[2] Director and film-maker Daniel Anker's father was a refugee from Germany, and many of his relatives, including his great-grandfather, uncle, and cousin were murdered in the Holocaust, but he had not considered making a film on the subject until AMC approached him with the idea.

"Directors Frank Capra, John Huston, Billy Wilder, and George Stevens all worked for the Army Signal Corps' motion picture unit.

[4] In the portion of the film describing the initial screenings of their footage back in the U.S., a portion narrated by film editor Stanley Frazen and screenwriter Melvin Wald, Wald says that "It was the most horrifying thing I'd ever seen, because the inmates walking in their black and white uniforms were like ghosts," and Frazen admits that he had to leave the projection room to vomit.

It explores "the question of how an industry that sells fantasy has dealt with one of the most horrifying episodes in modern world history, but also how the movies themselves reflect America's ever-evolving relationship to the events of that era.

[7]Movie reviewer Mark Deming, writing for All Movie Guide wrote: The American film industry took it upon itself to act as a cheerleader for United States and Allied military interests during World War II, but Hollywood was initially reluctant to directly condemn Nazi anti-Semitism, and it wasn't until years after the war ended that American filmmakers began offering a realistic, dramatic look at the horrible toll of Hitler's "final solution."

[2]In addition to excerpts from Hollywood films, the documentary includes official military newsreel footage of thirteen studio moguls who traveled to Europe to witness personally the evidence of Nazi atrocities at the invitation of General Eisenhower.

[9]Eisenhower, who wrote to Chief of Staff George Marshall that he had personally visited Ohrdruf concentration camp "in order to be in a position to give first hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to propaganda,"[10] sent out invitations to journalists, photographers, and film makers from both the United States and England.

"[7] The reviewer for New York's Newsday wrote that the film "Reduced me to tears ... A powerful documentary that examines how a movie industry that ordinarily traffics in fantasy has dealt with the hideous reality of Hitler's genocidal campaign against the Jews.