Escape (documentary)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The escape |
| Original title | Uciekinians |
| Country of production | Poland |
| original language | Polish |
| Publishing year | 2007 |
| length | 56 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Marek Pawłowski |
| script | Marek Pawłowski |
The documentary Die Flucht (Polish original title: Uciekinier with the literal meaning of the refugee ) by Marek Tomasz Pawłowski (director and script ) shows the stages of a successful escape of four prisoners from the main camp of Auschwitz . Auschwitz I (main camp) was one next to the two large camps Auschwitz II-Birkenau and Monowitz - Auschwitz III to the concentration camps of Auschwitz, the near Oswiecim (dt Auschwitz.) In southern Poland about 60 kilometers west of Krakow had been built. The successful escape succeeded Kazimierz Piechowski , Stanisław Gustaw Jaster , Józef Lempart and Eugeniusz Bendera , who escaped from the camp in four stolen SS uniforms with stolen weapons and a company vehicle on Saturday, June 20, 1942.
With the processing of archive images, productions and interviews at the site of the genocide, Pawłowski created an independent document of the flight and the person Piechowski, who tells its own story.
Technical specifications
The film is 56 minutes long in the Polish version and 45 minutes in the German version by Ingrid Terhorst . In Germany, the documentary was shown on WDR in 2009. There is also a version with English subtitles under the title The Runaway .
Content
The film clarifies some key terms that play an important role in the description of many prisoners in concentration camps: hunger , the bowl and cap ("cap off") of each prisoner, the number, the wall of death and the types of murder that could occur suddenly as well as the roll call or the term of the extremely emaciated Muselmann . As confirmation, statements from other concentration camp inmates who are among the few Auschwitz survivors are repeatedly displayed.
Some of the SS men who were active at the time can be identified from contemporary photographs, such as Unterführer Schall and Sauberzweig .
The escape plan was developed from the resources available to these inmates in the camp: a car, the SS clothing room in the main economic camp , a hatch to the coal cellar of this building and a trolley. Saturdays were considered as the time because people only worked until twelve o'clock, leaving enough time to carry out the escape plan in daylight. In the event of failure, the resisters intended to commit suicide out of consideration for fellow prisoners and family members.
The places where the escape did not fail, but could have failed: when marching out of the narrower camp area, the guard did not look up the list of work details. The unexpected appearance of SS men in front of the building. Three SS men greet (according to regulations) the four uniformed men in their car. The barrier goes up after a brief order from the alleged Untersturmführer.
The first escape in SS uniforms showed the other prisoners that an attempt to escape from the closely guarded concentration camp could be successful.
The film also looks at Piechowski's time after the end of the war: terrible dreams often come at night to this day. The communist security service slipped a pistol under Piechowski to sentence him to ten years in prison as a former soldier in the Home Army . The death of the other three refugees in 1943, 1971 and 1980. And the fortuitous fortune in Gdańsk after 1990.
As the framework story, Piechowski, as the main actor, tells his personal experiences and their evaluation to a young person in the present.
background
A total of around 700 prisoners tried to escape from Auschwitz; According to various sources, it succeeded in about 150 to 300 cases. On July 6, 1940, Tadeusz Wiejowski managed to escape for the first time, accompanied by two members of the Polish resistance movement who were employed in the camp as "civilian workers". Wiejowski did not survive the war.
On June 20, 1942, Kazimierz Piechowski, Stanisław Gustaw Jaster, Józef Lempart and Eugeniusz Bendera made the extremely daring attempt to escape. They took SS uniforms and weapons and drove away from the site in a stolen vehicle. One of the refugees was carrying a report on Auschwitz that had been written for the high command of the Polish Home Army.
Awards
- Krakowski Festiwal Filmowy 2007: Audience Award
- Zolotoy Vityaz, Moscow 2008: Director's Award
- On February 1, 2008, the film received the Bronze Medal (Bronze World Medal) at the Festival of Television Productions at the New York Festival.
literature
- Kazimierz Piechowski : I was a number ... stories from Auschwitz. Translated from the Polish by Siegfried Schmidt. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim 2008, ISBN 978-83-60210-74-1 .
Web links
- The flight in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Kazimierz-Piechowski video on You Tube (2008, Polish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Report of the Auschwitz Museum ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )