DVD review: The Round Up

When we think about World War II, our thoughts usually turn to the atrocities committed by the Nazis under the iron rule of Adolf Hitler.

Hitler's Jewish extermination policy was a blight on history that should never be forgotten.

Neither should the role of the compliant French war-time government, which allowed thousands of French Jews to be taken away to their deaths.

The Round Up is their story.

Under orders from Germany, the heartless French military sought to "round-up" 24,000 previously identified Jewish people in Paris.

With stars sewn on their shirts, 13,000 men, women and children were herded into the Velodrome D'Hiver.

Thousands escaped the clutches of the police with the help of many French families.

From the velodrome, they were sent on to Beaune-La-Rolande camp, an inhospitable internment camp where their fate was uncertain.

The Round Up explores the fortunes of some the children who are forced to grow up too quickly in the camp.

It also explores some of the French medical staff who fight for Jewish people and their rights as human beings.

While these events are being played out in 1942, we are given regular crosses to Hitler's extravagant lifestyle in his mountainside chateau, which magnifies the Jewish suffering even more.

Subtitled from the original French,

The Round Up

is a brutal yet honest depiction of Jewish suffering and persecution in war-time France.

Title: The Round Up

Restriction: M

Producer: Madman Entertainment

Rating: 3 / 5 stars