The Auschwitz Film That Exposed Fascism | The Last Stage Screening

About this episode

The episode discusses the significance of the 1948 film The Last Stage and its portrayal of Auschwitz and resistance against fascism.

The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) held a screening of the landmark 1948 Polish film The Last Stage (Ostatni etap). Directed by Wanda Jakubowska — a communist, resistance fighter, and survivor of Auschwitz — the film was among the first cinematic depictions of the Nazi concentration camps and the organised resistance that developed within them. Several Auschwitz survivors appear in the film, portraying roles closely connected to their own lived experiences just a few years after the liberation, adding a rare and powerful layer of direct testimony and lived experience to its reconstruction of events. Produced in postwar people's democratic Poland and filmed partly on location at Auschwitz itself, The Last Stage stands as both historical testimony and a forceful affirmation of the role played by communists in the struggle against fascism and genocide. At a time when our ruling class seeks to discredit communists and anti-imperialists as “anti-Semitic” for expressing solidarity with oppressed peoples and resisting imperialist war, occupation, sanctions, and national oppression, this screening reasserts a clear historical record: communists were at the forefront…

Topics covered

• Auschwitz
• fascism
• communism
• film history
• resistance
• anti-imperialism

Keywords

• Auschwitz
• The Last Stage
• Wanda Jakubowska
• communism
• fascism
• film screening
• historical testimony

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)

Books & works: The Last Stage

Places: Auschwitz

More episodes of Proletarian Radio

• Stalin’s Library by Geoffrey Roberts – a resumé and review, pt 8 · June 13, 2026 · 15 min
• Fascist attack on Bulgarian communists · June 12, 2026 · 4 min
• Nairobi declaration: Down with imperialism and fascism! · June 11, 2026 · 7 min
• Ayatollah Hussein Ali Khamenei – the leader who defined modern Iran · June 9, 2026 · 6 min
• On imperialism's perfect proxy, Ukraine – Garland Nixon & Joti Brar, ep 61 · June 8, 2026 · 59 min
• The nefarious, prejudicial and deeply-flawed IHRA ‘definition’ of antisemitism, pt 1 · June 7, 2026 · 40 min