GenerationForward Archives - The Inside Press

Family Documentary Presented by HBO with the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, the short film “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm” debuts this Saturday, January 27, from 6 p.m. to 6:20 p.m (ET/PT).

“A17606. That was his number and he told us back then that your number was your name. That is all he was to them.” Elliott Saiontz

Article and Photos by Grace Bennett

Elliott Saiontz with his great grandfather Jack Feldman

Mount Kisco, January 22–Hundreds of parents and their children packed the Bet Torah Synagogue sanctuary for an early screening of “The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm,” a powerful 19-minute HBO family documentary directed and produced by Amy Schatz. Filmed two years ago, it depicts 10-year-old Elliott’s adoring relationship with his great grandfather, the soft spoken and big hearted 90-year-old Jack Feldman. Through the film, Elliott first asks Jack questions about his experiences, and then we hear Jack’s heartbreaking answers.

At the film’s start–and with a backdrop of historical footage and the striking animation of acclaimed artist Jeff Scher throughout–Jack describes happy childhood memories of Poland (in his hometown of Sosnoweicz) predating the war. He tells his great grandson of an eclectic hat collection or of watching soccer games. Jack speaks of a close knit family, a successful family business and summertime vacations.

The documentary quickly segues into Jack describing harrowing experiences surviving Nazi brutality… from the forced wearing of yellow stars, confinement in a ghetto (“We had maybe 15-20 people sleeping in a room.”) to his separation from his family (“They grabbed me and took me away.”), of Auschwitz and of the notorious death march. (“A lot of people couldn’t make it. Thousands and thousands just died.”)

Bet Torah’s Rabbi Aaron Brusso and Edna Friedberg, a historian with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, spoke before the film with remarks sensitive to and frequently directed to the children in the room. “History is what happens to real people. It’s not just a flat idea; it’s something that happens to me and to you,” said Friedberg. She challenged the kids to explore their personal connections to the Holocaust as well. “If you have a connection to it, you as kids can be detectives on it too.”

Following the screening, Feldman and Elliott participated in a panel discussion. Jack was asked how old he is today. Not missing a beat, he quipped: 72. Laughter filled the sanctuary–the light moment a reprieve from the darkness of what was being discussed. Elliott’s grandfather, Sammy Feldman (92-year-old Jack Feldman’s first son) told attendees: “Between the ages of 12 and 17, hopefully you were enjoying your life… the Holocaust changed all that for the children of Europe. They were bullied and lost all their privileges. They lost all their rights.”

Rabbi Brusso noted fondly, “I wish I had a grandpoppy Jack.” Turning to Elliott, he offered his appreciation for “how you hold his hand and rub his arm.” He compared that kind of tenderness to Nazis “who treated people like objects.” Elliott’s example of caring and kindness, in contrast, are “how we preserve every human being.”

On the panel, too: Elliott’s brother Jared and his mom Stacey Saiontz (“without whom it is safe to say we would not be having this program today,” noted Freidberg). Saiontz, a member of the group GenerationsForward of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center in White Plains, described a serendipitous meeting between herself and Sheila Nevins, a producer at HBO–ultimately leading to the film’s production. Elliott’s younger brother Jared, 10, answered a child’s question about when he learned of the Holocaust. He said his whole life he listened to his Mom interviewing his grandpa and started slowly learning.

Questions to the panel were mostly from children attending. More than one questioner seemed to want to find the good in human souls. Children are after all instructed to seek out ‘the helpers.’ “Was there ever a Nazi soldier undercover who tried to help the Jews?” one young girl asked. Elliott related that his grandfather was helped by a Nazi who knew his father and protected him from selection to the gas chamber. “Individual choices made a huge difference and could save a life,” said Friedberg. But they were also sadly the exception.

“Why were Jewish people blamed for Germany’s problems?” another asked. Friedberg explained how the Nazi regime employed the dynamics of bullying to encourage the persecution of Jews. “People feel powerful by leaving one person on the outside,” she said. The Nazis were “building on an existing hatred and stereotypes about Jews.” The Nazis also targeted and murdered hundreds of thousands of Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gay men, political prisoners and persons with mental and physical disabilities.

But by far, it was the Jewish population that was decimated. Before the war, Friedberg continued, there were nine million Jewish people living in Europe; six million were murdered. “Two out of three.” She invited attendees to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to learn more.

Grace Bennett is publisher and editor in chief of the Inside Press, and the 2017 recipient of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center’s Bernard Rosenshein ‘Courage to Care’ award.

Resources:

www.mjhnyc.org/‎ The Museum of Jewish Heritage

https://www.ushmm.org/ United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

www.hhrecny.org Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center

Release info from HBO:

THE NUMBER ON GREAT-GRANDPA’S ARM was directed and produced by Amy Schatz; executive producer, Sheila Nevins; producer, Lynn Sadofsky; edited by Tom Patterson; animation by Jeff Scher; director of photography, Alex Rappoport; music composed by Keith Kenniff; production executive, Susan Benaroya; supervising producer, Lisa Heller.

It debuts this Saturday, January 27, from 6 p.m. to 6:20 p.m (ET/PT).

The film will also be available on HBO On Demand, HBO NOW, HBO GO and affiliate . THE NUMBER ON GREAT-GRANDPA’S ARM will be included in a signature initiative that is part of a robust education program offered by the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. This effort is designed to use the film with a companion special installation and curriculum to connect stories of the Holocaust across generations.Additionally, companion segments featuring young people in conversation with survivors will be made available on HBO digital platforms.

Director-producer Amy Schatz’s notable HBO projects include the recent “Saving My Tomorrow” series, plus “An Apology to Elephants,” the “Classical Baby” series, “A Child’s Garden of Poetry,” “‘Twas the Night,” “Goodnight Moon and Other Sleepytime Tales” and “Through a Child’s Eyes: September 11, 2001.” Her work has won five DGA Awards, seven Emmy^® Awards and three Peabody Awards.

Animator Jeff Scher’s work is found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Academy Film Archive, Hirshhorn Museum and the Pompidou Centre.

(L-R) Ruth Bachner, Fred Bachner and Ellen Bachner Greenberg

Ellen Bachner Greenberg, a Scardale-based life coach, clearly remembers the first time she saw the Holocaust documentary, Night and Fog. She was 10-years-old, and tried to avert her eyes from the screen, which featured raw footage from the concentration camps.

All she saw were emaciated bodies and mass grave pits and she knew that both of her parents were Holocaust survivors who had endured unbelievable hardships. Greenberg recently spoke about her father, Fred, at Congregation B’nai Yisrael Synagogue (CBY) in Armonk as part of an initiative called GenerationsForward launched by the White Plains-based group The Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (HHREC).

GenerationsForward was created two years ago. Members of the group are either 2nd or 3rd generation, meaning that they have a connection to the Holocaust through their parents or grandparents. All members participate in an 18-week workshop called ‘Safekeeping Stories’ which helps them learn how to “tell their family’s Holocaust story in a powerful yet concise manner that is suitable for school aged children as well as adult groups,” said Millie Jasper, HHREC’s Executive Director.

Members have had about 20 speaking engagements at synagogues, public and private schools as well as civic groups. Many of the speaking engagements including Greenberg’s coincided with Yom Hashoah, the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day in late April. Jasper said HHREC has received increased requests for speakers from local middle schools and high schools who have seen anti-Semitism or other hateful acts within their schools.

Greenberg’s father Fred was born in Berlin in 1925. Greenberg’s speech was interspersed with photos and video of her father who had participated in The Shoah Foundation’s taped video interviews with Holocaust survivors years ago. In 1935, Fred’s family was stripped of German citizenship as part of the Nuremberg laws and eventually exiled to Chrzanow, Poland when he was 15 years old. Everyone was forced to work and Fred eventually found a job delivering soda and beer to German Army posts, restaurants and even Trzebina, a labor camp.

In 1943, Chrzanow was evacuated by the Nazis and Fred was sent to a concentration camp. He eventually spent time in several concentration camps including Dachau and endured death marches.

Although Greenberg knew that her father had participated in the Shoah Foundation’s project she refused to watch the videotapes. “Those tapes were just too personal and painful for me,” but she had a change of heart following the death of Elie Weisel, an author who wrote prolifically about the Holocaust. When Greenberg initially watched the video footage of her father, she was struck by how many times he used the word ‘lucky.’ “I survived on hope,” he said in the video. Greenberg always marveled at her father’s optimism, perseverance and positive attitude that helped him rebuild a life in America.

Remarkably, Fred was reunited with his brother in Dauchau. His mother did not survive the war. In 1945, Fred and his brother were transported in a railroad car from Dachau that was eventually ambushed by English fighter planes. Fred and his brother decided to jump from the train and they did successfully escaping to freedom.

After the war, Fred and his brother lived in a displaced person camp in Munich. They also decided to return to Berlin where they reunited with their father. The family then immigrated to Washington Heights in Manhattan, an area that at the time was populated with many Holocaust survivors. Fred eventually found work as an automechanic and met Greenberg’s mother Ruth at a Hanukah party in 1951. Ruth also was a Holocaust survivor and had spent her time during the war in Belgium hidden in a convent.

The Bachners ultimately settled in Hartsdale, an area where very few survivors lived but Fred never forgot the experiences of his past. He was very involved in his temple, the Greenburgh Hebrew Center, and often retold his story at other HHREC events. Even prior to his death in 2008, he had purchased a marker for his tombstone that said Holocaust survivor.

Greenberg retold how her life in Hartsdale was a typical post-war suburban upbringing but there were “subtle ways” that her parents’ past was different from her peers. For example, every Thanksgiving her parents would steadfastly refuse to serve sweet potatoes because it reminded them of how they had survived on spoiled potatoes during the war, which eventually turn sweet when rancid.

Greenberg recounts how her father also fought Multiple Sclerosis and leukemia in his old age but whenever she called to speak to him, his reply was always the same. “What could be bad? The sun is out and the sky is blue.”

Other GenerationsForward speakers will be recounting their parents and grandparents stories in lectures throughout the county this year. For a list of speakers and upcoming events, visit www.hhrecny.org.

Stacey Pfeffer is a frequent contributor to The Inside Press; she has written several articles on the Holocaust.