp (the film was shot in Auschwitz-Birkenau by Russian cinematographer Borys Monastyrski), passionate moralistic appeal, and clear divisions between victims and victimizers. Jakubowska's objective, however, was not so much to portray the repelling reality of the concentration camp, but to show the female inmates' solidarity in their suffering as well as in their struggle against Fascism. She focused on carefully chosen female inmates, mostly Communists and supporters of the Communist resistance in the camp, who represented different oppressed nationalities and groups of people.

The images of camp life inThe Last Stage(for example, morning and evening roll calls on theAppellplatz, the arrival of transports, and the selections for the gas chambers) reinforced the depiction of Nazi concentration camps and are present in a number of subsequent films, includingSophie's Choice(1982), directed by Alan Pakula, andSchindler's List(1993), directed by Steven Spielberg. To this day,The Last Stageremains a foundational film about Auschwitz and the Holocaust and a prototype for future Holocaust cinematic narratives.