Fondane was 45 when he died in 1944 at Birkenau, leaving behind an important body of work as a poet, playwright, essayist, and also, filmmaker.

Benjamin Fondane's writings on film (1898-1944) are those of a man who held the seventh art in the highest esteem. He regarded the advent of talking pictures as a tragedy, and devoted to this phenomenon the most penetrating and clear-sighted analysis of his time.