A Day in the Warsaw Ghetto: A Birthday Trip in Hell

30 minutes, black & white
Source: Filmakers Library

This film is based on the still photographs of Wermacht Sergeant Heinz Jost who illegally took photos inside the Warsaw Ghetto in November of 1941, and kept the pictures hidden for over 40 years until he was dying. This German soldier's images of the Ghetto portray the diversity of conditions existing there simultaneously. Many people are starving and ill, while others who arrived more recently are in better health. The photos also capture some of the cultural life of the Ghetto; illegal schools, prayer groups and book peddlers operate surrounded by disease and death. The filmmaker, himself a Holocaust survivor, has combined the photos with Yiddish music, sound effects, and excerpts from Ghetto diaries to create a window into life behind the Ghetto walls.