Synopsis
Sometime after 1945, a unique collection of over 2,400 private photographs became part of the archive’s holdings at the former concentration camp museum at Auschwitz. The photographs had probably been found in one of the victims suitcases. An examination of the photographs revealed that they belonged to Jews from the small Polish town of Bedzin. Only a few of the people pictured in the photographs have survived. Although it has not yet been established how these photographs came to be in Auschwitz, they may well have been brought to Auschwitz by their owners, 27,000 Jews from Bedzin.The four protagonists in this film represent some of the very few survivors.
Their memories give us an idea of the vibrant Jewish community before the war in this small town on the edge of the coal mining district in Upper Silesia. The school leavers of all those years ago are now Bedzin’s last surviving Jews. During the film, the protagonists encounter for the first time photographs that were taken around sixty years ago, which portray them as young people. From Israel, they embark upon an inner journey, via their stories, back into the past. These are stories full of fear, despair and shame in the face of those who were murdered. Together, they conjure up a past that keeps on making its presence felt and simply won’t fade away.
Andrzej Klamt