The first installment in Haim Gouri, Jacques Erlich, and David Bergman's Holocaust Trilogy. The film chronicles Hitler and the Nazi rise to power, the persecution of Jews, and their extermination during the Holocaust. It uses archival footage to depict these events; survivors' testimonies are heard in the soundtrack, but their faces are not shown. The title, THE 81ST BLOW, refers to the testimony of Michael (Miki) Goldman, a Holocaust survivor and police investigator who served as the assistant to Gideon Hausner - Israel's Attorney General and prosecutor at the Eichmann Trial. During the trial, Dr. Burzminski - a dentist from the Przemyśl Ghetto – told a story about a Jewish boy who received 80 blows from a Nazi officer. The boy was identified as Michael Goldman. Years later, Goldman stated that the 81st blow was the one he received from Israeli society, which ignored and alienated Holocaust survivors who immigrated to the country. THE 81ST BLOW was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Production of Short Version: Israel Film Archive