ID #:
106
Film Type:
DVD
Release Date:
2004
Color or BW:
Color and B&W
Description:
The Belgian government has denounced this documentary as a "tendentious diatribe" for depicting King Leopold II - still a heroic figure in Belgium - as the moral forebear of Adolf Hitler, responsible for the death of 10 million people in his rapacious exploitation of the Congo. This film describes how Leopold turned the Congo into his private colony between 1885 and 1908. Under his control, the Congo became a gulag labor camp of shocking brutality. In fact, it is agreed today that the first Human Rights movement was spurred by what happened in the Congo.
Keywords:
1885-1908, Belgium, brutality., death of 10 million people, King Leopold II, labor camp