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The film has been featured at dozens of film festivals since its release.
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Screenings are held by local community groups and educators interested in learning about the Holocaust, witnessing testimony from survivors of trauma, and building relationships across generations.
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Scenes from the film
A scene from the film in which Aron shares a glimpse into his past.
Access additional scenes with rental of the film through Menemsha films.
Aron Tambor had a blissful childhood shattered by war. He tells the story in episodic sections to the high schoolers as they listen with kindness, interest, and deep empathy.
Helga’s Story
Helga was one of 7 survivors who took part in the Witness Theater program at The Abraham Joshua Heschel School in New York City. This program was convened by the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan with students from both Heschel and the Trinity School. Over the course of nine months, she took the high school students through her experience of World War II. Her pensive manner of speaking drew students close, ultimately resulting in intergenerational, lifelong friendships being formed.
Helga is soft spoken and initially extremely hesitant. As time passes in Witness Theater, she forms a bond with Sophie, a 17 year old student, and together they explore what Helga’s life could have been, if it had been untouched by war. In this observational documentary, we watch as she remembers childhood abuses, her brother’s death, her father’s disappointments, and the comfort she finds in gratitude.
Helga’s parents were Polish, but they emigrated to Germany after World War I and that is where she was born. Following the violence and terror of the November Pogrom – Kristallnacht – her parents sent her and her older brother on a Kindertransport to England.
Her father Jakob was taken to Sachenhausen concentration camp at the outbreak of war. Her mother Kajla had a visa to go to England, but gave up her chance of freedom to stay in Berlin and find a way to obtain his release. She gained Jakob’s freedom by buying a steamship ticket for him to Shanghai.
They left to Italy and later that year Jakob sailed on the S.S. Conte Verde alone, leaving his wife Kajla penniless and without papers in wartime. She was arrested as a refugee and imprisoned. On her release, she smuggled herself to France, seeking freedom, but was arrested and imprisoned in Marseilles. She was released, but in 1942 she was caught at a bus stop and sent to Camp de Gurs. She was put on a train going east to a concentration camp, but along with four other people jumped off the train. However she was knocked unconscious as the train was traveling fast and awoke to find herself back in Camp de Gurs. She gave up on life and went to a water tower to jump off. A guard spotted her and grabbed her. She was locked up and then sent to a psychiatric hospital in Pau, where she stayed for several years.
In all eight years had passed before Helga and her parents reunited in France after the end of the war.
As a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT) and Registered Drama Therapist (RDT), I not only view creativity in life as a distinct gift, but as a crucial survival tool. All of us have the capacity to creatively examine, explore and envision our lives in ways that point us towards growth and understanding. Most importantly, through embracing our inherent creativity, we are equipped to not only forge our own paths, but to thrive.
I offer psychotherapy utilizing creative interventions for individuals and groups. I work with adults, children & adolescents utilizing the creative arts as a modality for therapeutic exploration. Though it is not a requirement to be an artist to benefit from Creative Arts Therapy, I specialize in examining the challenges and obstacles that block the artistic process.
Heschel and Trinity Schools’ Witness Theater 2016 - 2017