Original subtitles

[bright music plays]

[metallic clanking]

[projector clicking]

[metallic pinging]

[soft musical flourish]

[dramatic music plays]

- [camera shutter snapping] - [indistinct chatter]

Let's move now to Poland and a discovery being hailed

as a rare firsthand look

at one of the most crucial chapters of the Holocaust.

[reporter in German] These are of great historical value,

that saw light after 80 years.

[woman in English] This is a negative,

the only one existing in the world,

from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising,

from the inside, from the ghetto.

[reporter in French] Images to express the inexpressible.

Fragments of lives captured in 33 photographs.

[reporter in Italian] These photos were taken

by Grzywaczewski, a 23-year-old Polish firefighter.

[reporter in English] The Warsaw Ghetto Revolt

was the act of resistance of Jews

against Nazi regime during the Holocaust.

[reporter in Russian] Historians consider these photos valuable

because they are the only known images of the ghetto uprising

not taken for Nazi propaganda.

[man in English] Documentation that's there is the sense of

what an ordinary person would see

and how that ordinary person framed

all of the incredible things that were happening

in April 1943.

[woman] Most of my life, I tried to forget all of this.

[soft, dramatic music continues]

[whispers] Stop.

[music slowly fades]

[tense, poignant music plays]

33 PHOTOS FROM THE GHETTO

[birds chirping]

NEW YORK, 1968

[Hilary Laks] Dearest daughter,

While putting his life at risk,

Leszek managed to take some photographs.

Knowing this, I asked him ten years ago,

if he would send them to me.

FROM THE LETTERS OF HILARY LAKS TO HIS DAUGHTER, ROMA

I received some of them and kept them with me until now.

These pictures tell a story which is ours, as well as his.

The negatives are still with Leszek.

These photographs have never been published.

I kept them with me for this long on purpose.

I thought I would publish them

when the world began to forget what had happened.

I don't know if the time is right,

but my own time is passing.

MACIEJ GRZYWACZEWSKI LESZEK'S SON

Well, this apartment looked a bit different.

But maybe let's go here because this was Dad's room.

And when we were cleaning after Dad's death,

we noticed that these boards down here were loose.

In this hideout, we found Dad's journals.

[gentle, solemn piano music plays]

My sister and I didn't know these journals existed.

He never told us about any of this.

[Leszek Grzywaczewski] The times we live in

are more interesting than any others.

FROM THE JOURNALS OF LESZEK GRZYWACZEWSKI (1938-1940)

I chose a good year to keep a journal.

THE BEST FORM OF DIPLOMACY IS A STRONG ARMY!

I went to a big demonstration today.

The mood was so-so. Not much passion.

The speeches were stereotypical.

Nationalists shouted, "Away with the Jews!"

I shouted until my voice got hoarse.

But none of it matters now

because final exams are the day after tomorrow.

WARSAW, 1939

On our way back from school, our friend said,

"I'm so convinced war is coming,

I'm not studying for the exams at all."

[engines buzzing]

[siren wailing]

Friday morning, September 1st, I heard the air raid siren.

"Close your windows!"

That woke me up.

I saw the first German planes above Warsaw.

[siren continues]

[rumbling impacts]

[thrum of marching footsteps]

[bright martial horn music plays]

We're staying home today.

The Germans might round people up for work.

Many SS troops and military police showed up

and began detaining and checking IDs

of whoever they saw fit.

They began firing public servants,

or the workers of German companies.

Those captured were gathered into columns

and walked or driven to be loaded onto trains.

Two of my friends were captured.

Only Jews are worse off than us.

[Cohen] Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.

My name is Dina Cohen.

Today is November 7th, 1996.

I am conducting an interview with Romana Kaplan, born Laks,

in Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA.

The interview will be in English.

And when were you born?

I was born in Poland, Warsaw.

[Cohen] Could you please describe your family?

[pencil scratching]

[Kaplan] My father was a chemical engineer,

uh, and had a, um, very, um, prestigious position.

It was a factory that produced soaps, perfumes, and candles.

[Laks] Dear Romechka,

You asked me if I could write about the past...

FROM THE LETTERS OF HILARY LAKS TO HIS DAUGHTER, ROMA (1968)

especially about those experiences,

those shameful times,

which you may not remember

because you were too little.

I will try to write a letter,

but I don't know if I can or how much I will be able to.

Our world started to fall apart.

WARSAW, 1940

Just because we were Jews,

to Germans, we were a threat.

We were subhumans, a race to be annihilated.

We were forced to wear an armband with the Star of David.

All Jewish companies were taken over by the Germans.

Jewish bank accounts and deposits were confiscated.

[grim music plays]

So they could isolate us from the rest,

a ghetto was created in Warsaw in the autumn of 1940.

We were surrounded by a wall.

All Warsaw Jews who lived outside the ghetto

were resettled within it.

With time, the ghetto was shrunk,

and we, too, had to move,

abandoning many of our possessions.

Soon, the ghetto had about half a million people.

Poverty among the Jewish masses grew every day.

I remember having a doll, a large doll

that was given to me by my father's boss...

ROMA LAKS KAPLAN DAUGHTER OF HILARY LAKS (1996)

and I called her Krystyna.

[gentle, tense music plays]

[voice breaking] I remember my mother sewing up, uh,

some of the jewelry in the doll.

[Grzywaczewski] We ran out of money.

You can't find paid work,

and everyone tries to get fake jobs.

FROM THE JOURNALS OF LESZEK GRZYWACZEWSKI (1940-1941)

I got in touch with an old classmate.

He works for the Fire Guard at a school in Zoliborz.

With his help, I can get in.

[bell dinging]

I went to Zoliborz.

At the alarm, firefighters

started to slide down the poles,

put on their clothes, belts, their helmets, and assemble.

CENTRAL FIREFIGHTING ACADEMY

[Maciej] My mom lived on the street next to that school.

My father loved to take pictures of my mom.

She was his favorite subject throughout his entire life.

[Grzywaczewski] I really like Marysia.

She has really nice legs.

She's full of life, incredibly warm and kind.

Apparently, she likes me too.

Marysia has a camera.

I bought a roll of film.

It took almost an hour of fiddling under the blanket

to load it into the camera.

I did it incorrectly

so part of the film tore off and was wasted.

I was able to procure a photo enlarger.

After a few failed attempts, I started to make good prints.

Getting to know this craft

might have a huge importance for the future.

[bright, jazzy music plays]

I long for a bigger operation

where I can have a chance to prove myself.

[bell dinging]

Alarm!

In a heavily loaded vehicle,

we speed through the crowded streets of the ghetto.

[somber, poignant music plays]

I got a spot on the ladder by the third floor window.

I waited a bit for water, and got inside.

It became completely dark,

surrounded by thick smoke and steam.

I started to cough and cry.

I couldn't breathe.

My legs became soft as rubber.

I hear, "Run!"

So I dashed out the window.

We barely moved the ladder away and that window collapsed.

[somber music continues]

I talked to the Jews a bit.

They live very poorly.

I felt like I was talking with people condemned to die.

[Kaplan] Kaddish.

To me, that was the most frightening thing.

Because I heard it over and over again.

And I had no means...

ROMA LAKS KAPLAN DAUGHTER OF HILARY LAKS (1996)

of, um, knowing what it meant.

[indistinct chatter]

[man reciting the Kaddish]

[crying]

[Kaddish ends, echoes]

[Laks] When I think about it today,

seems to me that Germans' initial theory

was that Jews, closed off in the ghettos,

would smother each other like rats

or quickly die of starvation and infectious diseases.

Typhus was spreading,

and the mortality rate was high.

Before July of 1942, around 100,000 people died.

I got a special pass which allowed me to leave the ghetto

and go to the so-called "Aryan side."

I managed a factory

which produced soap, perfumes, and candles.

I was a rented-out slave.

I had to go to Praga, a suburb of Warsaw.

Every day, I walked around 12.5 miles.

[Kaplan] Polish man named Adamczewski

depended very much upon my father

to run the factory,

so that my father, until the very end,

had a job on the "Aryan side,"

which is why, um, we survived as well as we did.

He was always able to bring us some food to ghetto.

My parents kind of adopted a young woman

who at that point was about 19-20 years old, named Halina.

She was a very beautiful woman.

[Jacqueline] I think that these pictures

were probably the oldest.

We're sure that's Mom, right?

Well, yes.

[John] As I remember my mother, she was always a glamour lady.

She was full of life and... and very important

about her physical and appearance,

as well as the way she carried herself.

Um, in reference to the war...

JOHN & JACQUELINE: CHILDREN OF HALINA HIRSZBAJN BIELAWSKA

she didn't talk about it much.

She had a lot of pain and she was unwilling

to fully divulge what happened

or the sequence of events that happened.

- Um... - Well, all of her family

except the brother in Palestine was gone.

- Was gone. - She knew that they were gone.

So she was an orphan and she looked for a new family.

And that family was Hilary and Janina Laks.

[John] Right.

[Jacqueline] That she needed to not be alone.

[gentle, solemn music plays]

[Laks] After some time,

the Warsaw Ghetto started to organize.

Common smuggled products were food and other essentials,

but most of all, raw materials,

which were processed in the ghetto

in numerous Jewish workshops and small factories.

That way, part of the population

found employment.

There was less hunger,

and the typhus epidemic had ended.

[music fades]

[Maciej] I found out about our father's photographs

from my daughter, Marianna.

Marianna was at a party,

and an acquaintance she made, a historian,

asked if Leszek Grzywaczewski was a family member,

and she said, "Yes, that's my grandpa."

He said, "I don't know if you know,

but his photos are in the Holocaust Museum

in Washington, D.C."

So then she called me and said,

"Dad, do you know that Grandpa took pictures?"

I told her, "I know he took pictures,"

because he took so many.

But that some were of the ghetto uprising,

I didn't know that.

[birds chirping]

When the anniversary of the uprising was getting close,

POLIN Museum started pressing me to find other things.

Zuzanna called me and asked, "Maybe there's something else?

Maybe more pictures?"

So we started to look into it,

and here are my father's photographs.

I had some, my sister had some.

There were photographs and slides.

I couldn't look through the slides.

My eyesight wasn't good enough

or I didn't have the strength to look closely one by one

because these are negatives.

It's really hard to see anything on them.

[gentle dramatic music playing]

I said, "Maciek, help me."

He said, "Okay, I'll do it."

All I did was tidy up.

I organized it all in those boxes.

[Maciej] I'm looking here.

These photos? I think these are of me when I was little.

I was just rolling these back

and I moved my hand like that,

and I could see Jews being led to the Umschlagplatz.

I roll it out more,

and I see there are all these pictures I know,

plus some others.

And I tell Bozena, my wife,

"I found them. There they are."

[exhales heavily]

Dad had been dead for more than 30 years,

and here, as if he came back to life in my consciousness.

[dramatic ambient music plays]

I didn't believe this negative existed.

[Schnepf-Kolacz] Truly, it was an unbelievable feeling.

It was like touching, um,

something which had, uh, no right to survive,

which no one believed had survived.

These are very rare moments for a researcher,

when we feel a crevice opening up

and it's a view into the past.

POLIN MUSEUM EXHIBITION CURATOR "AROUND US A SEA OF FIRE"

I knew that these were the only photographs we know of

shot in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Uprising

which were not taken by Germans.

This is a characteristic of, um,

photographs from events of annihilation.

At first glance, we don't know what we are looking at.

Only by knowing the story

do we begin to understand what's hidden in the image.

You can see this was nervously advanced.

- They're also blurry. - [Maciej] Yeah.

[Schnepf-Kolacz] Their perforation is torn the most

where the photos documenting the extermination

were taken secretly.

The film roll was possibly moved more rapidly.

The hand maybe trembled from his emotions.

But it also shows the great value of the material itself,

not only the images recorded on it,

because the negative itself is a carrier

of history and emotions.

- [music ends] - [train trundling]

WARSAW GHETTO

[indistinct chatter]

[Kaplan] I remember my grandfather living with us.

And I remember coming home one day,

and not having my grandfather.

And he was simply caught in one of those "lapanka,"

which translates into...

ROMA LAKS KAPLAN DAUGHTER OF HILARY LAKS (1996)

"being caught," um, on the street.

[indistinct chatter]

[whistle blows]

[Laks] Dearest daughter,

On July 22nd, 1942,

the Germans began systematic liquidation

of the Warsaw Ghetto.

FROM THE LETTERS OF HILARY LAKS TO HIS DAUGHTER, ROMA

This operation was called "Resettlement to the East."

[Kaplan] Because this is what the Germans told the Jews,

which of course, it was resettlement

for a better world.

[announcement in German] Every displaced Jewish person

has the right to take 15 kilograms of luggage.

All valuables, such as money, jewelry, gold, can be taken.

You should take food for three days.

[somber, dramatic music plays]

[Laks in English] The ghetto was surrounded

by Latvian and Ukrainian units.

With their help, every day, thousands of people were caught

and hauled off through the so-called "Umschlagplatz."

At that time, no one knew about the existence

of death camps.

We found out much later about Treblinka.

Towards the end,

the "efficiency" of the gas chambers

was around 5,000 corpses a day.

Germans had always been, and still are,

famous for being well organized.

[chatter, commotion]

[door rumbling]

[train whistle blows]

- [music fades] - [train chuffs]

[train sounds fade]

[water lapping gently]

[Maciej] When he met Marysia, my mom,

my dad would take her out on a boat in Warsaw.

At the same time, the Germans were beginning

to liquidate the ghetto

and deport people to their extermination.

He and Marysia were boating on the Vistula.

That was life. It just went on.

[bright big band music plays]

[Grzywaczewski] Air, sun,

shining water, silence, and peace.

FROM THE JOURNALS OF LESZEK GRZYWACZEWSKI (AUGUST 1942)

As if there was no war.

Me and Marysia, sunbathing.

A series of events pushing us towards the inevitable...

marriage.

I bought a roll of film. We snapped pictures.

I especially won't forget the sunset

and the view of Warsaw disappearing in blue mist.

We don't know what'll happen to us.

Rumor has it, we'll meet the same fate as the Jews.

I remember a great many people

being herded into this square,

where the Germans made you walk around

and pulled people out of it.

I also remember my parents' friends

and a little girl about my age, where the child was pulled out.

So my parents tried desperately to hide me

under raincoats between them.

[low murmuring]

[Laks] Though now, they leave alone only the Jews

who work in German factories which supplied the army.

We were able to hide in one of them.

It was managed by a German named Schultz.

[Kaplan] My father was able to get a job

for my mother in ghetto,

making Germans uniforms,

hoping that that would be a protective setting

for my mother.

I, on the other hand, was held in a barrel next to my mother.

Um...

[quavers] For a five-year-old, this was not wonderful.

- [heavy, echoing footsteps] - [child breathing]

[child gasps]

[Laks] With Schultz's knowledge,

I kept working on the "Aryan side"

for Adamczewski.

Soon, with the help of my coworker, Mr. Miskiewicz,

you got smuggled out to the "Aryan side."

[tense music plays]

[Kaplan] There were work groups

that were going on "Aryan side,"

and my father bribed the gatekeepers

so I would walk out with the crowd.

He was, of course, terribly anxious.

If Germans were to see me, that would have been the end.

So he walked very closely to the group that were moving out,

at which point one of the...

[swallows forcefully]

[tense music plays]

[commotion]

At which point,

one of the soldiers was concerned

that my father was too close to the "Aryan side,"

and pulled him and beat him.

My father lost an eye.

And I wanted to run to my father. [voice breaks]

But he made it very clear

that what he wanted was for me to leave.

And, uh, in fact, I did.

[Laks] This happened just in time,

because all of Schultz's workers

were walked out for so-called "selection."

For the next 48 hours,

we were picked through like cattle for slaughter.

As a result, half the people were taken

straight to Treblinka.

All children were killed, and most of the women.

In two months, the Germans murdered 300,000 people.

[announcement in German] The General Governor orders

that any Jew who leaves his designated residential district

will be punished by death.

Those who shelter Jews will receive the same punishment.

- [horse hooves clopping] - [indistinct chatter]

[Kaplan in English] On the "Aryan side," I was met

by my father's coworker's wife.

I... I was a danger to people who were to hide me

because I was so obviously a Jewish child.

I don't think I stayed more than few days in any one place.

Uh, at least that's my recollection.

And then I was placed with the Sisters of Charity.

I was afraid, uh,

because I think at that point I fully realized

that if I were found, that would be death.

[Grzywaczewski] There have been some changes at home.

Daddy sleeps on a futon which is short and narrow.

Mom is tired. Her heart hurts. She gets upset.

She somewhat ignores safety measures,

but it must be said,

she's the moral anchor of the home

in all moments of hesitation and sadness.

Suddenly, out of the blue,

two ladies moved in with us,

Halina Bielawska and Janina.

They are resettled and have nowhere to go,

so they stay with us.

One of them was Halina Hirszbajn...

AGNIESZKA RESZKA JEWISH HISTORICAL INSTITUTE

who also used the last name Bielawska.

SEARCH CRITERIA

[Reszka] So the last name Hirszbajn, Halina, right?

- [Maciej] Yes. - [Reszka] Born in 1920, right?

[Maciej] Yes, same as my father.

- [Reszka] Bielawska. - Mm-hmm.

- [Reszka] After the war... - That's right.

[Reszka] on Wilcza Street, 8/16.

Wilcza Street is very close to Mokotowska Street,

where my father lived

and also where they hid and helped each other out.

The second person was called Janina Laks...

Wilcza Street, 8/16.

So we see here the same address.

My mother was smuggled out of ghetto,

and she was taken in by a family

with whom she pretty much stayed the entire war,

and their name was Grzywaczewski.

They did not want to have me there,

because, here again, I was a danger...

ZOFIA & STANISLAW GRZYWACZEWSKI LESZEK'S PARENTS

plus the fact that they were very active

in Armia Krajowa.

I know that when Mother left the ghetto,

she ended up very quickly with the Grzywaczewskis.

JOHN & JACQUELINE: CHILDREN OF HALINA HIRSZBAJN BIELAWSKA

- And... - I think there was a plan.

I don't think it was by serendipity.

[Jacqueline] I'm pretty sure I have a bracelet

in a safety deposit box.

That bracelet may have been part of the jewelry that she had

that she used to survive.

That's what I was explaining.

I do know that for a fact because she told me that story

that her family made jewelry that was not really jewelry,

but really small little bars of gold...

And it's an unusual...

in order to break off a piece and use it to survive...

And this bracelet...

I could see where you could easily take off a link

and make it into money.

IDENTIFICATION CARD

I don't know who helped Mom change identities.

[John] Couldn't be the Lakses. So, it... it has to be the...

[Jacqueline] The Grzywaczewskis?

- [John] The Grzywaczewskis. - I have no idea...

[John] I would imagine somehow they were involved in that.

The reason the Lakses,

Halina came to the Grzywaczewski apartment...

DOROTA PAWLAK LESZEK GRZYWACZEWSKI'S DAUGHTER

is a mystery to me.

Where did they meet?

I think they knew each other before the war.

They were acquaintances, but that's just my assumption.

Can you come here, sir?

These are the registration cards of the survivors.

The estimates are that around ten percent of Jews

who lived in Poland in the year 1939

managed to survive.

So out of the three million, only 300,000.

Yeah.

[Maciej] This is Hirszbajn, Halina.

The same person as Pelagia Bielawska.

Pelagia was using forged papers,

which we know were very good ones

because there's the whole story

of the SS troops coming to the apartment,

I think it was the one on Wilcza Street

that we can see here.

[Kaplan] We had, of course, Aryan papers.

Mrs. Grzywaczewski found a place for my mother

when I couldn't stay with the Sisters of Charity.

[grim, ominous music plays]

When I lived with my mother,

she must have been spotted by someone.

I remember it was nighttime,

and one of the most frightening things

to this day for me is steps,

hearing steps, you know, people going upstairs.

[banging on door]

And my mother opened the door,

and there were three men, two in SS uniforms and one not.

And the informer sat on my bed and spoke Jewish to me.

[man in Yiddish] What is your name, my little dear?

It was not a language I understood.

I looked up and said, in perfect innocence,

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand German,"

at which point the SS left.

[Grzywaczewski] An unpleasant event.

An inspection at Halina's and Janina's.

Money took care of it this time,

but the blackmail may happen again.

The apartment was burned.

I finished officer school and got assigned

to the IV Brigade on Chlodna Street.

I'm sitting in my room in the barracks right now.

On our newly-minted IDs, everyone has a rank.

Mine is "Löschmeister," which is corporal.

The lieutenant gave a speech.

We're supposed to help him revive the spirit

of the Warsaw Fire Guard,

make it a resilient organization

based in military discipline.

Inside the Fire Guard, there is a secret organization

called "Skala."

I'm in contact with the commandant's son

who is persuading me to join.

Chlodna Street and Mier Barracks,

which housed the IV Brigade of the Warsaw Fire Guard...

JERZY GUTKOWKI WARSAW FIREFIGHTING MUSEUM

was wedged between two parts of the ghetto.

Firefighters of the "Skala" resistance organization,

as much as they could, helped the Jewish population.

In the past, there were train tracks here,

and somewhere around here was an entrance to a storm drain

through which aid for the Jewish population was passed

before the ghetto uprising.

Guns and ammunition.

[tense, dramatic music plays]

[Laks] Dearest daughter,

Only 40,000 Jews remain in the ghetto.

I left at the last moment and hid at the Miskiewiczes.

FROM THE LETTERS OF HILARY LAKS TO HIS DAUGHTER, ROMA (1968)

Immediately after that, on April 19th, 1943,

an uprising started in the Warsaw Ghetto.

A handful of poorly-armed people

for a month resisted tanks and machine guns

without a shred of hope that they could save their lives.

[man] For Jews, this was the eve of Passover.

This was the night of the Seder,

the night when Jews celebrate the Exodus from Egypt.

And consequently, the theme of Passover is freedom.

And here, these Jews were not only imprisoned,

but facing imminent death.

[solemn music plays]

[tanks rumbling]

Germans had gathered around the ghetto walls.

Troops were there.

They were backed by Ukrainian troops.

The trains were in the station, ready to deport the Jews...

CO-CREATOR, THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM

and that's the moment the Jews chose to rise in rebellion.

First day was exhilarating.

It was thrilling.

The Germans retreated from the ghetto.

Supermen!

Giants!

All the power of Germany,

and this small group of young Jews could what?

Could force them to withdraw.

But they had courage.

They had innovation. They used Molotov cocktails.

They used some handguns.

They had a couple of other guns.

And they had one thing

that the Germans could not anticipate,

which is they were willing to fight on to their death

because they had no choice.

They were going to die one way or another.

And people who are fighting for their lives

and fighting for the life of their community

are willing to do everything in order to preserve it.

[gentle, solemn music plays]

We have a ghetto behind walls during the uprising,

and, practically speaking?

PROF. JACEK LEOCIAK INSTITUTE OF LITERARY RESEARCH

There couldn't have been any Poles there.

And yet, here we have images that were stolen from inside.

[man] I can see regular film, but the frames are halves.

And you can see that the perforation is torn.

- One edge only. - What was used to take these?

I immediately think of the Korelle K made by Kochmann,

released in 1932.

GRZEGORZ KWOLEK PHOTOGRAPHER

One side has the cassette,

and there's a spool on the other side.

But if the cassette was jammed,

there would be resistance when you move the film.

The teeth would tear the perforation,

and the film wouldn't advance a whole 20 millimeters.

So you had to, for example,

shoot a black frame to move it more than one frame,

so you could be sure that the frames didn't overlap.

But if you're taking shots in action,

especially while hiding,

uh, what you're doing, this could be difficult,

and the frames could overlap.

[gentle, tense music plays]

[Maciej] It's so small, easy to hide.

It really is, even in your pocket.

[Grzywaczewski] A month passed, fraught with terrible events

which could have a huge influence

on the psyche of young people.

I got a call from the brigade in the morning

to assemble immediately.

Marysia is very upset with me for going to the ghetto

instead of her.

[solemn, dramatic music plays]

[reel clicks]

The ghetto is filled with scenes from Dante.

Friends speak of the tenacity of the Jewish fighters

and the fighting spirit of the whole Jewish population.

Germans suffer considerable losses,

dead and wounded.

They have to take building after building,

without feeding the captives.

The fighting is intense.

[flames roaring]

[gunfire popping]

[man] I lived in a place

from which, when the ghetto was created...

ZYGMUNT WALKOWSKI ARCHIVIST, WARSAW HISTORIAN

we were removed.

So, in some ways, the ghetto, and me as a person,

my fate, in some ways overlap.

I carry these images deep within me,

even though I was just a child.

This photograph was taken by Leszek.

Here was the gate to the ghetto from the side of Nalewki Street.

Here we see burning buildings which, on the map,

are here.

This photograph was taken from here

and it shows this area.

The film starts with these pictures.

You can tell that this roll, from the start,

was put into the camera to take photos

documenting history.

Here, most likely, is some German soldier

who was making sure these buildings burned down.

[grim, ominous music plays]

[Grzywaczewski] The Germans burn homes

as a method of fighting.

FROM THE JOURNALS OF LESZEK GRZYWACZEWSKI (APRIL-MAY 1943)

We are not allowed to put out those fires.

We are to secure factories working for Germans

and city buildings.

And also prevent the fire from spreading

to other districts of Warsaw.

After two nights, I've had enough.

I was so tired, I just sat down on some boards.

For ten nights, I didn't even move the covers

on my bed in the barracks.

We were constantly in the fire.

It usually went like this.

The Germans would tell us which streets

and which buildings were on fire,

from and to specific numbers.

We were to protect certain buildings or facilities.

WARSAW 80/82 LESZNO ST.

[reel clicks]

In this photo, you can see my father.

I think this is Dad.

Now this has to be an interesting story

which I can't explain

because it's obvious that a German soldier

is posing, looking into the camera.

So there must be some story behind this.

[Leociak] Here was kind of a gray area.

Photography was forbidden.

But when I say a "gray area," what I mean is that Germans

kind of looked the other way.

Grzywaczewski's role as a photographer

is incredibly important because he plays a dual role.

On the one hand, he's just a guy with a camera

who can take a picture with some corporal

for the Wehrmacht.

Why not?

But on the other, he played the role of a spy,

smuggling out secret images.

[tense, dramatic music plays]

[reel clicks]

The details in this photograph

are these windows,

as well as a fragment

of this building on the other side of the street.

From those, I was able to find

a prewar photograph

of this building in the city archives.

Take a look.

The cornice, the window placements

are dead on.

The curve of the tram tracks is clearly marked here.

So, this shot was taken

from the corner of this part of the building.

This is the condition in 1944

where we can see a completely destroyed area of the ghetto

except for the hospital buildings

which are still standing.

WARSAW SAINT SOPHIA HOSPITAL

[Walkowski] Good morning.

[tense, grim music plays]

[camera shutter snaps]

[Walkowski] This is the spot he was standing in

when he took those few photos.

[shutter snaps]

[shutter snaps]

[Leociak] He takes a series of photographs. How many?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...

eight photographs, in the order they lay here,

and we know that because we have the negative.

We have a story.

And these were taken in secret.

No Germans can know about it.

You can practically see these people's faces.

Little children are walking.

[tense, grim music plays]

[Walkowski] What are the feelings

of a person who knows

they are walking a path with no return?

It's hard for someone to imagine,

but it is captured in the photographs.

[Leociak] Take a look.

The truck and windows, uh, meet here.

We have a situation here

where you see this woman walking.

She turns to the side

and in the next photograph,

you see the tip of her elbow.

Does this connect these two pictures together?

And right here...

right here, uh, uh...

tram tracks connect here like this.

And so, from the four images,

we have a synthesis of one.

To me, this is a goodbye to these people

walking in front of Grzywaczewski's eyes.

They walk by and disappear.

[indistinct chatter]

[Grzywaczewski] The Jews chased out by the fire

are taken by Germans to the so-called "Umschlagplatz."

Wounded and sick are killed on the spot.

We are not allowed to help them.

Then, the Jews are led to the railway siding,

where they're transported to an unknown destination.

[dogs barking]

[Leociak] A train would pull up to the Umschlagplatz,

most likely pushed in by the locomotive.

Then, as the train pulled in,

they were rounded up onto a ramp

and loaded onto the train cars.

The locomotive went straight from there.

The death trains went east,

all the way to Treblinka station.

[train chuffing, clacking]

[low, mournful singing]

[singing fades, ends]

[Maciej] Leszek comes back from the action,

the film is loaded.

He goes out with Marysia, she's his fiancée, my mom.

They go for a walk.

[somber music plays]

[reel clicks]

[Pawlak] A beautiful picture of my parents.

It's very touching for me.

And here, in this picture,

this is my mom and my father's sister, Aunt Danusia.

The third lady, I don't know who she is,

just some friend of theirs.

Aunt Danusia, my father's sister.

And the contrast, you know, of life on the outside...

Hmm, it's spring. I mean, it is April.

clashing with the ruined ghetto

and these here.

[Leociak] This is a great example

how one can show the breaking apart of Warsaw

into two worlds, two different worlds...

PROF. JACEK LEOCIAK INSTITUTE OF LITERARY RESEARCH

which are fused together topographically,

but far apart, like separate galaxies.

[gentle, solemn music plays]

WARSAW 65 MOKOTOWSKA ST.

Good morning. I am Maciej Grzywaczewski.

My dad lived in this apartment during the war.

There was a big living room.

And this was the hallway to the kitchen.

Here was the bathroom.

[knocks]

I'll knock.

The negatives of the ghetto uprising

were developed in this room.

And here is the exit to the staircase,

but it's closed.

And-and here, uh, was a little... attic,

and in that attic is where Roma was hiding.

Short time I stayed,

I stayed in that tiny little attic,

which was above the kitchen,

and, um, I could not... I could not move.

I simply had to be very quiet.

Here in these rooms, we had Germans

assigned to stay in our home.

I think there were two living with us.

Every morning, one of them would come in,

sit down in the kitchen, drink coffee,

and read his newspaper.

And there, in the attic, in that room,

lived Roma, and she had to stay super quiet.

[lively traditional music plays]

[Kaplan] I think I'd begun to read at that point.

I was able to sit and read for a prolonged period of time

and not make any noise.

And that really saved my life,

because if anybody knew

that the Grzywaczewski family were saving Jews,

Grzywaczewskis would have been killed.

[reel clicks]

[Grzywaczewski] After returning to the ghetto,

I found out that firefighters

were taking clothes, lingerie,

bedding, little knickknacks in suitcases.

They explained it wasn't theft.

These things no longer had an owner.

However, clashes with the Germans,

who did consider it theft,

forced us to vigorously fight these actions.

So, we subdued it quickly.

[Leociak] What do we have here? In the foreground,

three firefighters.

But somewhere in the background

there's a German who is also taking a photo.

Grzywaczewski is showing a situation

which was quite common during the Holocaust.

Germans photographing the annihilation.

This is Nowolipie Street towards Smocza Street.

These photographs are from the Stroop Report.

This is Stroop. This is General Jürgen Stroop.

JÜRGEN STROOP REPORT

[Stroop in German] I have forbidden the use of cameras

during actions in the ghetto.

But General Krüger's order to create a report

included the delivery of photos.

Everything had to be done very quickly.

I suspect the SS Security Police

took these shots.

[poignant, dramatic music plays]

I wrote the report "There Is No Longer

a Jewish Residential District in Warsaw!"

for Heinrich Himmler,

for Krüger, and for myself.

It will be valuable material for history,

for the Führer,

and for future researchers of the Third Reich,

for nationalist poets and writers,

and, above all, for the documentation of our efforts

that the Nordic race and the Germans are undertaking

to get rid of Jews in Europe and in the entire globe.

[unsettling, tense music plays]

[Grzywaczewski in English] Almost every day,

we see the SS General Jürgen Stroop

directing the operation.

Instead of putting the fires out,

we have to watch them burn.

Instead of rescuing people,

we have to watch helplessly as they suffer.

We are continuously under the control of German police

and the SS.

Any attempt at providing help

can have severe consequences for us.

WARSAW NOWOLIPIE ST.

From this spot, Leszek took a photograph.

[camera shutter snaps]

[Leociak] For Grzywaczewski, taking this picture was risky.

He's standing here, behind the firefighters.

One of them, the one closer to the lens,

is looking this way towards the building.

But the other is turning away.

He couldn't betray his emotions.

For the Germans,

this situation was, I'd say, positive.

That's how it was supposed to be.

"The Jews were supposed to jump."

They weren't considered human.

But for those firefighters,

their emotional reactions are completely opposite.

[grim, somber music plays]

[Grzywaczewski] The Jews who hid,

instead of evacuating after the building was set on fire,

burned inside.

Whole groups, cut off by flames,

ran to higher ground,

and when the fire reached them,

they saved themselves from burning alive

by jumping from the balconies onto the cobblestones.

[reel clicks]

From a balcony window I saw a whole family jump.

Five, six people died instantly.

They couldn't escape, and we couldn't help them,

despite having the technical ability to do so.

[somber music continues]

This looks exactly like the same spot.

The same building.

You can tell by the windows.

And the balconies.

That's the same tenement house

that my father took pictures of.

You can see that, on the same day,

German propagandists were also at work.

Hmm.

Here too.

Judging by this balcony, this is the same.

The same tenement house.

In both photographs, you can see the tram overhead line,

the third story balcony, the same balustrade posts.

In the German photograph, the window on the left is open,

on the right, closed.

In my father's picture, it's the same.

This is the missing picture

that Dad probably couldn't take.

And Leszek, after taking that first photograph,

moved here.

And here is the house where the drama unfolded.

[reel clicks]

- [tires screech] - [crunch]

[Walkowski] This small but unfortunate accident

immediately caused a few people to run towards it.

A normal human reaction.

But how it highlights the fate of those people.

There was no one.

There was no one to run to help them.

There was no possibility.

Not because no one wanted to, because no one could.

[Leociak] These two pictures tell an entire story.

The Germans come and gather here

by the bodies of the ones who jumped.

All that is obvious to me.

But when you look really closely,

you can see that here, there is a silhouette of a man.

It's just the silhouette of his head and shoulder.

One could say that these are Jews

who were coming out maybe from some kind of bunker,

from this gate.

I think these two situations can be reconciled.

In other words, in the same spot,

you see the corpses

of those who jumped from the windows

and Jews who are coming out alive,

only to die moments later.

[Grzywaczewski] Under the ruins of burned-out homes,

in so-called "bunkers,"

there are supposed to be Jews remaining.

[tense, unsettling music plays]

[gunshot echoes]

The sight of those people being led out

will stay with me for the rest of my life.

The faces not of people, but almost half-animals

with mad, unconscious expressions.

Eyes squinting from sunlight.

They stayed in the darkness for weeks.

Silhouettes, barely standing from hunger and fear,

dirty, tattered,

shot in masses.

Some still alive, stumbling over the corpses

of the annihilated.

[solemn, dramatic music plays]

The entire district is burned down

and looks like one vast sea of rubble,

or a dead city,

struck by some great disaster.

In reality, it is the disaster of war.

I think what he saw in the ghetto was very...

You can feel it in his journal. He rapidly matured.

He changed.

[Grzywaczewski] After days of sleepless nights

and intense work,

I came home.

There came days of calm which I couldn't get used to.

Couldn't accept.

I became secretive.

I shut myself in my silence

like a snail in its shell.

[Maciej] The burden of the things he saw

he directed inward.

I don't think he talked about it to anyone.

[music fades]

[Leociak] So we are at the end of the negative.

Grzywaczewski photographs his fiancée

and takes a self-portrait.

If someone asks,

"Who is this firefighter, Grzywaczewski,

who was in the ghetto?",

the shortest answer would be a witness

in the deepest, most existential sense of the word,

in a very profound, existential way.

A year and a half after the ghetto uprising,

from the apartment on Mokotowska Street,

under the command of Stanislaw Grzywaczewski,

my grandfather, the father of my father,

a platoon of insurgents sets out to fight.

They head to Szucha Avenue to reclaim it.

My father is called up as a firefighter

for the Warsaw uprising.

It is a day that's very... Hmm.

It's an important marker. It's...

Let's move on.

[solemn piano music plays]

[siren wailing]

WARSAW, 1944

[Laks] Dear Romechka,

On August 1st, 1944,

Polish uprising against the Germans broke out.

FROM THE LETTERS OF HILARY LAKS

During these events, you were in Wolomin, near Warsaw,

where you were with the Daughters of Charity.

Mom managed to get to me,

and together we used the basements

to return to Mokotowska Street

to the Grzywaczewskis.

Meanwhile, the Germans destroyed and burned Warsaw

from both the land and the air.

The uprising cost the city 200,000 dead,

countless wounded,

and more than 80% of its buildings

were reduced to rubble.

[rumbling explosion]

[cacophonous rumbling]

[thunderous explosion]

[somber music plays]

[Laks] In January 1945,

the Soviet offensive began.

The Germans disappeared overnight.

Right after the Soviets marched in,

we decided to walk towards Wolomin

to find out where the Daughters of Charity were

and what had happened to you.

When we got there,

we learned that you had been evacuated.

[Kaplan] I came back.

I found myself in Warsaw.

I could not recognize Warsaw at all.

It was completely destroyed.

Absolutely and completely destroyed.

And I had no idea where my parents were,

whether they survived, nothing.

So I tried to look for a place that was familiar to me.

And lo and behold, one of the buildings that

we lived in on the "Aryan side" was intact.

WARSAW 65 MOKOTOWSKA ST.

So I went into the building

and I rang everybody's bell that I could,

and the next morning I met my father.

ROMA LAKS KAPLAN DAUGHTER OF HILARY LAKS (1996)

And my father, at that point, had already contacted my mother

so that was the... the end of my saga.

[solemn, poignant music plays]

WARSAW, 1946 FORMER GHETTO AREA

[woman] The Central Historical Commission

took it upon itself to bring to light

the crimes committed by the Germans

against the Jewish population in Poland.

To that end, it gathered all materials,

printed, handwritten, and others.

DR. AGNIESZKA KAJCZYK JEWISH HISTORICAL INSTITUTE

The Central Jewish Historical Commission

collected documents such as photographs.

And we know that by 1946,

it already had in its possession

these five photographs taken by your father.

In fact, by 1946, when the book

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was published,

authored by Joseph Kermish...

THE GHETTO IN FLAMES

a pioneer of Holocaust research,

it included your father's photographs as a part of it.

We believe that these are first-generation prints.

These prints have priceless information on the backs.

The writing is very detailed.

We have precise information

about where each picture was taken

and when.

We assume only the photographer had that knowledge.

He knew what he was photographing and where.

I don't think that's my father's.

Really? Not your father's handwriting?

- Hmm, it's not. - That's really interesting.

[Maciej] I feel like this is the handwriting of Hilary Laks.

So maybe he's the one who kept these few photographs in 1946.

[gentle, dramatic music plays]

Everyone survived the war.

My mother and father got married in 1946,

right after the war ended, and then moved to Gdansk.

My father really wanted to live in Gdansk

because he wanted to be a sailor.

So he completed his studies at the polytechnic there

at the maritime department

and worked with ships for the rest of his life.

But the Lakses left

to go over to the United States in 1951.

At the end of the 1950s,

my father received a letter from Hilary.

He asked my father to send the photographs he took

during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

When my father was sent with a delegation

to a shipyard in the north of England in Billingham,

I suspect he sent the 12 photographs from there.

I think he believed that was a safer way to do it

to ensure they reached the recipient

outside the reach of communist censorship.

We were under Soviet rule in Poland,

and so any contact with the U.S. was considered suspicious.

After all these years, Roma is the only witness

who lived through those times.

She is the last one left from that family.

[Laks] Dear Romechka,

I want these photographs to be preserved as proof.

Of course, I could strike a deal with Life or The Post

and even make some money.

But I don't want that kind of money.

These pictures must be kept in the right kind of archive.

Think about it, and let me know where, in your opinion,

we should take them.

[man] These are the copies of the 12 photographs...

UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

that we have received in 1992

in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

in Washington.

I'm assuming that Hilary Laks, after his death,

his family decided to donate those photographs to us.

Immediately, we considered them

as something extremely, extremely unique.

[gentle ambient music plays]

Those 12 photographs were considered, by us, original,

because they were the only copies

that existed at that time.

Now, the negative is the original.

And there are 33 photos from the ghetto.

[Jacqueline] The man in the middle is definitely Hilary,

and the woman to the right,

with the hat and the fur collar, is definitely Mom.

[John] I have a feeling these are already by the time

she arrived in New York.

[Jacqueline] She considered Leszek a brother.

It was family.

[John] At the same time, I think she had demons,

um, from the time of survival.

I think she had PTSD.

Um, I remember her being hospitalized at UCLA,

um, with possibly a suicide attempt.

It felt like it's old history,

and dealing with that old history.

[Laks] Dearest daughter:

If there is any purpose to these recollections,

it is only to ensure that the memory

of those shameful times is preserved

so that people born and raised with abundance,

convinced of the values of our civilization,

may understand what can happen in the future

if they allow themselves to be set against one another

like dogs.

You see, somehow I've come to the end with these memories.

Everything that happens next is within your own memory.

[doorbell buzzes]

I'm Dorota Grzywaczewski. Leszek's daughter.

[both laugh]

We can speak English if you prefer.

Well, whatever you prefer!

The whole album is for you.

ROMA LAKS KAPLAN DAUGHTER OF HILARY LAKS (2024)

Zbigniew Leszek Grzywaczewski.

[Kaplan] Well, this is Warsaw.

- Ghetto? - [Pawlak] Ghetto uprising.

I tried very hard to not remember this.

[Pawlak] I know, I know.

- Leszek. - You recognize Leszek?

- Yeah. - You recognize him?

[Kaplan] Leszek and his family made it possible

for me and my parents to survive.

Beautiful photograph, and beautiful mother.

[Pawlak] Thank you.

I assume she's not alive.

[Pawlak] She died 11 years ago.

I'm sorry.

Excuse me.

If I...

[Pawlak] Definitely. I will hold it for you.

- [Kaplan] Oh, I remember that. - [Pawlak] Mm-hmm.

[Kaplan] Yeah.

[gentle, poignant music plays]

I've spent a good part of my life

trying to forget all of this.

You know, to me, this is my family.

This is my... history.

These are the people who, all of whom, I know, have died.

Well, we have to remember it.

It's part of history. It's not just part of the Jews.

If we don't remember, it will come again.

We have to remember. Remember your own history.

I've had enough.

- Every family has a history... - Mm-hmm.

and you are my history.

That is not just my history,

but also history of your...

of Poland.

Partially history of America

because we are here,

and partially because of this.

[gentle, solemn music plays]

Roma, her parents, and Halina survived the Holocaust

and emigrated to the USA.

Leszek fulfilled his dream

and remained connected to the sea for the rest of his life.

His friends remember him as a sailor

and an amateur photographer.

Maciej, Leszek's son,

was an activist of the democratic opposition

and "Solidarity," the movement that changed

the history of Poland.

[solemn music continues]

[music fades]