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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:13,760 (birds chirping) 2 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:15,480 - You know, 40 years... 3 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:17,400 Forty years I've been in a classroom. 4 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:22,560 And there is never a more poignant question 5 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:26,160 that a student asks me about the Holocaust 6 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:27,680 than... 7 00:00:30,440 --> 00:00:32,720 "Why didn't the Jews resist the Nazis?" 8 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:39,600 And there's a moment where you just want to leave it alone... 9 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,000 And then there's a moment where you can't let it go. 10 00:00:44,160 --> 00:00:48,800 (sombre music) 11 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:51,080 (birdsong) 12 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,240 (haunting music) 13 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:02,040 (continues) 14 00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:04,560 (explosions and gunfire) 15 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:06,800 (shouting) 16 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:09,120 (explosions continue) 17 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:16,280 (sinister beat) 18 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:17,600 (creaking) 19 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:29,200 (commotion) 20 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:34,920 MARCEL: After a journey of ten days, we arrived at Auschwitz on April 11 21 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:36,520 to a crematorium. 22 00:01:39,200 --> 00:01:40,360 - Marcel Nadjari... 23 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:46,640 This is a guy who, uh, was shipped off from Greece in 1944 24 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:48,880 all the way to Auschwitz. 25 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:52,040 (dark music) 26 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:02,840 (shot reverberates) 27 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:19,160 - Sonderkommando prisoners were slaves... 28 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:23,400 ..compelled to do anything their masters, 29 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:26,080 the Germans in Auschwitz, tell them to do. 30 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:31,840 MARCEL: Our unit is called The Special Unit. 31 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,640 I will explain for you the work that the Almighty wanted me to do. 32 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:40,600 It starts by the people entering naked. 33 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:43,840 (hissing) 34 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:49,880 - Humiliation is a VERY central factor in the German crime. 35 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:54,160 He has to be undressed and he has to be humiliated. 36 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:58,560 MARCEL: After the room is filled with people, 37 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:02,520 it is locked and they are gassed. 38 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:10,520 (hissing) 39 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,040 - And I have to emphasise 1,000 times, 40 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:16,240 the killing always was made by the Germans! 41 00:03:30,920 --> 00:03:32,680 - We're at crematorium three, 42 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:36,600 which was destroyed by the Nazis as they were leaving in 1945. 43 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:41,720 What really is the secret of crematorium three 44 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:44,440 is this is where they discovered Nadjari's letter. 45 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:58,920 He described in meticulous detail what his daily schedule was. 46 00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:01,440 So, his letter gives us a perspective 47 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:03,880 on what it is that happened here. 48 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:13,640 - In this horrible world, 49 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:16,720 finding even a pen and a piece of paper 50 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:19,120 without being exposed what they were doing 51 00:04:19,280 --> 00:04:20,520 is an incredible bravery! 52 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:23,720 And they probably didn't see hope for their own survival. 53 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:25,240 They wanted the world to know. 54 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,520 - People have this myth stuck in their heads 55 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:32,520 that the Jews went to their deaths 56 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:34,080 like sheep to the slaughter. 57 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:38,640 But this is where the real story begins... 58 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:42,400 (music continues) 59 00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:45,440 MARCEL: How could I do this? 60 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:48,400 Burn the bodies of my brothers in faith? 61 00:04:48,560 --> 00:04:51,480 And why didn't I join them and put an end to it? 62 00:04:52,840 --> 00:04:56,800 But every time, the thirst for revenge stopped me! 63 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:02,800 LEON: Each prisoner in every squad 64 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:04,680 knew exactly what he was supposed to do 65 00:05:04,840 --> 00:05:06,400 and prepared for it. 66 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:10,120 ZALMON: May those who made an ocean of blood of my people 67 00:05:10,280 --> 00:05:12,640 drown in an ocean of blood! 68 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:13,800 (gunfire) 69 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:14,960 (explosion) 70 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:17,400 WOMAN: Suddenly, the sirens began to wail... 71 00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:18,560 What happened?! 72 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:22,560 A revolution, an uprising at the crematorium? 73 00:05:28,960 --> 00:05:31,080 - This is where the story begins... 74 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:37,680 Jews did not go their death as sheep to the slaughter. 75 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:41,360 They fought back. 76 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:44,560 (music continues) 77 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:39,000 (fades) 78 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:08,160 (solemn music) 79 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:29,400 (explosion) 80 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:35,080 (wailing) 81 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:45,360 FEIGE: Father was calming us, saying, "Don't be scared! 82 00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:48,360 Even when the Germans come, they are not so bad! 83 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:50,360 I remember them from the First World War 84 00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:51,640 and they are quite human, 85 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:52,800 you will see." 86 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:56,480 For him, it was a shock... 87 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:03,560 - What her father had said was, "I know these people. 88 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:05,000 I know the Germans. 89 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:07,680 We fought in the First World War together 90 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:10,960 and they're basically decent people!" 91 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:13,120 And then, within the first couple days, 92 00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:14,640 he was pretty badly beaten. 93 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:17,360 And he was so devastated 94 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:22,080 that he was unable, after that, to leave the house 95 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:23,760 to go out on the street. 96 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:28,480 BENJAMIN: We were immediately singled out. 97 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:31,760 We knew something was coming. 98 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:58,040 - So, this is one of the original walls 99 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:00,800 that confined the Jews into the Warsaw ghetto. 100 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:02,640 And on Yom Kippur, 101 00:09:02,800 --> 00:09:04,760 the holiest day of the Jewish year in 1940, 102 00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:06,520 the Jewish population finds out 103 00:09:06,680 --> 00:09:09,880 that it's going to be confined into a ghetto. 104 00:09:10,040 --> 00:09:13,840 Half a million Jews, almost, forced into this tiny area. 105 00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:18,760 MAREK: A few hundred people crowd every large, unheated room 106 00:09:18,920 --> 00:09:19,920 of a synagogue, 107 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:21,960 every hall of a deserted factory. 108 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:25,560 A whole family often receives sleeping space for one. 109 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:29,280 The walls and barbed wire surrounding the ghetto 110 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:32,200 completely cut off the Jews from the outside world. 111 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:45,520 AVINOAM: These are starvation rations. 112 00:09:45,680 --> 00:09:47,560 There's no way that people can live on this. 113 00:09:53,920 --> 00:09:55,760 MAREK: Children begged everywhere. 114 00:09:56,760 --> 00:09:58,960 Six-year-old boys crawled through the walls 115 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:00,120 and barbed wire 116 00:10:00,280 --> 00:10:02,200 to obtain food on the other side. 117 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:05,440 They supported entire families in this manner. 118 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:10,880 - This was all part of a plan which was going to degrade the Jews, 119 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:12,080 dehumanise them, 120 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:14,960 force them to live in horrible, horrible conditions 121 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:16,440 where you have disease... 122 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:19,240 The creation of the ghetto 123 00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:23,000 was EXACTLY to facilitate the spread of epidemics. 124 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:25,080 They would bring in film crews into the ghetto 125 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:28,840 as part of their propaganda effort to show this how Jews live, 126 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,280 this is how Jews carry disease 127 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:33,720 and how Jews will ultimately die. 128 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:34,880 (crow cawing) 129 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:47,800 (birds chirping) 130 00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:49,240 So, people often want to know 131 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:52,600 why the Jewish population didn't fight back immediately. 132 00:10:52,760 --> 00:10:55,480 Half a million Jews crowded into the ghetto, 133 00:10:55,640 --> 00:10:58,680 why didn't they take up arms and fight back against the Germans? 134 00:11:00,240 --> 00:11:02,560 - Collective punishment. - Collective punishment. 135 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:07,760 The Jews knew that you can start some resistance. 136 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:11,080 You can aim a pistol and shoot one person, two people, 137 00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:12,240 whatever it is, 138 00:11:12,400 --> 00:11:15,280 but the Germans would then arrest 2,000. 139 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:40,080 - But the truth is, from the very beginning, 140 00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:42,320 right, once they're crowded into the ghetto, 141 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:46,280 they did resist in the ways that they knew best to do. 142 00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:49,520 Resistance that was a type of spiritual resistance. 143 00:11:49,680 --> 00:11:51,720 Resistance that was a way of standing up 144 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:53,200 against the German oppressors. 145 00:11:53,360 --> 00:11:55,680 Feeding the hungry, 146 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:58,640 clothing the poor, taking care of orphans, 147 00:11:58,800 --> 00:12:01,240 these were strategies that Jews had used for centuries 148 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:02,840 and which they fell back upon. 149 00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:13,080 - The unarmed resistance is called in Hebrew Amidah. 150 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:18,520 Amidah is standing, standing up, 151 00:12:18,680 --> 00:12:21,000 or in Yiddish I would say... 152 00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:22,480 (speaking yiddish) 153 00:12:22,640 --> 00:12:25,200 "I'm not yielding to the situation!" 154 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:28,160 Whatever you do that is against the situation 155 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:30,120 IS resistance! 156 00:12:32,200 --> 00:12:36,560 - Whether you sit or lie or crawl or swim or stand up 157 00:12:36,720 --> 00:12:38,320 makes absolutely no difference. 158 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:39,480 It's Amidah. 159 00:12:41,520 --> 00:12:43,760 VLADKA: Life in the ghetto was a chain of resistance. 160 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:47,560 There were illegal schools, there were illegal libraries, 161 00:12:47,720 --> 00:12:49,640 choirs, even theatres... 162 00:12:49,800 --> 00:12:51,240 It was an illegal LIFE! 163 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:58,080 - The Germans wanted to destroy any kind of Jewish existence, 164 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:00,400 also cultural existence and so on. 165 00:13:00,560 --> 00:13:05,520 So, when you educated children in ghettos, 166 00:13:05,680 --> 00:13:09,880 if they survived for them to develop after the war 167 00:13:10,040 --> 00:13:12,440 this was against the German idea, eh? 168 00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:16,000 BENJAMIN: I organised a school in my building 169 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:17,920 and I became the teacher of that school. 170 00:13:19,080 --> 00:13:21,440 I had never prepared for being a teacher 171 00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:23,080 but there were no schools. 172 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:24,560 All schools were illegal. 173 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:28,560 - And if you always keep in mind 174 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:32,960 that part of what the Germans wanted to do was to kill the body 175 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:34,960 but also to kill the soul, 176 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:36,800 to undermine humanity, 177 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:39,040 the humanity of the individual... 178 00:13:39,200 --> 00:13:41,760 And therefore, if you never lost your humanity, 179 00:13:41,920 --> 00:13:43,520 then in a very real sense 180 00:13:43,680 --> 00:13:45,400 you're helping to defeat the Germans. 181 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:55,600 VLADKA: Although you see today how the pictures, 182 00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:57,560 mostly from Germans, 183 00:13:57,720 --> 00:14:00,840 pictures of Jews who were beggars and pitiful, 184 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:02,000 and this is taken 185 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:05,600 because the Germans would like us only to be seen this way... 186 00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:08,000 This was only one part of the ghetto. 187 00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:11,480 It was true, there were beggars, 188 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:15,440 but there was another kind of life full of activities 189 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:16,880 and spiritual resistance. 190 00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:20,960 (heartwarming music) 191 00:14:39,160 --> 00:14:40,560 EMANUEL: With a little peace, 192 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:43,720 we may succeed in making sure that not a single fact 193 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:46,840 about Jewish life at this time and place 194 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:48,440 will be kept from the world. 195 00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:52,480 - They were documenting 196 00:14:52,640 --> 00:14:54,680 the entire life of the Warsaw ghetto. 197 00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:57,120 And then they buried it. 198 00:14:57,280 --> 00:15:00,360 And they buried it 'cause they wanted to make sure it survived. 199 00:15:09,240 --> 00:15:12,840 It's the equivalent of seeing for the first time 200 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:14,200 the Dead Sea Scrolls. 201 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:17,840 The difference is, this is so close to our own era. 202 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:22,520 And to know that Jews had been documenting 203 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:26,400 and preserved it like a message in a bottle 204 00:15:26,560 --> 00:15:27,960 for future generations... 205 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:34,880 "What we couldn't scream out to the world 206 00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:36,360 we buried in the ground. 207 00:15:37,560 --> 00:15:40,120 I would like to live to see the moment 208 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:43,600 when it will be possible to unearth this great treasure 209 00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:45,560 and shout out the truth. 210 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:48,600 May this treasure fall into good hands, 211 00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:51,760 may it survive until better times, 212 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:53,440 may it alarm the world 213 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:55,720 to what happened in the 20th century. 214 00:15:57,800 --> 00:15:59,600 Now we can die in peace. 215 00:15:59,760 --> 00:16:02,160 Our mission has been accomplished. 216 00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:04,520 Let history bear witness to that." 217 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:21,440 - So, Warsaw is occupied 218 00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:23,760 and the goal for Jews is to survive, 219 00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:25,160 to live to see another day, 220 00:16:25,320 --> 00:16:27,320 to live until the war is gonna be over. 221 00:16:28,720 --> 00:16:33,160 They have no idea that the end point of Germans' occupation 222 00:16:33,320 --> 00:16:34,560 is extermination. 223 00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:40,040 (birds chirping) 224 00:17:57,040 --> 00:17:59,520 - This is one of the main recreation spots in Kaunas. 225 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:00,680 It sits up on a hill. 226 00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:01,840 It's windy. It's breezy. 227 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:04,080 People come here for picnics, to walk their dog. 228 00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:06,320 I've seen wedding ceremonies here... 229 00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:09,760 But what people don't know is, underneath where we're standing, 230 00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:13,360 this is where 50,000 Jews were buried in 14 trenches. 231 00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:25,680 - This is where the Jews' plant is going to be 232 00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:28,760 and even if they were to try to memorialise this 233 00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:31,600 they don't know where the trenches are... 234 00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:46,200 They thought they were going to a labour camp, 235 00:18:46,360 --> 00:18:47,800 they were gonna be doing work 236 00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:50,360 and that's what the artefacts tell us. 237 00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:55,640 Passports, watches, personal items, 238 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:57,680 every type of button 239 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:01,440 because everyone thought they were coming to go to work! 240 00:19:02,280 --> 00:19:04,320 - Everyone is very smart today... 241 00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:06,800 How didn't they realise? How didn't they know? 242 00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:08,280 But you never believe! 243 00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:11,160 I mean, you can believe that you will be mistreated and beaten 244 00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:12,360 and humiliated 245 00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:14,480 but you cannot imagine you will be simply taken, 246 00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:16,320 led to the forest and killed there! 247 00:19:23,760 --> 00:19:25,960 - When we take a look at sites like this, 248 00:19:26,120 --> 00:19:28,200 and we're looking at many Holocaust sites... 249 00:19:28,360 --> 00:19:31,800 And what's important is that survivors have told their story 250 00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:34,440 and we believe their stories. 251 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:37,080 What we're trying to do is bring scientific methodology 252 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:40,320 and scientific tools to verify those stories. 253 00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:46,880 (inaudible chatter) 254 00:19:57,040 --> 00:19:58,600 - We really are hoping, 255 00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:00,240 and I'm not naive... 256 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:05,840 We're really hoping that we can diminish genocide 257 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:10,800 when perpetrators know they can never get away with their crime. 258 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:42,320 (children crying) 259 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:44,920 - The most horrific statistic I think of 260 00:20:45,080 --> 00:20:48,240 is that only 11% of European Jewish children 261 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:50,400 who were alive in 1939 262 00:20:50,560 --> 00:20:52,480 were still alive in 1945. 263 00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:02,120 - My name is Dana Pomeranz Mazurkevich. 264 00:21:03,320 --> 00:21:05,120 I'm originally from Lithuania. 265 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:08,000 I was born in Kovno ghetto. 266 00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:11,440 My father was a very famous violinist. 267 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:16,880 My mother and father decided that somehow, by miracle, 268 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:21,600 somehow they have to smuggle me out of ghetto. 269 00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:27,640 My mother got in touch with Yelena Zhelinka-Pechaika, 270 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:31,480 who was a very beautiful drama theatre artist 271 00:21:31,640 --> 00:21:33,760 who had her own three children. 272 00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:36,360 My mother, she said, 273 00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:39,880 "I have girl who have beautiful blonde hair 274 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:42,000 and have blue eyes. 275 00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:45,320 She's Jewish child, could you save her?" 276 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:48,800 And that Lithuanian woman, 277 00:21:48,960 --> 00:21:50,760 having her own children, 278 00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:54,680 she said, "Bring that child. I will take her." 279 00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:58,920 They gave me a big amount of sleeping pills 280 00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:01,800 and put me in a sack of potato. 281 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:05,960 And it was one Lithuanian guy, 282 00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:09,000 he took me in some kind of carriage 283 00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:10,840 and then we passed the border 284 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,560 and German soldier was staying there. 285 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:15,560 Somehow, 286 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:17,680 I probably didn't have enough air, 287 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:20,160 and I started to make that noise... 288 00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:21,520 (yelping) 289 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:24,880 And that German ask, "Vas is das?" 290 00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:26,840 What is this? 291 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:28,840 And that Lithuanian guy, he said, 292 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,040 "This is kleine schweine, little piglet." 293 00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:35,520 Somehow, they let us pass. 294 00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:41,720 It required an unbelievable courage, 295 00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:43,240 unbelievable, 296 00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,160 that they could give me away 297 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,960 and not knowing if they will survive 298 00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:52,760 and not knowing if I will survive. 299 00:22:56,880 --> 00:23:00,800 I think it was a big, big act of resistance 300 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:04,680 because I will not let to take my child... 301 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:07,360 And my mother had to... 302 00:23:08,360 --> 00:23:09,600 Had to give me away! 303 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:15,960 It... It took so much courage for her to do that! 304 00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:20,640 I have a beautiful daughter, Milana. 305 00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:25,520 Sometimes I think would I be able to do? 306 00:23:26,200 --> 00:23:27,200 I don't know... 307 00:23:41,081 --> 00:23:45,880 (bells toll as music sways) 308 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:55,760 - Vilna was called the Jerusalem of Lithuania. 309 00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:00,920 Vilna was probably the most Jewish city in the world. 310 00:24:01,680 --> 00:24:04,040 We consider New York to be very Jewish 311 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:05,600 and New York's got... 312 00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:08,680 Fifteen percent of the population's Jewish. 313 00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:10,640 But Vilna, at its peak, had... 314 00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:14,040 Forty percent of the population was Jewish! 315 00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:20,680 - As a child in Vilna, 316 00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:25,040 I lived with a sense of, um, living in paradise. 317 00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:29,160 SAMUEL: It was a great centre of Jewish learning. 318 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:32,840 It was a city of the spirit 319 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:34,960 and that's why it got the name Jerusalem. 320 00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:46,280 - But when the Germans arrived it began very quickly, 321 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:49,000 the troubles for the Jewish population. 322 00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:52,800 One day, two Lithuanian policemen came and just, uh, 323 00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:54,320 kicked us out from the house. 324 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:56,760 And it was raining, it was a terrible rain 325 00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:58,280 and I was carrying this pillow 326 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:01,120 and this pillow became more and more wet, 327 00:25:01,280 --> 00:25:02,560 more and more heavy, 328 00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:04,360 I couldn't carry it at a certain point 329 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:08,880 so I threw it away into the water on the road 330 00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:11,040 and I saw a lot of people walking over it 331 00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:15,520 and it became, for me, a little symbol of losing home! 332 00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:23,400 - The Germans attacked Vilna on June 22nd 1941. 333 00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:27,360 That's almost two years later than when they attacked Warsaw. 334 00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:32,120 So, the Germans came late but they acted fast 335 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:35,920 and the Germans started looting Jewish cultural treasures in Vilna. 336 00:25:37,120 --> 00:25:39,320 In July 1941, 337 00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:43,200 they realised that there were just too many Jewish books and papers 338 00:25:43,360 --> 00:25:45,240 and documents and treasures in this city. 339 00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:46,680 They couldn't handle it 340 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:51,320 and that's why they established this slave labour brigade of Jews 341 00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:53,360 that would sort the material 342 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:55,440 called The Paper Brigade. 343 00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:00,640 - The Germans had this idea 344 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:04,440 to build a museum to the Jewish people 345 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:07,560 in a world where there are no Jewish people! 346 00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:10,640 In order to show the world 347 00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:14,800 what a good job the Germans have done 348 00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:17,720 in saving the world from this people, OK? 349 00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:20,960 So, this is the background, this was the idea. 350 00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:24,400 My grandfather, Avrom Sutzkever, 351 00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:26,480 he was one of those people 352 00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:30,800 who were chosen to select the materials 353 00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:33,600 and those people like my grandfather 354 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,920 had decided to rescue whatever they can 355 00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:38,680 and bring it back to the ghetto. 356 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:41,720 - Right here, right behind me 357 00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:45,520 is where the gate to the Vilna ghetto stood. 358 00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:51,400 The members of The Paper Brigade had to pass through this gate daily. 359 00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:56,160 They had books packed underneath their clothing, 360 00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:58,080 under their shirts, under their pants, 361 00:26:58,240 --> 00:26:59,720 in their shoes 362 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:04,640 and they had to pass through body searches of ghetto guards. 363 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:10,040 If they were found to be carrying books on them, 364 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:13,720 it didn't matter if you were carrying books or food or anything, 365 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:15,200 the penalty was the same. 366 00:27:15,360 --> 00:27:16,880 Death. 367 00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:23,440 And many of those books, 368 00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:26,440 once they were smuggled into the ghetto successfully, 369 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:27,840 they brought here 370 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:29,320 to the building that was probably 371 00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:31,760 the central address in the Vilna ghetto, 372 00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:33,680 the Vilna ghetto library. 373 00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:37,560 Reading was a kind of moral, 374 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:39,440 cultural, spiritual resistance. 375 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:41,440 You're not gonna break my humanity. 376 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,920 I'm a human being and reading books is integral to being a human being 377 00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:46,320 and I'm gonna do that! 378 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:49,000 - It was... 379 00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:50,520 Absolutely, it was a resistance. 380 00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:53,280 And it was as indispensable as bread, 381 00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:54,600 I would say! 382 00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:55,760 (laughs) 383 00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:56,920 As they say in Hebrew, 384 00:27:57,080 --> 00:27:58,840 not only on bread can man live, 385 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:01,240 he needs also something for the spirit. 386 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:20,800 In the ghetto, 387 00:28:20,960 --> 00:28:24,880 where art and writing and poetry were created, 388 00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:27,400 where people could express themselves, 389 00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:29,160 there was a sense of... 390 00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:30,320 Of dignity. 391 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:34,920 And I think this was a very important factor 392 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:41,080 that kept the psyche of the people more or less alive. 393 00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:56,400 - My name is Michael Kovner. 394 00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:59,320 My parents were Abba Kovner and Vitka Kovner, 395 00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:00,840 Kempner-Kovner. 396 00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:04,840 My father wanted to be a painter 397 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,640 and he accepted to the Vilna Academic of Painting. 398 00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:10,920 He was accepted to this but he couldn't... 399 00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:16,040 You know, the war come, so he couldn't fulfil this dream. 400 00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:19,560 But I think he always was kind of a poet. 401 00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:22,440 My mother, she... 402 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:24,080 She walk on the pavement, 403 00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:27,400 which Jewish in Poland after Nazi occupation 404 00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:30,320 weren't allowed to walk on the pavement... 405 00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:32,240 And she went on the pavement 406 00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:34,240 and then the officer or soldier, 407 00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:38,480 the Nazi came to her and he asked her, "You are Jewish?" 408 00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:39,640 And she said, "Yes." 409 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:41,840 "So, why you are going on the pavement?" 410 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:43,240 She said, "Why not?" 411 00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:45,000 And he said, "You are not allowed!" 412 00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:49,880 And she gave him splash on his face and continued to walk. 413 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:51,680 So, that's her type! 414 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:09,960 - The youth movement played a role in the life of the youngsters 415 00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:11,400 at the time. 416 00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:13,280 They felt belonging. 417 00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:14,960 It wasn't just a place 418 00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:18,520 to which you go to be entertained once or twice a week. 419 00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:21,200 You lived your life with the members, 420 00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:23,080 you lived through them. 421 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:27,200 It's a collective identity of being Jewish 422 00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:30,920 and this explains to you the way they handle themselves 423 00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:32,400 during the war. 424 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:36,800 ABBA: We had formed our group starting from a precise ideology. 425 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:40,360 Our fight was not for self-preservation, 426 00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:43,480 it was not to save myself, to save you, 427 00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:44,720 to save a neighbour... 428 00:30:45,760 --> 00:30:47,240 It was to fight the Germans. 429 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:52,600 - In half a year, 430 00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:54,200 the Jewish population of Vilna 431 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:59,160 went down from 70,000 to 20,000 Jews. 432 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:01,680 More than two-thirds of the Jews of Vilna were killed 433 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:02,880 in half a year. 434 00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:04,600 And that's in 1941, 435 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,960 well before there were deportations to the death camps 436 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:11,640 from Warsaw and other cities in Poland. 437 00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:18,400 ABBA: One day, I was called and told to go to the hospital of the ghetto, 438 00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:21,320 that there was a young girl injured who wanted to talk to me 439 00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:22,960 and only to me. 440 00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:27,840 From her, I got the first direct evidence about what was happening. 441 00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:32,920 There were 119 women. 442 00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:34,760 (shot) 443 00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:36,240 They were told to line up. 444 00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:39,840 Behind them, there were ditches. 445 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:41,000 (shots) 446 00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:46,240 The Lithuanians started firing on the whole line of women... 447 00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:47,400 (gunfire) 448 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:50,200 And all the women fell into the ditch. 449 00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:51,360 (shots) 450 00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:52,520 Dead. 451 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:11,800 - This is the burial pit. 452 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:15,080 It was a burial pit in 1941. 453 00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:19,280 And in this forest, 454 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:23,680 both Nazis and their collaborators from Lithuania 455 00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:29,840 systemically shot about 100,000 people in these pits. 456 00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:39,720 ABBA: One thing is clear to me... 457 00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:41,560 Vilna is not just Vilna. 458 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:44,600 Ponari is not just an episode. 459 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:47,160 There is a system 460 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:51,040 whose inner workings are for the meantime hidden from us. 461 00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:57,400 - My father said, "Nobody can escape! 462 00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:00,440 The Jewish people cannot escape from this! 463 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:04,120 So, what the Jewish people can do, they can fight for their honour! 464 00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:06,760 That's it, to fight for their honour!" 465 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:20,960 ABBA: They shall not take us like sheep to the slaughter! 466 00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:25,120 All those who were taken away from the ghetto never came back! 467 00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:32,080 - It is a call to the population that was left 468 00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:34,120 not to foster illusions! 469 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:37,760 Those who went out of the gates of the ghetto 470 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:38,960 will not come back! 471 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:44,120 ABBA: All the roads of the Gestapo lead to Ponari 472 00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:46,520 and Ponari is death... 473 00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:51,800 - He said Hitler has a plot... 474 00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:57,120 He's planning to murder all the Jews of Europe! 475 00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:01,400 If everyone out of the ghetto was killed... 476 00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:07,480 ..and if there is a plan to kill the rest as well... 477 00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:16,640 ..then there is no other choice left but to resist! 478 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:21,280 ABBA: It is true we are weak and defenceless 479 00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,720 but resistance is the ONLY reply! 480 00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:29,400 Brothers, it is better to fall as free fighters 481 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:32,320 than to live by the grace of the murderers! 482 00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:37,840 Resist to the last breath! 483 00:35:06,760 --> 00:35:07,920 - Nobody wanted to resist 484 00:35:08,080 --> 00:35:10,200 because they said if you try to resist 485 00:35:10,360 --> 00:35:11,600 they will kill everyone. 486 00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:14,320 And the youth movement said, 487 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:16,200 "They're going to kill everyone anyway 488 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:17,360 and we must resist!" 489 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:53,080 RUZKA: The soul was enlightened. 490 00:35:53,240 --> 00:35:55,280 The ghetto nightmare dissipated... 491 00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:59,040 Martyrdom, helplessness and slavery are over! 492 00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:03,760 And now the one goal before us is rebellion! 493 00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:35,000 VITKA: We were not soldiers. We'd never shot a gun before. 494 00:36:35,160 --> 00:36:38,520 We took a pipe and another boy got the dynamite. 495 00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:40,040 It was very primitive. 496 00:36:41,720 --> 00:36:44,400 - My mother, she went with two other guys 497 00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:47,320 for three days outside the ghetto 498 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:49,520 because they have to go very far from the ghetto 499 00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:54,280 that the German won't know that the Jewish people did it. 500 00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:56,120 That was most important thing. 501 00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:58,720 So, she found the best place, 502 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:00,560 the patrol of the German is not there 503 00:37:00,720 --> 00:37:02,360 when the train is there, da, da, da, 504 00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:04,000 she found the best place. 505 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:07,400 VITKA: At 1:30 in the morning, we planted the bomb. 506 00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:09,640 We took it and we put it under the rail tracks. 507 00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:11,640 We escaped very quickly. 508 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,000 When the train passed over it at 2:00, 509 00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:15,440 it exploded... 510 00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:16,600 (booming) 511 00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:18,720 ..and from far away we heard the explosion! 512 00:37:22,480 --> 00:37:24,560 - She was the hero of all the story! 513 00:37:24,720 --> 00:37:27,800 Like, she was the first one who went outside the ghetto 514 00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:29,400 and bombed a German train! 515 00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:06,880 - One should never believe that Warsaw and Vilna 516 00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:08,840 were the only ghettos that rose. 517 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:12,240 Ghettos, large and small, rose in resistance. 518 00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:17,600 - If we discuss how the Nazis reacted to resistance, 519 00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:21,120 they thought of Jews being so inferior to them 520 00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:23,000 that they're unable to resist, 521 00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:26,120 that will actually go as the cattle to the slaughter. 522 00:39:26,280 --> 00:39:27,640 So, we have to understand that 523 00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:30,920 when we use this phrase 'cattle to the slaughter' 524 00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:34,160 we use the Nazi lens. 525 00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:37,160 We look at Jews through Nazi eyes. 526 00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:03,960 - When my mother became a courier, 527 00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:08,480 the first, uh, task was to move into Grodno. 528 00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:11,680 In Grodno, 529 00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:13,920 she was supposed to see what's going on 530 00:40:14,080 --> 00:40:17,000 with the Jewish community 'cause there were no connections. 531 00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:19,560 You have to understand, there was no telephones, 532 00:40:19,720 --> 00:40:20,840 all telephones were cut. 533 00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,680 There was no mail service, there was no internet. 534 00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:28,720 BELA: Each one of us preferred to fall in combat 535 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:31,520 than to be led as sheep to the slaughter. 536 00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:34,160 The movement's leadership 537 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:36,640 sought out girls with a gentile appearance 538 00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:40,200 who would serve as liaison-couriers between the different locations. 539 00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:44,000 This role was unsuitable for boys, 540 00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:46,040 who already, from the age of eight days, 541 00:40:46,200 --> 00:40:48,000 had their Jewishness marked on their flesh. 542 00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:52,560 I volunteered for the role 543 00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:55,120 as I'd already gained experience and self-confidence 544 00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,080 impersonating a gentile and going outside the ghetto. 545 00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:02,840 - They smuggled weapons, 546 00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:05,160 guns and grenades and so on. 547 00:41:06,240 --> 00:41:07,760 This was a very dangerous mission. 548 00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:11,520 They also smuggled people out of the ghetto 549 00:41:11,680 --> 00:41:13,160 to put them in hiding places. 550 00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:16,000 EMANUEL: These heroic girls 551 00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:19,320 are a theme that calls for the pen of a great writer. 552 00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:22,120 Boldly, they travel back and forth 553 00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:24,320 through the cities and towns of Poland. 554 00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:28,120 They accept and carry out the most dangerous missions. 555 00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:30,680 Nothing stands in their way. 556 00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:36,360 - My mother, she was sent to Grodno. 557 00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:39,960 I must remind you again that she was 19 years old. 558 00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:43,880 She bought a golden cross and a prayer book 559 00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:46,920 and she pretended to be a Catholic, 560 00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:50,360 which meant that every Sunday she went to church 561 00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:51,840 and she prayed 562 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:53,720 and she all the time looked what to do 563 00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:55,880 because she had no idea. 564 00:41:56,040 --> 00:41:58,120 One must remember that these couriers 565 00:41:58,280 --> 00:42:00,760 who were actually CIA agents, if you want, 566 00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:02,360 or Mossad agents, 567 00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:03,800 they had no training. 568 00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:07,120 They had to improvise all the time 569 00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:09,160 and they did many mistakes also, 570 00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:11,080 which cost some of them their lives. 571 00:42:12,760 --> 00:42:15,120 BELA: I went to the labour bureau in town. 572 00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:17,360 The clerk asked me whether I knew German 573 00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:19,600 and I answered him in poor Yiddish. 574 00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:22,280 For vus, I said vas and so on... 575 00:42:23,680 --> 00:42:25,720 After a few sentences from me he declared, 576 00:42:25,880 --> 00:42:27,840 "You speak German very well. 577 00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:31,880 You can take a position with us as an interpreter at the Gestapo." 578 00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:36,720 - So, when she worked in that office, 579 00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:41,080 she managed to steal from the desk all kinds of papers and stamps 580 00:42:41,240 --> 00:42:42,560 and she brought them to Vilna 581 00:42:42,720 --> 00:42:45,720 and they were used to make false identities 582 00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:47,000 for other people, 583 00:42:47,160 --> 00:42:49,600 travelling documents and so on. 584 00:42:51,040 --> 00:42:53,600 She was several months, almost half a year in Grodno. 585 00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:56,760 Her two friends who were also couriers, 586 00:42:56,920 --> 00:42:58,760 Tina Schneiderman and Lonka Korzybrodska, 587 00:42:58,920 --> 00:42:59,920 came to her room. 588 00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:01,680 This was Christmas Eve 589 00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:05,560 and my mother was invited by the Gestapo. 590 00:43:05,720 --> 00:43:09,640 There was one officer who, I think, was in love with her 591 00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:11,560 and he invited her 592 00:43:11,720 --> 00:43:14,560 to the Christmas party of the Gestapo. 593 00:43:14,720 --> 00:43:15,800 And she said, "I'm sorry... 594 00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:19,120 I cannot come because I have two girlfriends." 595 00:43:19,280 --> 00:43:22,280 And he said, "Bring them also with you." 596 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:23,840 He came to pick her up 597 00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:25,320 and the three of them, 598 00:43:25,480 --> 00:43:28,600 they dressed in the best clothes that they had. 599 00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:32,240 They went on Christmas Eve December 1941 600 00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:33,880 to this Christmas party 601 00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:38,280 and this Gestapo officer took a picture of the three of them. 602 00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:39,440 (snaps) 603 00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:52,440 - So, this is original photo. 604 00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:54,680 Quite amazing how things from the Holocaust, 605 00:43:54,840 --> 00:43:56,520 original like that, 606 00:43:56,680 --> 00:43:58,600 this is an original photo, 607 00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:02,360 found a way to our archive during the years. 608 00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:12,000 - June 1942. 609 00:44:12,160 --> 00:44:14,480 Lonka Korzybrodska was sent to Warsaw. 610 00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:16,600 She was sent on a mission. 611 00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:19,760 She had to deliver two guns to the underground 612 00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:21,200 and information. 613 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:24,000 And she was on the train 614 00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:26,880 in the middle between Bialystok and Warsaw 615 00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:29,600 and her luck didn't hold 616 00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:32,280 and she was captured by the Gestapo. 617 00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:35,040 (hissing) 618 00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:37,520 So, when Lonka did not come back to Bialystok, 619 00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:40,880 my mother volunteered to follow her steps and to... 620 00:44:41,040 --> 00:44:42,560 To look for her. 621 00:44:42,720 --> 00:44:46,360 So, she went on the train from Bialystok to Warsaw 622 00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:49,480 and when the train got to Malkinia 623 00:44:49,640 --> 00:44:53,000 the Gendarmes who were on the train told her, 624 00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:55,280 "We are waiting for you, come... 625 00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:56,440 Come with us." 626 00:44:57,680 --> 00:44:59,560 And why were they waiting for her? 627 00:44:59,720 --> 00:45:00,960 Because Lonka, 628 00:45:01,120 --> 00:45:04,280 she was very courageous and very self-assured. 629 00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:09,360 She carried with her the picture of the three couriers 630 00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:11,800 and this fell into the hands of the Gestapo. 631 00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:15,080 BELA: People in the station 632 00:45:15,240 --> 00:45:17,520 looked at me with pitying expressions. 633 00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:19,000 Soldiers asked me, 634 00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:23,000 "Little girl, what did you do that they're taking you like this?" 635 00:45:23,160 --> 00:45:24,960 I tried my best to hold my head up 636 00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:27,800 so that no one could know what was going on in my heart. 637 00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:29,800 I knew that my chances were gone, 638 00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:33,560 that at any moment the Germans were likely to kill me. 639 00:45:36,200 --> 00:45:40,200 - And after three days of severe tortures, 640 00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:42,560 broken bones and a tooth was broken, 641 00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:44,560 and after three days 642 00:45:44,720 --> 00:45:48,240 they threw her into an isolation cell. 643 00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:51,440 For six weeks, she was in darkness all alone. 644 00:46:05,720 --> 00:46:07,560 But she kept her Polish identity. 645 00:46:08,400 --> 00:46:11,640 The Gestapo did not suspect that she's a Jew. 646 00:46:18,163 --> 00:46:21,560 (clinking and clanging) 647 00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:29,520 (trundling) 648 00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:36,240 (hissing) 649 00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:39,400 (dark beat as dog barks in distance) 650 00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:42,360 - The Germans were masters of deceit. 651 00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:45,200 They told the Jews they were being sent to work camps 652 00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:46,360 in the east 653 00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:48,800 where conditions would be better. 654 00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:51,520 But here at the Umschlagplatz, 655 00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:53,800 the Jews were loaded onto trains, 656 00:46:53,960 --> 00:46:57,160 deported to the death camp of Treblinka. 657 00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:00,760 MAREK: They promised 658 00:47:00,920 --> 00:47:04,200 and actually gave three kilograms of bread 659 00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:06,040 and one kilogram of marmalade 660 00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:09,920 to everyone who voluntarily registered for deportation. 661 00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:13,960 Do you have any idea what bread meant at that time 662 00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:15,120 in the ghetto? 663 00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:17,360 Because if you don't, you will never understand 664 00:47:17,520 --> 00:47:21,480 how thousands of people could voluntarily come for the bread 665 00:47:21,640 --> 00:47:24,360 and go on to the camp at Treblinka. 666 00:47:25,400 --> 00:47:26,400 (slams) 667 00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:27,840 - There is this diary 668 00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:29,720 that someone is meeting a father 669 00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:32,680 who is walking towards the Umschlagplatz with his children. 670 00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:35,360 And he's asking, "Why are you doing that? 671 00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:37,840 Why are you obeying the Germans' orders?" 672 00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:40,880 And the man says, "Well, they took my wife already... 673 00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:44,440 I have nothing to give the kids to eat! 674 00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:46,880 They will starve to death here in the ghetto! 675 00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:48,800 What can I do? 676 00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:50,200 I prefer going there 677 00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:53,400 and hoping I'll be able to work and provide my children!" 678 00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:58,080 So, it's really choiceless choices! 679 00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:05,160 (horn blows) 680 00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:18,080 - The Nazis were single-minded about killing off children 681 00:48:18,240 --> 00:48:22,160 with as much cruelty as possible as early as possible. 682 00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:27,720 - Janusz Korczak, the leader of an orphanage 683 00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:29,960 who went with his orphans to Treblinka, 684 00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:31,800 he was offered the opportunity to survive. 685 00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:36,040 Korczak was the equivalent of Mr Rogers. 686 00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:39,320 Non-Jews flocked to hear his radio broadcast. 687 00:48:40,720 --> 00:48:43,600 Are we gonna say that he went like sheep to the slaughter? 688 00:48:44,800 --> 00:48:47,040 Are we gonna say the teachers that stayed with their students, 689 00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:48,880 the doctors that stayed with their patients, 690 00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:51,480 the mothers that stayed with their children 691 00:48:51,640 --> 00:48:53,920 and didn't abandon them, 692 00:48:54,080 --> 00:48:55,800 did they go like sheep to the slaughter? 693 00:48:57,880 --> 00:49:01,400 Or did they take care of those they were responsible to 694 00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:02,720 unto their last breath? 695 00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:06,800 (children shouting in distance) 696 00:49:06,960 --> 00:49:09,520 - Those children didn't have anybody else 697 00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:10,840 to take care of them. 698 00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:13,240 The Jewish children during the Holocaust 699 00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:16,680 were maybe the most miserable victims, 700 00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:19,920 if one can even class within this horrible victimhood. 701 00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:23,960 And the fact that somebody is walking with them until the end, 702 00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:25,440 even when it's a bitter end, 703 00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:27,760 this is something that has its importance. 704 00:49:29,720 --> 00:49:33,280 (distant shouting) 705 00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:36,600 - When it started to go bad, 706 00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:39,000 it was moving incredibly fast. 707 00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:43,240 The deportations were so overwhelming 708 00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:47,680 that, of those 330,000 people who had been in the ghetto, 709 00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:49,400 only 60,000 were left. 710 00:50:07,600 --> 00:50:08,920 - The ghetto is sealed. 711 00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:12,640 Anyone caught leaving or entering is shot on sight 712 00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:14,280 but the walls are porous 713 00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:17,520 and the underground finds ways to sneak fighters in and out 714 00:50:17,680 --> 00:50:20,880 to obtain weapons one or two at a time. 715 00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:26,680 Vladka is one of those sent across to the Aryan side 716 00:50:26,840 --> 00:50:28,360 to try to find weapons. 717 00:50:30,720 --> 00:50:33,640 - I think she would have said, if you asked her directly, 718 00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:37,080 that she was afraid all the time but it didn't make a difference. 719 00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:40,760 She always did what was needed to be done. 720 00:50:43,760 --> 00:50:46,560 VLADKA: It was a great event for me 721 00:50:46,720 --> 00:50:49,200 when I managed to procure my first revolver, 722 00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:52,440 bought from our landlord's nephew for 2,000 zlotys. 723 00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:56,560 MAREK: At the end of December 1942, 724 00:50:56,720 --> 00:50:58,920 we received our first transport of weapons 725 00:50:59,080 --> 00:51:01,000 from the Polish Home Army. 726 00:51:01,160 --> 00:51:02,520 It was not much. 727 00:51:02,680 --> 00:51:05,480 There were only ten pistols in the whole transport 728 00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:08,640 but it enabled us to prepare for our first major action. 729 00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:15,760 - This is unique... 730 00:51:17,320 --> 00:51:23,160 This is a pistol which connect with Jewish fighters 731 00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:26,680 in 1943. 732 00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:28,560 It's hard to excavate 733 00:51:28,720 --> 00:51:32,880 but we are sure there are weapons still in these places. 734 00:51:33,040 --> 00:51:35,800 It's a symbol of Jewish resistance 735 00:51:35,960 --> 00:51:39,600 and a symbol of uprising in 1943. 736 00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:45,960 (gunfire) 737 00:51:57,400 --> 00:51:59,640 - They knew that the day of the uprising 738 00:51:59,800 --> 00:52:01,640 was going to be soon 739 00:52:01,800 --> 00:52:04,960 but the actual minute and day that it happened 740 00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:06,400 caught them by surprise. 741 00:52:06,560 --> 00:52:09,680 They had gotten no message from inside the ghetto 742 00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:12,080 that THIS is the moment 743 00:52:12,240 --> 00:52:14,880 that we are going to start the resistance! 744 00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:19,600 VLADKA: My heart tears at me. 745 00:52:19,760 --> 00:52:23,480 I do so yearn to still be on the other side, 746 00:52:23,640 --> 00:52:26,000 back in the ghetto together with my old friends 747 00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:27,640 and comrades. 748 00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:30,560 I wonder if I will ever see any of them again. 749 00:52:37,320 --> 00:52:38,920 - It was the eve of Passover. 750 00:52:39,080 --> 00:52:41,600 That's one of the things I remember her talking about, 751 00:52:41,760 --> 00:52:45,720 is standing by the window that saw into the ghetto. 752 00:52:45,880 --> 00:52:50,640 She spoke of watching and of wanting to be in there 753 00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:54,240 and of feeling like she had been ordered not to. 754 00:52:59,440 --> 00:53:02,480 VLADKA: Sporadic gunfire erupted in the ghetto! 755 00:53:02,640 --> 00:53:05,160 Powerful detonations made the earth tremble! 756 00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:08,320 The battle had begun... 757 00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:15,760 - The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was the first day of Passover. 758 00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:18,440 Think about it... 759 00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:20,600 They went to fight the Germans 760 00:53:20,760 --> 00:53:23,800 with the taste of matzo still in their mouths 761 00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:25,800 and there was matzo made in the ghetto! 762 00:53:27,320 --> 00:53:30,400 MAREK: Battle groups barricaded at the four corners of the street, 763 00:53:30,560 --> 00:53:32,800 opened concentric fire on them. 764 00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:34,960 German dead soon littered the street. 765 00:53:36,200 --> 00:53:40,240 The glorious SS, therefore, called tanks into action. 766 00:53:40,400 --> 00:53:43,680 The first was burned out by one of our incendiary bottles. 767 00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:46,200 The rest did not approach our positions. 768 00:53:46,360 --> 00:53:49,960 Not a single German left this area alive. 769 00:53:52,200 --> 00:53:56,080 MORDECAI: Something has happened beyond our wildest dreams! 770 00:53:56,240 --> 00:53:59,240 The Germans had to flee from the ghetto twice! 771 00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:02,640 The dream of my life has become a reality! 772 00:54:02,800 --> 00:54:06,840 I have lived to see Jewish self-defence in the ghetto 773 00:54:07,000 --> 00:54:09,520 in all of its greatness and splendour! 774 00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:13,400 VLADKA: Couriers crisscrossed the ghetto to warn the Jews, 775 00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:16,160 "Do not allow yourselves to be taken! 776 00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:18,080 Everyone is to hide in their bunkers! 777 00:54:18,240 --> 00:54:19,480 We must all resist!" 778 00:54:24,400 --> 00:54:26,400 - The vast majority of the population 779 00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:28,040 had no access to arms 780 00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:30,680 but they identified with the resisters 781 00:54:30,840 --> 00:54:32,200 and they refused 782 00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:34,480 to hand themselves over to the Germans. 783 00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:37,600 It was not a passive resistance, 784 00:54:37,760 --> 00:54:40,560 it was an active unarmed resistance! 785 00:54:40,720 --> 00:54:42,080 And that is, after all, 786 00:54:42,240 --> 00:54:44,640 a matter of some 55,000, 60,000 people. 787 00:54:45,640 --> 00:54:46,640 - The Jews are hiding. 788 00:54:46,800 --> 00:54:47,880 The Jews are hiding 789 00:54:48,040 --> 00:54:50,760 and the Germans don't succeed in finding Jews. 790 00:54:50,920 --> 00:54:52,240 It's actually unbelievable... 791 00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:53,720 They're entering house after house, 792 00:54:53,880 --> 00:54:56,960 there are houses in which hundreds of Jews are living there 793 00:54:57,120 --> 00:54:58,440 and they cannot find even one! 794 00:55:01,200 --> 00:55:03,040 VLADKA: I reflect... 795 00:55:03,200 --> 00:55:06,040 There are SO many forms of resistance! 796 00:55:07,080 --> 00:55:11,200 The courageous ghetto fighters firing their pistols, 797 00:55:11,360 --> 00:55:14,200 the mother trying to save her baby, 798 00:55:14,360 --> 00:55:18,000 the father refusing to allow his son to be separated, 799 00:55:18,160 --> 00:55:21,120 the family remaining in hiding under the bed. 800 00:55:21,280 --> 00:55:23,240 These too are part of the uprising. 801 00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:27,200 These too are forms of resistance. 802 00:55:30,440 --> 00:55:31,440 - Very soon, 803 00:55:31,600 --> 00:55:33,640 the Germans understand that the major problem they have 804 00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:38,120 is of those Jews who are staying in the houses and bunkers 805 00:55:38,280 --> 00:55:39,520 despite everything. 806 00:55:39,680 --> 00:55:42,960 And this is when the Germans decide to fight the Jews 807 00:55:43,120 --> 00:55:44,440 with the weapon of fire 808 00:55:44,600 --> 00:55:47,760 and they start to set the ghetto on fire. 809 00:56:28,600 --> 00:56:31,840 - The Warsaw ghetto held out longer than the armies of France 810 00:56:32,000 --> 00:56:34,880 and Belgium and Netherlands. 811 00:56:35,040 --> 00:56:36,800 What an achievement. 812 00:56:36,960 --> 00:56:38,800 On the other hand, as an action, 813 00:56:38,960 --> 00:56:41,200 it was the end, it was the last stand, 814 00:56:41,360 --> 00:56:44,320 but as an act of moral resistance to it all 815 00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:49,560 it's a matter of screaming, shouting, fighting, 816 00:56:49,720 --> 00:56:52,880 deciding that I will take the enemy down with me... 817 00:56:55,600 --> 00:56:57,440 ..and not go quietly into the dark night. 818 00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:05,520 (water splashing) 819 00:57:05,680 --> 00:57:10,160 (trickling) 820 00:57:14,160 --> 00:57:17,320 (birdsong) 821 00:57:17,480 --> 00:57:20,680 - This stone, taken from the rubble at Mila 18, 822 00:57:20,840 --> 00:57:25,000 marks the final resting place of the brave fighters who died here 823 00:57:25,160 --> 00:57:26,560 and it reads, 824 00:57:26,720 --> 00:57:27,880 "Here they rest, 825 00:57:28,040 --> 00:57:29,480 buried where they fell, 826 00:57:29,640 --> 00:57:33,720 to remind us that the whole earth is their grave." 827 00:58:09,920 --> 00:58:13,600 ABBA: The Germans' tactics changed on September 23rd. 828 00:58:13,760 --> 00:58:17,400 At 1:00pm, the ghetto was suddenly surrounded. 829 00:58:17,560 --> 00:58:19,560 They knew we were there. 830 00:58:19,720 --> 00:58:23,440 We had every reason to believe they'd take out the remaining Jews 831 00:58:23,600 --> 00:58:25,240 and then shell with artillery. 832 00:58:26,640 --> 00:58:28,000 We decided to make our way out. 833 00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:31,920 The only way out was through the sewers. 834 00:58:32,080 --> 00:58:34,520 (trickling) 835 00:58:34,680 --> 00:58:35,800 - So, that's the end of it! 836 00:58:36,960 --> 00:58:38,640 Now, the sewage canals, 837 00:58:38,800 --> 00:58:41,280 well, this is a place for no one. 838 00:58:41,440 --> 00:58:44,680 But certainly not for elderly mothers with illnesses 839 00:58:44,840 --> 00:58:47,080 and wounds and whatever... 840 00:58:47,240 --> 00:58:50,200 So, they did not take any parents 841 00:58:50,360 --> 00:58:52,480 or young brothers and sisters, 842 00:58:52,640 --> 00:58:53,840 just them, 843 00:58:54,000 --> 00:58:56,160 and his mother came running and said, 844 00:58:56,320 --> 00:58:59,480 "OK, what about me? What about me?!" 845 00:59:00,560 --> 00:59:02,960 ABBA: One of the most terrible moments I had, 846 00:59:03,120 --> 00:59:05,480 my mother made her way there. 847 00:59:05,640 --> 00:59:07,800 She asked me, "What should I do?" 848 00:59:09,240 --> 00:59:11,680 I couldn't let her in because of the other mothers. 849 00:59:12,800 --> 00:59:13,960 I didn't have an answer. 850 00:59:15,240 --> 00:59:18,880 It's easier to talk about a fight or a revolt in abstract terms 851 00:59:19,040 --> 00:59:22,680 but when your mother asks you, "What should I do?" 852 00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:25,680 And the commander has no answer... 853 00:59:29,120 --> 00:59:30,160 - And they left her. 854 00:59:30,320 --> 00:59:31,440 And they left her... 855 00:59:31,600 --> 00:59:35,640 And his mother appears in most of his poems and dreams, 856 00:59:35,800 --> 00:59:37,280 et cetera, 857 00:59:37,440 --> 00:59:40,720 always dreaming the door would open and she will be there. 858 00:59:44,200 --> 00:59:45,200 And she was not. 859 00:59:47,400 --> 00:59:49,000 ABBA: She went to a hiding place. 860 00:59:50,440 --> 00:59:52,040 She went to a hiding place 861 00:59:52,200 --> 00:59:54,280 that was later captured by the Germans. 862 01:00:00,600 --> 01:00:02,840 - They went out to the forest with nothing, 863 01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:05,520 just their shirt on the back, that's it. 864 01:00:05,680 --> 01:00:07,320 What do they do? 865 01:00:07,480 --> 01:00:13,400 The forest is rain and snow and wild animals and nothing to eat 866 01:00:13,560 --> 01:00:16,560 and it's a horrible place to... 867 01:00:16,720 --> 01:00:17,720 To live in! 868 01:00:19,360 --> 01:00:21,160 VITKA: It was a forest. 869 01:00:21,320 --> 01:00:22,880 A forest without Nazis. 870 01:00:24,480 --> 01:00:27,320 We lived there under the sky for two months. 871 01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:30,520 It was raining and it was cold 872 01:00:30,680 --> 01:00:32,760 but it is what we had in the beginning. 873 01:00:36,440 --> 01:00:37,920 - Abba Kovner, 874 01:00:38,080 --> 01:00:43,000 his avengers worked and lived exactly here in this forest. 875 01:00:48,840 --> 01:00:50,960 Today, we can show you, 876 01:00:51,120 --> 01:00:56,120 we're lucky to show you the remains of these bunkers that we have here. 877 01:00:59,840 --> 01:01:01,280 VITKA: In the Rudniki Forest, 878 01:01:01,440 --> 01:01:03,960 there were 600, maybe a thousand, 879 01:01:04,120 --> 01:01:07,440 I think 30%, 40% were women 880 01:01:07,600 --> 01:01:10,040 and the boys did not want to go with the women. 881 01:01:10,200 --> 01:01:13,040 They'd say, "No, you are a woman! 882 01:01:13,200 --> 01:01:15,200 You are not prepared! You can't do it! 883 01:01:15,360 --> 01:01:17,080 You get upset, you are weak! 884 01:01:17,240 --> 01:01:18,240 You cannot go!" 885 01:01:19,400 --> 01:01:22,040 In our group, Abba was the commander. 886 01:01:22,200 --> 01:01:25,400 If not for Abba, no woman would be a fighter. 887 01:01:25,560 --> 01:01:28,360 It was he who demanded that, in every action, 888 01:01:28,520 --> 01:01:29,720 there has to be one woman. 889 01:01:49,800 --> 01:01:52,680 - One of them told me ever again, 890 01:01:52,840 --> 01:01:54,800 "We were not born partisans, 891 01:01:54,960 --> 01:01:58,120 we were children from good homes! 892 01:01:58,280 --> 01:02:01,600 I studied French and piano and Latin! 893 01:02:01,760 --> 01:02:04,160 I didn't study how to live in a forest! 894 01:02:04,320 --> 01:02:06,600 I did not see a fork, 895 01:02:06,760 --> 01:02:09,520 a fork to eat with for ten months!" 896 01:02:21,520 --> 01:02:23,320 - It was a tough life. 897 01:02:23,480 --> 01:02:25,960 It was very cold and there was not a lot of food 898 01:02:26,120 --> 01:02:27,960 but they were free people, 899 01:02:28,120 --> 01:02:29,440 they have honour. 900 01:02:35,920 --> 01:02:39,160 (gunshots) 901 01:02:40,600 --> 01:02:41,920 (horn blows) 902 01:03:06,440 --> 01:03:10,600 (birds chirping) 903 01:03:32,360 --> 01:03:35,960 - Around April 1943, 904 01:03:36,120 --> 01:03:38,280 a decision was made to escape. 905 01:03:39,560 --> 01:03:42,800 The decision in the end was a tunnel. 906 01:03:42,960 --> 01:03:43,960 (shovelling) 907 01:03:44,120 --> 01:03:45,120 They would take turns. 908 01:03:45,280 --> 01:03:47,480 People who finished their work would come dig. 909 01:03:47,640 --> 01:03:50,280 Some people would pretend to be sick so they could dig all day 910 01:03:50,440 --> 01:03:53,520 and there was a group of diggers, tough people. 911 01:03:54,680 --> 01:03:58,360 (explosions) 912 01:04:04,120 --> 01:04:06,720 JACK: When I came out from the tunnel it was dark. 913 01:04:06,880 --> 01:04:07,880 There was shooting, 914 01:04:08,040 --> 01:04:10,240 which I could see lots of flashes of fire. 915 01:04:11,120 --> 01:04:12,640 I could see people being killed. 916 01:04:12,800 --> 01:04:14,280 (explosions) 917 01:04:14,440 --> 01:04:16,320 - This took place on September 26th. 918 01:04:16,480 --> 01:04:18,880 It's already cold. They were drenched. 919 01:04:19,040 --> 01:04:21,480 Pitch-black, didn't know where to go. 920 01:04:21,640 --> 01:04:23,440 (explosions continue) 921 01:04:40,560 --> 01:04:41,560 - My father, 922 01:04:41,720 --> 01:04:43,120 I remember him telling me 923 01:04:43,280 --> 01:04:45,320 that when he first arrived in the camp 924 01:04:45,480 --> 01:04:46,600 in the middle of the forest 925 01:04:46,760 --> 01:04:50,880 and there was this man on a big white horse 926 01:04:51,040 --> 01:04:53,640 with a gun on his shoulder... 927 01:04:55,000 --> 01:04:57,160 My father's like, "Who is that?!" 928 01:04:58,960 --> 01:05:01,120 And that was Tuvia Bielski, 929 01:05:01,280 --> 01:05:02,800 just as in the film, right? 930 01:05:02,960 --> 01:05:05,840 In the film, he has a gun slung over his shoulder 931 01:05:06,000 --> 01:05:07,120 and he's a warrior! 932 01:05:08,720 --> 01:05:10,840 My father wrote in his book 933 01:05:11,000 --> 01:05:14,360 that when he got to the forest how did he feel? 934 01:05:16,360 --> 01:05:18,080 And he said, and here I quote... 935 01:05:19,760 --> 01:05:20,880 "I had come from a camp 936 01:05:21,040 --> 01:05:24,560 where thousands of Jewish people were being killed by the Germans 937 01:05:24,720 --> 01:05:28,000 and now there were all these fighters with guns. 938 01:05:29,000 --> 01:05:30,440 I felt very, very proud. 939 01:05:31,680 --> 01:05:34,360 There was great camaraderie at the camp. 940 01:05:35,760 --> 01:05:36,760 We were unhappy 941 01:05:36,920 --> 01:05:39,960 because so many members of our families had been massacred 942 01:05:40,120 --> 01:05:42,560 but we were happy because we were free 943 01:05:42,720 --> 01:05:44,080 and we were fighting back." 944 01:05:47,440 --> 01:05:52,280 - Tuvia Bielski was responsible for saving 1,200 people's lives. 945 01:05:53,640 --> 01:05:54,760 He accepted everybody... 946 01:05:54,920 --> 01:05:58,120 Small children, old men and women, 947 01:05:58,280 --> 01:06:00,800 solitary women who couldn't fight, like my mother, 948 01:06:00,960 --> 01:06:01,960 everybody! 949 01:06:02,120 --> 01:06:06,640 And Tuvia said he would rather save one Jew than kill a hundred Germans. 950 01:06:09,000 --> 01:06:11,760 - Bielski did something completely different, 951 01:06:11,920 --> 01:06:14,200 a completely different philosophy of... 952 01:06:14,360 --> 01:06:17,680 "We're all Jews, we need to survive. That's our resistance." 953 01:06:26,200 --> 01:06:31,200 (gentle music) 954 01:06:40,200 --> 01:06:44,320 (ominous turn) 955 01:06:44,480 --> 01:06:49,880 (building) 956 01:07:15,320 --> 01:07:16,440 (fades) 957 01:07:16,600 --> 01:07:18,600 - Treblinka had approximately 958 01:07:18,760 --> 01:07:22,720 somewhere in the neighbourhood of 925,000 Jews being killed. 959 01:07:23,880 --> 01:07:28,320 Some 300 people revolted in Treblinka and escaped. 960 01:07:41,720 --> 01:07:44,080 In the end, there were less than a hundred survivors. 961 01:07:45,560 --> 01:07:48,080 But unless they had tried to escape, 962 01:07:48,240 --> 01:07:50,440 there would not have been a hundred survivors 963 01:07:50,600 --> 01:07:52,440 and then we would have never known anything 964 01:07:52,600 --> 01:07:54,280 about Treblinka 965 01:07:54,440 --> 01:07:57,160 or at least not from the perspective of the victims. 966 01:07:59,040 --> 01:08:00,960 We would only know the statistics 967 01:08:01,120 --> 01:08:03,600 from the perspective of the perpetrators. 968 01:08:06,440 --> 01:08:08,960 - There were seven rebellions in the death camps. 969 01:08:09,120 --> 01:08:12,480 Six of them were led by Jews, one by the Russians. 970 01:08:12,640 --> 01:08:13,640 So, actually, 971 01:08:13,800 --> 01:08:16,040 even if you only consider violent resistance, 972 01:08:16,200 --> 01:08:17,760 the Jews look pretty good. 973 01:08:26,720 --> 01:08:30,360 (birds chirping) 974 01:09:53,520 --> 01:09:59,160 (chirping continues) 975 01:10:32,480 --> 01:10:36,120 - You can imagine that everyone who came up this way, 976 01:10:36,280 --> 01:10:38,720 maybe 180,000 people, 977 01:10:38,880 --> 01:10:40,200 thought they were going to showers. 978 01:10:41,760 --> 01:10:43,640 Where they went is the gas chambers... 979 01:11:03,080 --> 01:11:05,080 ESTHER: And all that built up in me, 980 01:11:05,240 --> 01:11:08,400 such anger and a feeling of revenge! 981 01:11:10,720 --> 01:11:13,400 I came to the camp with a pair of brown leather boots, 982 01:11:13,560 --> 01:11:15,280 which not everybody had, 983 01:11:15,440 --> 01:11:18,600 and I said to the group, we slept together, 984 01:11:18,760 --> 01:11:21,840 "With these boots, I'm going to escape from Sobibor! 985 01:11:22,920 --> 01:11:25,600 Don't ask me why, don't ask me how 986 01:11:25,760 --> 01:11:27,600 and maybe it's not... 987 01:11:27,760 --> 01:11:29,760 It doesn't even make sense 988 01:11:29,920 --> 01:11:31,960 but I'm going to escape with these boots!" 989 01:11:43,040 --> 01:11:45,760 - Alexander Pechersky came with a military background. 990 01:11:47,000 --> 01:11:50,840 He joined with a Jewish prisoner from Poland 991 01:11:51,000 --> 01:11:52,720 who, in a very real sense, 992 01:11:52,880 --> 01:11:56,280 was his liaison with the other prisoners 993 01:11:56,440 --> 01:12:00,960 who didn't quite trust a Soviet POW even if he was Jewish 994 01:12:01,120 --> 01:12:06,440 and they formed a formidable team to plan for how to conquer, 995 01:12:06,600 --> 01:12:07,600 how to escape. 996 01:12:09,640 --> 01:12:11,680 ESTHER: And that evening, we cried. 997 01:12:11,840 --> 01:12:13,640 We cried very, very much. 998 01:12:14,760 --> 01:12:17,200 And everybody said goodbye because we figured, 999 01:12:17,360 --> 01:12:19,600 in our WILDEST dreams, 1000 01:12:19,760 --> 01:12:21,920 we didn't think one of us is going to survive... 1001 01:12:23,120 --> 01:12:25,680 And as I cried myself to sleep, 1002 01:12:25,840 --> 01:12:26,840 I dozed off 1003 01:12:27,000 --> 01:12:29,800 and I saw my mother coming in through the camp, 1004 01:12:29,960 --> 01:12:31,520 through the main gate. 1005 01:12:31,680 --> 01:12:34,400 The way I left her, that's how she looked. 1006 01:12:36,800 --> 01:12:41,240 And I said, "Mum, you know that we're going to escape tomorrow?" 1007 01:12:42,800 --> 01:12:46,160 And she said, "Yes, that's why I came!" 1008 01:12:51,840 --> 01:12:55,000 - They lured Nazi commanders and Nazi officials 1009 01:12:55,160 --> 01:12:56,320 who were working in the camp 1010 01:12:56,480 --> 01:12:59,880 into a place where they could be slaughtered one by one. 1011 01:13:00,040 --> 01:13:01,200 (beat strikes) 1012 01:13:01,360 --> 01:13:05,000 ESTHER: The plan was at 4:00 the electric wire was cut, 1013 01:13:05,160 --> 01:13:06,880 the telephone wire was cut. 1014 01:13:07,040 --> 01:13:10,600 Everybody has to kill his SS man and his guard 1015 01:13:10,760 --> 01:13:12,040 at his place of work... 1016 01:13:12,200 --> 01:13:13,320 (screaming) 1017 01:13:13,480 --> 01:13:15,440 ..and it started working! 1018 01:13:17,080 --> 01:13:21,000 - They then stormed the gates and then they went into the woods. 1019 01:13:21,160 --> 01:13:24,280 (siren wailing) 1020 01:13:24,440 --> 01:13:27,960 ESTHER: This was before decided in case anything goes wrong. 1021 01:13:28,120 --> 01:13:29,600 Everybody on his own... 1022 01:13:30,720 --> 01:13:35,000 Maybe one will survive and will be able to tell the world! 1023 01:14:20,200 --> 01:14:25,200 (trundling) 1024 01:14:51,040 --> 01:14:53,240 BELA: When I would go out to the threshold of the block, 1025 01:14:53,400 --> 01:14:55,880 I could see the smoke rising from the chimneys. 1026 01:14:57,800 --> 01:14:59,080 It clouded the skies 1027 01:14:59,240 --> 01:15:01,840 and choked the air of the entire camp. 1028 01:15:03,400 --> 01:15:06,320 I cast glances toward the smoke-shrouded heavens, 1029 01:15:06,480 --> 01:15:10,680 where it seemed I could see the souls of Jewish children, 1030 01:15:10,840 --> 01:15:14,280 their mouths gaping to scream. 1031 01:15:16,360 --> 01:15:20,760 - The stories that she told are quite difficult to tell 1032 01:15:20,920 --> 01:15:23,880 because she faced such atrocities. 1033 01:15:25,360 --> 01:15:26,360 Like, uh... 1034 01:15:28,000 --> 01:15:29,880 I will start crying if I tell this... 1035 01:15:39,480 --> 01:15:40,800 I cannot tell that, really... 1036 01:15:51,920 --> 01:15:52,920 (explosion) 1037 01:16:28,360 --> 01:16:32,040 - Why were the Germans so intent on killing the Jews at that point? 1038 01:16:32,200 --> 01:16:34,000 Let's put it very clearly... 1039 01:16:34,880 --> 01:16:37,520 The Germans fought two wars, 1040 01:16:37,680 --> 01:16:38,720 the World War... 1041 01:16:40,840 --> 01:16:42,200 ..and the war against the Jews. 1042 01:16:43,440 --> 01:16:45,480 When push came to shove, 1043 01:16:45,640 --> 01:16:48,400 they wanted to succeed in the war against the Jews 1044 01:16:48,560 --> 01:16:52,920 even if it took resources away from the World War. 1045 01:16:54,560 --> 01:16:58,320 - Despite the Nazi regime knows it is coming to an end, 1046 01:16:58,480 --> 01:17:02,080 the one group that is supposed to pay the ultimate price 1047 01:17:02,240 --> 01:17:03,240 will be the Jews. 1048 01:17:04,280 --> 01:17:05,280 They're losing, 1049 01:17:05,440 --> 01:17:07,320 so what can we do before we lose? 1050 01:17:07,480 --> 01:17:08,560 We will kill more Jews! 1051 01:17:08,720 --> 01:17:13,960 (music building) 1052 01:17:15,680 --> 01:17:16,680 - When you go to Birkenau, 1053 01:17:16,840 --> 01:17:19,080 you see that there are three railroad tracks 1054 01:17:19,240 --> 01:17:21,880 that go into the innermost nature of the camp. 1055 01:17:23,000 --> 01:17:24,240 Those three tracks were built 1056 01:17:24,400 --> 01:17:27,400 in anticipation of the murder of Hungarian Jews. 1057 01:17:28,320 --> 01:17:32,400 Hungarian Jews constituted about 45% 1058 01:17:32,560 --> 01:17:34,880 of the number of people who were killed at Auschwitz. 1059 01:17:35,040 --> 01:17:38,160 That occurred not over four years but over three months! 1060 01:18:06,440 --> 01:18:10,240 There was an entire underground that distributed these passes, 1061 01:18:10,400 --> 01:18:11,760 that created these passes. 1062 01:18:43,480 --> 01:18:45,120 How important was forging? 1063 01:18:45,280 --> 01:18:48,120 It was the difference between life and death! 1064 01:19:02,040 --> 01:19:03,840 (hisses) 1065 01:19:09,720 --> 01:19:13,120 - During the transports of Hungarian Jews, 1066 01:19:13,280 --> 01:19:14,880 which came thousands every day, 1067 01:19:15,040 --> 01:19:18,960 every day, 10,000 people were sent to the gas chambers... 1068 01:19:19,120 --> 01:19:23,640 And the camp of the women bordered with the train ramp 1069 01:19:23,800 --> 01:19:28,680 and when the people from the train was sent to crematorium number two 1070 01:19:28,840 --> 01:19:31,240 which was 50 metres away from the women's camp... 1071 01:19:31,400 --> 01:19:33,960 So, all these years that she was in Auschwitz 1072 01:19:34,120 --> 01:19:37,840 she was just 50 metres away from one of the four crematorium 1073 01:19:38,000 --> 01:19:39,400 in Birkenau. 1074 01:19:40,560 --> 01:19:42,040 BELA: I suggested digging a trench 1075 01:19:42,200 --> 01:19:44,680 under the barbed wire fence during the nights 1076 01:19:44,840 --> 01:19:48,320 through which we would bring young Jewish women into the camp 1077 01:19:48,480 --> 01:19:51,040 and save them from the crematory ovens. 1078 01:19:52,480 --> 01:19:53,920 - Now, today, when you go to Birkenau, 1079 01:19:54,080 --> 01:19:55,480 now everything is green and nice 1080 01:19:55,640 --> 01:19:59,040 but at that time it was all mud and ditches, 1081 01:19:59,200 --> 01:20:02,000 so they made some space under the fence. 1082 01:20:03,320 --> 01:20:06,200 BELA: Our objective was to smuggle into our camp 1083 01:20:06,360 --> 01:20:09,280 some individuals from within this human mass. 1084 01:20:09,440 --> 01:20:13,240 When the girls came through, we were overcome with joy! 1085 01:20:14,640 --> 01:20:18,480 - And they brought in from the line to the gas chambers 1086 01:20:18,640 --> 01:20:20,120 into the camp 1087 01:20:20,280 --> 01:20:25,120 about 14 young girls on several occasions. 1088 01:20:25,280 --> 01:20:26,800 They brought them into the camp 1089 01:20:26,960 --> 01:20:32,480 and they gave them the dressing of other women who died 1090 01:20:32,640 --> 01:20:34,160 and they hid them for some time. 1091 01:20:36,280 --> 01:20:39,320 BELA: We didn't succeed in bringing many souls into our camp. 1092 01:20:39,480 --> 01:20:41,760 There were so few opportunities to do so. 1093 01:20:43,200 --> 01:20:47,400 However, the little that we did gave us great satisfaction. 1094 01:20:47,560 --> 01:20:50,760 We began to feel a power rising in us, 1095 01:20:50,920 --> 01:20:53,320 awakening our will to live. 1096 01:20:55,760 --> 01:20:59,400 (critters chittering) 1097 01:21:22,920 --> 01:21:27,400 MARCEL: Now, we must disappear from the face of the earth 1098 01:21:27,560 --> 01:21:30,800 because we know so much about the unimaginable methods 1099 01:21:30,960 --> 01:21:33,480 of their abuses and reprisals. 1100 01:21:35,640 --> 01:21:39,080 The dramas my eyes have seen are indescribable... 1101 01:21:40,160 --> 01:21:43,280 Hundreds of thousands of Jews from Hungary 1102 01:21:43,440 --> 01:21:44,440 have passed by my eyes. 1103 01:21:46,120 --> 01:21:49,240 And why I didn't I join them and put an end to it? 1104 01:21:51,080 --> 01:21:55,080 But every time, the thirst for revenge stopped me! 1105 01:21:58,120 --> 01:21:59,120 - Nadjari, 1106 01:21:59,280 --> 01:22:02,840 we don't really know what motivates what he puts into his letter 1107 01:22:03,000 --> 01:22:05,240 other than he wants to tell the story. 1108 01:22:05,400 --> 01:22:07,200 He wants to see revenge. 1109 01:22:07,360 --> 01:22:09,240 And that becomes a more compelling notion 1110 01:22:09,400 --> 01:22:11,560 than giving up and getting out of the fight. 1111 01:22:21,360 --> 01:22:22,600 LEON: Each prisoner in every squad 1112 01:22:22,760 --> 01:22:24,600 knew exactly what he was supposed to do 1113 01:22:24,760 --> 01:22:25,760 and prepared for it. 1114 01:22:25,920 --> 01:22:29,120 My job was to set fire to the crematorium building 1115 01:22:29,280 --> 01:22:30,280 where I worked. 1116 01:22:32,640 --> 01:22:35,840 ELIEZER: The Jews had brought knives to the camp to make Kiddush. 1117 01:22:36,000 --> 01:22:38,720 Their original purpose was to slice the challah. 1118 01:22:38,880 --> 01:22:41,280 They had the words L'Shabbat Kodesh, 1119 01:22:41,440 --> 01:22:42,520 for the Holy Sabbath, 1120 01:22:42,680 --> 01:22:43,760 engraved on them. 1121 01:22:43,920 --> 01:22:46,320 They were long and had white handles. 1122 01:22:46,480 --> 01:22:49,000 My job was to make them into bayonets 1123 01:22:49,160 --> 01:22:51,040 by honing them on all four sides. 1124 01:22:52,560 --> 01:22:55,720 We produced homemade mines and hand grenades. 1125 01:22:55,880 --> 01:22:57,800 We took metal cans of food, 1126 01:22:57,960 --> 01:23:01,040 filled them with explosives and put in fuses. 1127 01:23:06,560 --> 01:23:08,600 - Between Auschwitz and Birkenau 1128 01:23:08,760 --> 01:23:13,400 there was a big munition factory called Union Metallwerke, 1129 01:23:13,560 --> 01:23:15,920 which many Jewish prisoners worked. 1130 01:23:16,080 --> 01:23:20,520 And one brave Jewish young prisoner, Roza Robota, 1131 01:23:20,680 --> 01:23:22,280 was 19 years old, 1132 01:23:22,440 --> 01:23:25,720 had many girlfriends inside that factory. 1133 01:23:25,880 --> 01:23:28,800 And when she was asked to recruit some of the girls 1134 01:23:28,960 --> 01:23:33,640 to smuggle out on a daily basis a small amount of gunpowder 1135 01:23:33,800 --> 01:23:36,520 she did not hesitate for a second. 1136 01:23:37,360 --> 01:23:40,320 - My mother was born in Poland. 1137 01:23:41,240 --> 01:23:42,960 Her name was Ada, 1138 01:23:43,120 --> 01:23:44,880 maiden name, Neufeld. 1139 01:23:45,040 --> 01:23:48,560 She was one of the slave labourers at the factory. 1140 01:23:50,720 --> 01:23:52,760 Smuggling itself wasn't easy, 1141 01:23:52,920 --> 01:23:57,080 because they had the body searched on exit from the factory 1142 01:23:57,240 --> 01:23:59,320 and then on entry to the camp. 1143 01:24:01,320 --> 01:24:04,480 My mother told me that she hid it inside her shoe 1144 01:24:04,640 --> 01:24:06,400 and once in camp 1145 01:24:06,560 --> 01:24:08,920 she would hand it over to someone else 1146 01:24:09,080 --> 01:24:11,240 and then bring it to Robota. 1147 01:24:11,400 --> 01:24:13,200 Roza Robota would then take it 1148 01:24:13,360 --> 01:24:16,680 and deliver it to her friend from the Sonderkommando. 1149 01:24:24,200 --> 01:24:26,600 LEON: On October 7th 1944 1150 01:24:26,760 --> 01:24:27,760 they informed us 1151 01:24:27,920 --> 01:24:30,560 that the Germans intended to remove the Sonderkommando men 1152 01:24:30,720 --> 01:24:32,040 from Crematorium IV. 1153 01:24:32,200 --> 01:24:35,200 We knew what that meant. They were going to murder them. 1154 01:24:36,080 --> 01:24:37,840 We figured that it was time for action. 1155 01:24:38,000 --> 01:24:39,000 (explosion) 1156 01:24:40,360 --> 01:24:44,160 WOMAN: In the distance, we now see billows of smoke burning! 1157 01:24:44,320 --> 01:24:47,400 The second crematorium is burning! 1158 01:24:48,440 --> 01:24:50,920 - The destruction of crematoria number four, 1159 01:24:51,080 --> 01:24:53,600 this is a big achievement! 1160 01:24:53,760 --> 01:24:56,040 It never functioned anymore again! 1161 01:24:57,320 --> 01:24:59,160 WOMAN: The sirens began to wail, 1162 01:24:59,320 --> 01:25:01,040 aggravating the commotion! 1163 01:25:01,200 --> 01:25:03,760 What happened? A revolution?! 1164 01:25:03,920 --> 01:25:06,200 An uprising at the crematorium? 1165 01:25:13,040 --> 01:25:16,880 - This is perhaps the single most important site 1166 01:25:17,040 --> 01:25:19,320 for the understanding of Jewish resistance 1167 01:25:19,480 --> 01:25:20,840 during the Holocaust. 1168 01:25:21,000 --> 01:25:23,000 In the most improbable place, 1169 01:25:23,160 --> 01:25:24,440 at Auschwitz, 1170 01:25:24,600 --> 01:25:28,720 the Sonderkommandos destroyed a combination crematorium 1171 01:25:28,880 --> 01:25:29,920 and gas chambers. 1172 01:25:31,480 --> 01:25:35,080 - It was a defiant and wonderful act 1173 01:25:35,240 --> 01:25:38,040 that probably saved many thousand lives 1174 01:25:38,200 --> 01:25:41,000 because they did in fact destroy one of the crematoria. 1175 01:25:41,160 --> 01:25:46,280 (horn blowing) 1176 01:25:46,440 --> 01:25:48,800 - The uprising came to its tragic end 1177 01:25:48,960 --> 01:25:54,440 with the killing, murdering of 452 young Jewish 1178 01:25:54,600 --> 01:25:56,720 courageous brave men. 1179 01:26:31,480 --> 01:26:33,560 - On the night of the 18th of January, 1180 01:26:33,720 --> 01:26:37,640 the camp was given the order to be evacuated. 1181 01:26:42,400 --> 01:26:43,680 BELA: We marched at a cadence, 1182 01:26:43,840 --> 01:26:46,000 practically running on winding paths. 1183 01:26:46,160 --> 01:26:48,640 We didn't know exactly where they were leading us. 1184 01:26:48,800 --> 01:26:52,520 We did understand that we were fleeing from the Russians, 1185 01:26:52,680 --> 01:26:53,840 heading for Germany. 1186 01:26:54,840 --> 01:26:58,080 After the first kilometre, women began to fall. 1187 01:26:58,240 --> 01:27:00,800 Whoever found it hard to walk at that quick pace 1188 01:27:00,960 --> 01:27:04,000 or who stood to rest was shot right away. 1189 01:27:04,160 --> 01:27:05,160 (shot) 1190 01:27:05,320 --> 01:27:06,520 There were moments of despair 1191 01:27:06,680 --> 01:27:09,920 when I thought of asking those escorting us to kill me... 1192 01:27:11,640 --> 01:27:13,360 But at those same moments 1193 01:27:13,520 --> 01:27:17,080 I would see flashes of rocket barrages in the sky 1194 01:27:17,240 --> 01:27:20,040 and hear the roar of aircraft 1195 01:27:20,200 --> 01:27:23,800 and these inspired me with the will to live! 1196 01:27:28,680 --> 01:27:31,800 - So, I'm talking now about the 18th of April. 1197 01:27:31,960 --> 01:27:35,520 The Americans was in the process of capturing Leipzig. 1198 01:27:35,680 --> 01:27:40,080 My mother stayed behind with the sick prisoners. 1199 01:27:40,240 --> 01:27:42,760 The SS are on the way to kill them. 1200 01:27:55,200 --> 01:27:59,240 And they decided to escape with the sick people 1201 01:27:59,400 --> 01:28:01,000 who could not walk 1202 01:28:01,160 --> 01:28:02,720 and then, when it became dark, 1203 01:28:02,880 --> 01:28:06,040 they actually carried them by hands! 1204 01:28:06,200 --> 01:28:10,000 This was the night between 18th and 19th of April. 1205 01:28:12,440 --> 01:28:16,000 They saved the lives of about 140 prisoners, 1206 01:28:16,160 --> 01:28:17,160 sick prisoners 1207 01:28:17,320 --> 01:28:19,760 and this was my mother's liberation day! 1208 01:28:19,920 --> 01:28:25,320 (uplifting music) 1209 01:28:31,680 --> 01:28:36,680 (cheering) 1210 01:28:40,320 --> 01:28:44,520 (music fades) 1211 01:32:27,240 --> 01:32:32,200 Subtitles by Sky Access Services 92911

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