Anyone see the programme about Treblinka last night?

Puts the old perennial Barnsley bollacks in a bit of perspective dunnit? :smile:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01m1l9w

 

Missed it. Was it worth watching?

 

I watched it.......but it was called "Summer in Blackpool".

 

Absolutely. The programme features last 2 of 70 survivors of the 1943 revolt. The Treblinka story is more shocking than that of Auschwitz, so be warned. It was purely a extermination camp no bigger than the Oakwell site, that murdered 900,000 Polish Jews and dissidents in the year it existed.

Going there hopefully later this year with Mrs C.

 

Jesus. Will watch that. have you read If This Is A Man by Primo Levi? Brilliant book. Or the film Life is Beautiful?

Tried to sell a trip to Krakow and Auschwitz the other year to the missis for Valentine's Day. Didn't work.

 

It's on iplayer.

Yes, If This is a Man and the Truce are probably the single most essential books I've ever read and I go back to them often. I have a one-man theatre performance on dvd called 'Primo' starring Antony Sher. It's good, but I don't think he got Levi's quiet detachment from events.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primo_(film)

My girlfriend (Mrs C) is from Gdansk (Danzig) and had family members imprisoned at nearby Stutthof. Not a Jewish family, but part of the round up of local intelligentsia shortly after occupation in 1939, educators, politicians and other professionals deemed to be a threat by the Nazis. Many were deployed into forced labour at the Focke-Wolf plant. It was the last camp to be liberated by the Allies early 1945, but the Nazis had already began the Death March, one of the single most horrific episodes of the Holocaust. Mrs C doesn't know if her family died there or in the gas chambers, but her surname Cielecka appears in various memorials. She won't visit the Stutthof site, but we've been to Auschwitz when on a trip to Krakow where she studied.

 

Definitely the best account of the holocaust I've read. Also my favourite book is The Amazing Adventures of Kalier and Clay by Michael Chabon which is linked to the holocaust.

Life is Beautiful is a stunning film if you haven't seen it. Italian with subtitiles. Always makes me laugh and cry but don't know if I could watch it since my little girl was born.

That makes it all seem so much more devastatingly real.

 

I recorded it but not watched it yet. My other half is from Opole in the Silesian area of Southern Poland and we went to Auschwitz and Birkenau a couple of years ago. Shocking experience but something that anyone visiting the country should do. I remember comparing it to a previous visit to Dachau in the early 90s. The Germans had sanitised the site so that it was hard to believe that terrible events had taken place there. The Poles, however, have done nothing of the kind at the sites near Oswiciem.

The feeling of dread and tragedy is everywhere and I actually experienced something unforgettable at an execution spot between two of the buildings. There is a high wall with firing squad posts in front of it (or it may have just been the one post). There were a few other visitors in the area and I went right up to the post and turned around to face where the firing squad would have been. I got the unmistakable smell of cordite in my nose and it made my blood run cold. There was no doubt about that smell - I remembered it from my times firing a variety of weapons on the firing range during RAF service. I stood there stunned for a few seconds then moved away. The smell was real and it was probably a similar experience that people get when they see a ghost. Maybe if I had stood there a few moments longer I would have done.....
As I say, everyone should visit there given a chance. A truly terrible place but a valuable reminder about what man can do to man in certain circumstances.

 

I did watch it but found it a bit farcical when he's trying to hide his boy in the camp. I'll give it another go. I'd recommend The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, it's not too intense but possibly a bit much for a new parent.

I have tons of stuff. try to see these if you can...

The Counterfeiters
The Pawn Broker
The Pianist
Escape From Sobibor

I also have a lot of documentaries, some by the Shoah foundation and many real accounts from survivors. I've had an interest in these histories for a long time.

Probably a bit heavy for the BBS though, all this!

 

I think that's why I found it so affecting, if used correctly a look at the humour in situations can have a more profound impact than something deeply serious. It humanises the characters so much, and the way he sought to protect his son fromt he horror by pretending it was all a game is beautiful but heartbreaking. I alwasy thought the same about the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth and it ends with a faded out shot of them going over the top to a field of poppies. In some ways its more poignant than serious drama.

Aye, maybe a bit heavy. We could do with it on here every now and then, perspective and all that

 

I have just been searching for this amazing lady too, Kitty Felix. Found her under her married name. There is a very good BBC documentary called Kitty Felix Death March that you might find online if you search hard enough. There is another, Return To Auschwitz which I don't think I've seen. Though I've seen stuff by other survivors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitty_Hart-Moxon

 

When Crystal & I

Moved into our home (nearly 30 years ago), the lady living next door made us feel very welcome. However, she pointed out we'd probably hear her elderly husband wake up screaming in the middle of the night. This was due to the fact he was a member of the British Army which liberated Bergen-Belsen in 1945 and had been haunted by what he saw. It was still the case nearly forty years later, with the recurrent nightmares from which he suffered. He refused to talk about what he'd seen, even with his wife, and still suffered up to his death twenty years ago.

 

Another good book but upsetting is Children Of The Flames. Mengele by Gerald L Posner is a good read but very disturbing.

 

Re: When Crystal & I

i've been to bergan/belsen a few times, its very eyrie ( thats not the right word, sort of peaceful in a fecking very weird and strange way)its a couple of miles from a brit garrison in hohne

 

I worked with an ex-squaddie

Who was based at that camp. He told me there was a photo hung up there (I don't remember where exactly) showing the first British tank as it entered the concentration camp. It showed the guy on the gun turret throwing his guts up at the sight in front of him. Someone had written below the photo 'Never forget'.

 

with all the nazi's about these days it is right these things aren't forgotten

I do worry about Farage's party too ... thin edge of the wedge in my opinion

 

Re: I worked with an ex-squaddie

there's a museum there and it takes you from 33-45 its very sad, by all accounts the place was found by accident by canadian tankies who just sat there because they hadnt a clue what to do, they even gave their rations to some of them which didnt help. the old naafi building in hohne ( roundhouse )was apparently the old gestapo headquaters building. i was stationed just up the road in soltau, h.q. 7 armd bge

 

Re: I worked with an ex-squaddie

Read a book called For Those I Loved.The most moving book I have ever read regarding the Holocaust.About a man who lost everything,escaped from Treblinka (before the uprising),went back to fight in the ghetto uprising.He then rebuilt his life,went to America then settled in France only to suffer the up most tragedy in the1970's.