Jerry Lewis’s lost Holocaust film moves closer to release

A never-before seen film starring Jerry Lewis as a circus clown during the Holocaust has moved a step closer to being released.

The Day the Clown Cried, made in Sweden in 1972, sees Lewis imprisoned in a concentration camp and ordered to entertain children before they’re sent to the gas chambers.

On its completion, Lewis said the film should never be seen, even after his death.

It has now been acquired by the Library of Congress in Washington DC, though curator Rob Stone said the library had agreed not to screen it for at least a decade.