Pernel Media today announces a commission by ARTE France to produce a documentary film revealing the role of the Jewish ghetto in the Holocaust.

‘Ghettos of the Shoah’, (‘La Shoah des Ghettos’) (1 x 90’) has been commissioned for ARTE’s prime time history slot.

In Central and Eastern Europe in WWII, more than 1,000 ghettos were established by the Nazis between 1939 and 1941, from the Baltic States to the Crimea. Poland alone had more than 300 of them. At least half of Europe’s Jews lived at one point in a ghetto and over 800,000 died in one. For the first time, ‘Ghettos of the Shoah’ documents their origins and role in the Holocaust.

It is widely believed they were created by the Nazi leadership as a temporary measure to give them time to find solutions to achieve the final goal they had set themselves: the extermination of European Jews.

But this new historical perspective on the chronology of the Shoah allows us to consider the ghettos in a new light with access to never released personal archives, film, letters and photographs.

Directed by Barbara Necek ‘Ghettos of the Shoah’ is being produced with the support of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah.

Pernel Media is also producing a 1 x 60’ version of the film for the international market.

‘Ghettos of the Shoah’ was commissioned by Fabrice Puchault and Anne Grolleron for ARTE France. Executive Producer for Pernel Media is Fabrice Frank.

“Ghettos were the antechamber of death for the Jews of Eastern Europe. Once the Final Solution became a reality in 1942, the ghettos were gradually liquidated, but some remained until the end of the war as an integral part of the Holocaust. The film aims to pay tribute to this vanished Jewish world by giving voice to the victims through their testimonies, which show the hope, despair and the spirit of spiritual, religious and even armed resistance of the Jews of the ghettos” said Fabrice Frank, Executive Producer at Pernel Media.
Founded in 2009 by former M6 commissioner Samuel Kissous, Pernel Media has become one of the leading factual production companies in Europe, with several international hit series such as ‘The Real War of Thrones’, ‘Ancient Superstructures’, ‘20 Years on Death Row’, ‘4 Babies a Second’ and ‘Legends of the Pharaohs’.