community South Alabama talk features director of Holocaust film By Richard Friedman “Who Will Write Our History?” That’s the title of a remarkable documentary, based on a book by the same name, that tells the story of a group of Jews who banded together in the Warsaw Ghetto in the early 1940s to record the oppression, inhumanity and ultimately genocide perpetrated by their Nazi persecutors. The group’s intent was to leave a meticulously-documented historic legacy that not only would allow the victims to be remembered but with the hope that such genocide would never happen again. These archives also were intended to be a recording of what was happening in the Ghetto — a dramatic and tragic chapter in Jewish and human history — from a Jewish point of view, rather than leaving the writing and photographing of events solely to Hitler’s propaganda machine. The University of South Alabama’s McCall Library, along with other community partners, hosted an online discussion on Oct. 15 with Roberta Grossman, an accomplished filmmaker who created and directed the documentary. The film, which was available for viewing in coordination with the program, is dramatic yet understated. Grossman is experienced and sophisticated enough to “get out of the way of the story” and through an array of imaginative cinema techniques, allows the story to tell itself. In fact, she creates a framework for three interwoven stories to be told at once: The destruction of Jewish life in Poland, which was rich and vibrant before the Holocaust; the dark, degenerative saga of the more than 400,000 Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto, showing how the Nazis strategically and sadistically devalued their lives; and the brave band of chroniclers who risked their own lives to secretly document what was taking place. The central thread in the film is the heroic and visionary work of one of the Ghetto’s Jewish leaders, Emanuel Ringelblum, the driving force behind what came to be known as the Oyneg Shabes Archive, the collective work of 60 historians, scholars, journalists and others who produced 30,000 pages of writing, photographs and more. They buried their work under the Ghetto in three different places, hoping the archives would be discovered one day. Two of the hiding places were eventually found and the material was recovered, the third has never been found. The conversation with filmmaker Grossman, in an informal question and answer format, provided insight into a range of topics. They ran the gamut from what drew her to this project, to some of the aesthetic choices she made, to the complexities and sensitivities of creating a narrative that would be faithful to the reality of life in the Warsaw Ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto was established by the Nazis in October 1940. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, “The decree required all Jewish residents of Warsaw to move into a designated area, which German authorities sealed off from the rest of the city. The ghetto was enclosed by a wall that was over 10 feet high, topped with barbed wire, and closely guarded to prevent movement between the Ghetto and the rest of Warsaw. The population of the Ghetto, increased by Jews compelled to move in from nearby towns, was estimated to be over 400,000. German authorities forced residents to live in an area of 1.3 square miles, with an average of 7.2 persons per room.” Grossman, despite an impressive resume and litany of achievements as a filmmaker, provided down-to-earth answers to the questions that the moderator put before her, including questions from students. Grossman emphasized the tenacity — almost obsessiveness — it takes to make such a film and the challenges of assembling all of the pieces from financing to finished product. Then, she said, one must become absorbed in the story — relentlessly — and be intensely curious and re22
November 2020 • Southern Jewish Life