I wish I had the words to describe how I feel. All I can say is that this documentary was sad but I am amazed with this human being. Survivor. He found ways to survive and will continue to do so.
2 Reviews
Amazing
oakleyallen-196-12355429 April 2022
Return to the scene of unspeakable horror
evening16 February 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Vladimir Munk is one brave dude.
On the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the 95-year-old survivor of the camp revisits the place where his mother and father were motioned toward the gas chambers.
He knew the pitfalls of another trip to Poland -- "People of my age die for not reason at all," he says. "I may die there, but it's a risk I have to take."
He makes the journey with Julie Canepa, whom he befriended after she performed at his assisted-living facility. "I knew six million people had been murdered," she says. "I never knew one who survived."
Vladimir, born in 1925 Czechoslovakia, and his parents were among those Jews shipped to the country's Terezin camp, where it seems they did OK (managed to survive) until they'd outlived their usefulness and were sent in cattle cars to Auschwitz. Presumably due to his youth and strength, Vladimir managed to elude Mengele's lethal wrist.
Amazingly, we observe Vladimir entering a barracks of the type he inhabited there, often awakening in the morning to a fellow convict who'd died beside him overnight. He remembered thinking of nothing but food and hatred for the Nazis -- "I have to kill the Nazi's. I have to survive!"
The documentary features many poignant photographs, showing, for example, crowds of young children who were doomed to die.
"Why me? Why not the others?" muses our elfin protagonist. "It was pure luck." Without elaborating, he confides he "had to do all things to survive -- not all of them honorable."
In the end we see that Vladimir also managed to survive his transcontinental trek, and valve-replacement surgery.
"I am waiting for the end, but it's a comfortable wait," he says. We can only wish him peace.
On the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the 95-year-old survivor of the camp revisits the place where his mother and father were motioned toward the gas chambers.
He knew the pitfalls of another trip to Poland -- "People of my age die for not reason at all," he says. "I may die there, but it's a risk I have to take."
He makes the journey with Julie Canepa, whom he befriended after she performed at his assisted-living facility. "I knew six million people had been murdered," she says. "I never knew one who survived."
Vladimir, born in 1925 Czechoslovakia, and his parents were among those Jews shipped to the country's Terezin camp, where it seems they did OK (managed to survive) until they'd outlived their usefulness and were sent in cattle cars to Auschwitz. Presumably due to his youth and strength, Vladimir managed to elude Mengele's lethal wrist.
Amazingly, we observe Vladimir entering a barracks of the type he inhabited there, often awakening in the morning to a fellow convict who'd died beside him overnight. He remembered thinking of nothing but food and hatred for the Nazis -- "I have to kill the Nazi's. I have to survive!"
The documentary features many poignant photographs, showing, for example, crowds of young children who were doomed to die.
"Why me? Why not the others?" muses our elfin protagonist. "It was pure luck." Without elaborating, he confides he "had to do all things to survive -- not all of them honorable."
In the end we see that Vladimir also managed to survive his transcontinental trek, and valve-replacement surgery.
"I am waiting for the end, but it's a comfortable wait," he says. We can only wish him peace.
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