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Kindergarten in Hell
Documentary film 50 min.
Intended for screening in Holocaust Memorial Day 2005
Introduction:
Itzik Weinberg was born in 1938 in Krakow, Poland. When he was 9 month old the
Germans conquered Poland, and his family was transferred to the Ghetto. In
June 1942 all his family was murdered in the Gas Chambers in the Belzets Camp.
4 years old Itzik and his 3 years old brother Avner were now orphans and they
were smuggled from the Ghetto by their aunt Malca. For two years they were
hiding among gentile villagers, each day changing hiding place in order to
save them from the Nazis. In February 1944 the brothers were smuggled through
Czechoslovakia to Hungary in the hope that the war will not arrive there, but
after only a month, in Mars 1944 the Nazis conquered Budapest. In June 1944
aunt Malca succeeded to put the the two kids as hidden passengers to the
Kastner Train, believing that those on the train will arrive to Israel and be
saved. The negotiation between Kastner and Eichman failed and the Rescue Train
arrived to Germany and its 1685 passengers were locked up in the Bergen-
Belzen concentration camp the brothers found themselves again in the middle of
Hell, alone, without any relative at all. Avner started crying and 5 and a
half years old Itzik calmed him and became his "father". They had luck because
a young girl named Naomi took them under her protection and lodged them near
her in the women flank in the camp.
Description of the film:
1. Itzik:
Itzik hosts the film crew in his house in Tivon. He presents the wall rugs
that he creates in the last years and explains how these rugs express
abstractly his holocausts experiences. He tells that for many years he
repressed these experiences, and only now, 60 years later, he allows himself
to express the trauma and his feelings.
2. Avner :
Avner is checked up in a sleep laboratory in Yoseftal Hospital in Eilat, his
hometown. He says that since his childhood in the holocaust he never had a
good night's sleep. The camera follows him to his work in hotel Magic Palace
in Eilat. Avner tells that most of the people that he works with are not
acquainted to his traumatic past or to his everyday difficulties. He says that
he hides the pain and his sadness behind his sense of humor, and that he
learned to adopt himself in seconds to every situation. He almost never talks
about the holocaust, which is a black box for him.
3. Hiding in Poland:
Itzik and Avner drive to visit Peretz Malkovich who was a partisan. He met
them in Czechoslovakia while they were escaping. Peretz tells about their
aunt, who looked like a Christian And had the courage to walk openly among the
gentiles he says that her eyes were so sharp that she could recognize who will
shelter them and who will turn them in to the Germans. Avner tells the camera
that they had no time to be kids. The survival war was so cruel that he and
his brother had to grow up instantly. "We were hiding in hay wagon and Itzik
shut my mouth so that I would not weep and disclose our hiding place". He
jokes and tells that at the time he hated his brother because he thought that
he wanted to choke him.
4. Kastner train:
Meeting with Tzadok Raab at his daughter's house in Ofra. Tzadok remembers the
journey in the Kastner train. He was then an instructor in the Bnei Akiva
youth movement. He tells that he was informed about the two polish orphans
that were put and hidden on the train. He treated them with devotion all
through the journey. He shows the photograph he took on the train; in it we
see the two kids on the background of the Bnei Akiva emblem painted on door of
the train. Tzadok tells that at the time of the journey a rumor spread that
the Germans will not keep the agreement with Kastner, and that the train leads
its passengers to their death. It made all the passengers extremely anxious.
5. Bergen-Belzen:
Itzik tells that in the first night he and Avner remained alone in the
center of Bergen-Belzen camp. They did not know where to turn. Avner started
weeping and Itzik tried to calm him down. Finally a young girl from the train
travelers approached them her name was Naomi. She took them under her custody
and she housed them beside her in the women's quarters in the camp. Itzik
tells that the next day in the morning Naomi approached the Nazi commander the
camp and requested to enclose him and his brother officially to the traveler
list of 'Kastner-Train'. In response to her request the commander yanked his
gun and aimed it at them. Naomi begged him until he agreed to leave them
alive.
The film will focus on the reconstruction of the kindergarten this miraculous
Naomi organized for them in Bergen-Belzen. The two brothers will reconstruct
and tell what happened to them in shack 11 in the camp. We will create a mini
studio and in it a three floors wood bed, like the beds that were in the
concentration camp. The bed and the two brothers will be photographed on green
screen background in order that it will be possible to edit layers in After
Effect and to combine the interviewed people with archive and still pictures
of the period. In order to remind the brothers situations from the
kindergarten we shall bring objects and instruction aids from the camp such as
drawing sheet, colors, card games, a drawing of their clothes in the camp, a
picture of shack 11 in Bergen-Belzen that turned to be their first house etc.
there will also be an encounter of the brothers with Judith that was then a
young girl and participated in that kindergarten.
From the narrative of the two orphans it becomes clear that Naomi tried hard
to conceal from their eyes the horrors of the camp. Each day there was an
educational and cultural program. She taught them songs, told them stories,
she taught them to write and to draw. Avner tells that by means of these
painting lessons he learned to recognize colors - until then his world was
black and gray. Itzik tells that in Bergen-Belzen the train exploitative
suffered awful congestion and many died from diseases and from sub nutrition.
Compared with this to him this was the happiest and the calmest period in his
short life. For the first time in his life he had a worm and almost normal
house. Avner adds that at night on account of the nightmares they slept
embraced with Naomi and her worm body returned to him the confidence in
humanity. Itzik says this was the first time he remembers in which they slept
more from three consecutive nights in one place.
From the brothers' stories it becomes clear that Mimi Book helped Naomi build
for the kids an island of sanity inside the inferno. (The situation reminds
the film "The Good Life"). Teenage girls joined the kindergarten huddling on
the narrow couch with the Weinberg brothers. The two women took care of
everything they needed. Itzik tells that at night he heard women cry from
within their deep distress: 'Guevald, god, where are you?' One morning he
asked Naomi:' What is God? ' and Naomi answered dryly : There is no God '
Judith tells that after half a year, in December 1944, according to the
agreement that Kastner made with Eichman, the people from the train that
remained alive were released and were transported to Switzerland. In
Switzerland the kids recovered slowly to normal life. Just as things began to
lighten up for them, they were cast again into a great tragedy. Naomi put an
end to her life. In that the same dreadful day she received horrifying news:
they informed her in a telegram sent from Budapest that her lover was murdered
by the Gestapo, and they informed her that she will not be able to adopt the
two kids that she loved so much. In September 1945 the kids were transported
to the Barry harbor in Italy and from there they sailed to Israel.
6. Conclusion:
Avner tells that he and his brother started the period of the Holocaust as
Polish speakers. In the train and at the camp they learned Hungarian and
forgot completely their mother tongue. In Switzerland they learned German. As
they came to Israel they learned Yiddish in an orthodox boarding school until
a relative transported them to a Bnei Akiva institution in which they had to
talk Hebrew and only Hebrew. Itzik tells that this period made him a man that
does not fears from change and struggles. Further in his life he learned to
deal with all the challenges that stood before him. Also the period vaccinated
him and his brother from diseases. They both skipped all childhood diseases.
Nowadays Itzik deals in the commemoration of the million and a half children
that were murdered in the holocaust.
The situation is fascinating because, since the Holocaust, the two brothers
talked between them very little about their horrifying experiences, and we
expect that the filmed meeting will be very exciting and very revealing one
disclosing. We'll get acquainted to the relationship between the two brothers
that during long years suppressed the topic and now at first, after 60 years,
they feel mature enough to share their experiences each other and with the
audience.
