Holocaust Documentary Films in Leavey Library (DVDs): Czech Republic/Slovakia

Andre's Lives
"Andre Steiner, who saved thousands of Slovak jews, discusses his life and the Holocaust."

Fighter
"Jan Wiener, 77, professor and wilderness guide. Arnošt Lustig, 72, professor and author. Jan Wiener escaped from Nazi occupied Prague at the age of 19, beginning a six-year exodus through Yugoslavia and Italy. He ended the war as a flyer for the Royal Air Force in England. Arnošt Lustig spent his adolescence in Nazi concentration camps. He survived to become an acclaimed Czech novelist, screenwriter and journalist. Jan and Arnošt left Czechoslovakia as exiles from the Communist regime. They met in the U.S. in 1978, and their mutual background inspired a close friendship. In the summer of 1998, we accompanied Jan as he retraced the steps of his escape through Europe. Arnošt, long interested in writing a story based on Jan's life, was invited to join us on the journey."--Title screens. Despite similar European Jewish backgrounds, one is a fighter and the other a philosopher, and well into the journey, the duality of their memories sparks a fight that threatens their friendship. Each has notions of the past that are as opposed as their temperaments, and it seems that for those who survived the war, it may not ever be over. By juxtaposing two extraordinary personal histories, the film ponders unanswerable questions about memory, imagination, history, and that elusive thing called truth."

Inside Hana's Suitcase
"A group of Japanese children unravel the story of George and Hana Brady, two young Jewish children who grew up in pre-WWII Czechoslovakia, when they receive an old suitcase with Hana's name written on it from the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz."

The Sixth Battalion
"Examines the persecution of Jews in Slovakia during World War II. Surviving members of the Sixth Battalion, a miliary unit comprised of young Jewish men, recount their own experiences and the persecution of the entire Jewish community during the war."

When I Was 14: A Survivor Remembers
"Chronicles the Holocaust experiences of Gloria Hollander Lyon, a Czech Jew now living in San Francisco."