August 10, 2006
[pic]August 10, 2006
The boys of Buchenwald
[pic]A
A documentary about a concentration camp with laughs? Oy vay, writes Paul Kalina.
A DOCUMENTARY that treats survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp with humour and optimism is definitely one of a kind.
Danny Ben-Moshe, co-director of The Buchenwald Ball, maintains "it's the first Holocaust (documentary) where you have a cinema full of people breaking out into laughter during it", which, he recalls, is precisely what happened when the SBS film was previewed to friends and family earlier this year.
"This is a post-Holocaust film," explains Ben-Moshe. "It's a film about re-establishing life, re-embracing life. It's a film you can watch and be entertained by. I don't mean that in the way of people that might be entertained by Big Brother, but in the way of it not being something so gruesome you have to turn off."
The Buchenwald Ball is the story of a group of teenage orphans who survived Buchenwald. Now in their 70s and 80s, 45 of the Buchenwald boys, as they came to be known, made their way to Melbourne. Each year, on April 11, the anniversary of the camp's liberation, the boys and their now-extended families gather to celebrate their against-the-odds survival.
Their story was the subject of a recent exhibition at the Immigration Museum, and it was a chance meeting with the sister of the show's organiser that set in motion Ben-Moshe's determination to capture this story on film.
If he wasn't sold on the raw idea itself, he certainly was when he walked into the room for his first meeting with some of the boys.
"There's food everywhere - that wasn't surprising - whisky all over the place, songs breaking out at every corner, and this argument, very much like a family argument, about what happened at the moment of liberation. "I subsequently found that every time they get together they have these arguments. They finish the argument, they have a 'le chaim' (a toast meaning 'to life')."
As he had no experience in filmmaking, Ben-Moshe, whose day job is running Victoria University's Institute for Community Engagement and Policy Alternatives, made contact with producer Andrew Wiseman. Editor Uri Mizrahi also came on board. The trio share the directing credit. (Ben-Moshe is now developing another documentary, about Holocaust denial in Lithuania.)
Before they had a commission they decided to take a crew to a gathering of the boys in Melbourne. Szaja Chaskiel, the whisky-loving president of the boys' committee, and his son Mark, almost immediately took centre stage, even though in the original treatment the film would have started in the desert of Western Australia with the son of a Buchenwald boy who works with indigenous communities.
A documentary about a concentration camp with laughs? Oy vay, writes Paul Kalina.
A DOCUMENTARY that treats survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp with humour and optimism is definitely one of a kind.
Danny Ben-Moshe, co-director of The Buchenwald Ball, maintains "it's the first Holocaust (documentary) where you have a cinema full of people breaking out into laughter during it", which, he recalls, is precisely what happened when the SBS film was previewed to friends and family earlier this year.
"This is a post-Holocaust film," explains Ben-Moshe. "It's a film about re-establishing life, re-embracing life. It's a film you can watch and be entertained by. I don't mean that in the way of people that might be entertained by Big Brother, but in the way of it not being something so gruesome you have to turn off."
The Buchenwald Ball is the story of a group of teenage orphans who survived Buchenwald. Now in their 70s and 80s, 45 of the Buchenwald boys, as they came to be known, made their way to Melbourne. Each year, on April 11, the anniversary of the camp's liberation, the boys and their now-extended families gather to celebrate their against-the-odds survival.
Their story was the subject of a recent exhibition at the Immigration Museum, and it was a chance meeting with the sister of the show's organiser that set in motion Ben-Moshe's determination to capture this story on film.
If he wasn't sold on the raw idea itself, he certainly was when he walked into the room for his first meeting with some of the boys.
"There's food everywhere - that wasn't surprising - whisky all over the place, songs breaking out at every corner, and this argument, very much like a family argument, about what happened at the moment of liberation. "I subsequently found that every time they get together they have these arguments. They finish the argument, they have a 'le chaim' (a toast meaning 'to life')."
As he had no experience in filmmaking, Ben-Moshe, whose day job is running Victoria University's Institute for Community Engagement and Policy Alternatives, made contact with producer Andrew Wiseman. Editor Uri Mizrahi also came on board. The trio share the directing credit. (Ben-Moshe is now developing another documentary, about Holocaust denial in Lithuania.)
Before they had a commission they decided to take a crew to a gathering of the boys in Melbourne. Szaja Chaskiel, the whisky-loving president of the boys' committee, and his son Mark, almost immediately took centre stage, even though in the original treatment the film would have started in the desert of Western Australia with the son of a Buchenwald boy who works with indigenous communities.
Szaja had not revisited Buchenwald, but with the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation looming, he and Mark were prepared to make the pilgrimage. Szaja remains a committed sceptic but son Mark has become an orthodox Jew.
Another of the film's memorable subjects, Sam Michalowicz, approached the crew while they were filming one day at a picnic. "He said, 'I want to show you this photo of me as a boy,' " recalls Ben-Moshe.
As is often the case, the production set its own agenda. Szaja's wife died after filming began. No writer could have scripted the discussions that transpire over whether music will be permitted at the 60th anniversary ball (according to custom, children of the deceased should not listen to music for one year).
For Ben-Moshe, the Buchenwald boys are unique among Holocaust survivors.
"Here was a group that, rather than being downtrodden by their experience, was somehow uplifted by it, or their response at least was an uplifting one. While no doubt they all suffered and continue to suffer from the experience, what was clear was that they had established this group and it was through this group that they were able to move on. What was also significant was that they came from all different parts of the world but were united by this moment of liberation. The other was the ties that existed between them extended to their children and their grandchildren.
"Another thing is that social groups are usually formed by women, but this social group was formed by men, and it's the wives that go along, rather than the men that go along with what their wives arrange."
Ben-Moshe argues that the World War II Holocaust has universal learnings and implications. As does the film.
"While it's a film about Jewish survivors of genocide and their families, it has a broader universal message for people who suffer from genocide, trauma or any stress of hope, of being able to rebuild and to have faith, in a non-religious sense, in the future."
He says the boys are deeply committed to preserving the history of the Holocaust and speaking out against the tragedy of genocide. "They feel very strongly that it was tragic that they were not the last victims of genocide. They should have been. Jews were the first victims of industrial, modern genocide, they should have been the last. The tragedy is they weren't. That's a global tragedy. One of the things the boys are very committed to is talking out against racism and discrimination. The children too."
The Buchenwald Ball is also a refreshingly unique slice of Australian history. Szaja could probably be speaking for any one of thousands of European immigrants when he laments the desolation of downtown Melbourne on a Sunday afternoon in the 1940s.
"So much of Australia can be traced to that immediate, post-World War II migration period. They (the Buchenwald boys) were able to re-establish, to be successful in business, to establish families with strong Jewish identities because Australia allowed that. Jews that went to Poland or Russia afterwards didn't have that opportunity."
The Boys of Buchenwald
Robbie Waisman, Elie Wiesel and Joe Szwarcberg were three Jewish boys who knew the horrors of Buchenwald concentration camp. Their friendship began in 1945, soon after the American troops liberated the camp. As the trains left Germany, full of orphaned children, the boys began to create a fraternity based on need, banded together against a world they did not trust. Their new life began at a children's home in France. Two of the former staff members recall the boys' struggle to adjust. They hoarded food, burned mattresses and fought, leaving many adults to regard them as damaged beyond repair. But slowly, the boys began to find good in people. Elie Wiesel, who went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize, explains: "We had to learn how to rediscover joy and affection." Almost 60 years after their liberation from Buchenwald, the "boys" meet again, touring the homes in France and attending a reunion in Jerusalem. The bonds of friendship that helped them to rebuild lives after the Holocaust are still strong. A treasure of archival footage and photos, seamlessly blended with the present, tells a remarkable, personal story.
The Buchenwald Boys – documentary study guide
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