For years, hours of videotaped interviews with survivors of the Holocaust sat packed away in a closet in Brookline, Massachusetts. Now, a filmmaker has rescued those old tapes, weaving dozens of interviews together into a 鈥渓iving memorial鈥� for survivors.
Harvey Bravman said he knew the Holocaust tapes would change his life. That scared him.
鈥淚 was afraid of what I might hear. I was afraid I couldn鈥檛 do it,鈥� said Bravman, director and producer of the work-in-progress film .
鈥淭hese people went through great pains to tell these stories, and most of them had never told these stories to even their own family members,鈥� said Bravman.
Bravman is talking about dozens of hours of interviews, recorded in the 1990s with Holocaust survivors living in Brookline.
The original idea was to edit the interviews down, but for the town, it was a big -- and expensive -- task.
Some of the raw recordings were sent . Others went into storage, where they sat for over 20 years, until Lloyd Gellineau, the town鈥檚 chief diversity officer, started going through the old stockpile.
He soon learned the tapes were interviews with Holocaust survivors.
鈥淎nd I鈥檓 like, 鈥極h my God. This has been sitting in my closet? Why haven鈥檛 we done anything with it?鈥欌�� Gellineau said.
Gellineau got in touch with Bravman, who cleaned the tapes up, digitized them, and eventually spent hours watching and editing the interviews.
The stories are gut-wrenching. Like Rena Chernoff鈥檚, a survivor of Auschwitz, who recalls the last time her mother and brother spoke. She said the Nazis were choosing numbers for people who they would kill.
鈥淢y mother asked my brother, 鈥楧id they take down your number?鈥� And my brother didn鈥檛 answer at all. And he was nine years old at that time,鈥� Chernoff said. 鈥淗e just threw his piece of bread that he got to my mother over the fence. And he said, 鈥榊ou take it, I won鈥檛 need it anymore.鈥欌��
Cheryl Lefman鈥檚 father, Henry, is also in the film. Lefman said she watched some of his Holocaust testimony years ago when Henry Lefman taped his interview, but she couldn鈥檛 get through it.
鈥淚t tore my heart apart,鈥� Lefman said.
In the recorded interview, Henry Lefman recalls a final conversation with his father, shortly before he was murdered.
鈥淩emember, my son, you must live,鈥� Lefman said. 鈥淵ou must survive. You must survive. And I鈥檒l be with you. I鈥檒l be with you.鈥�
Henry Lefman did survive. He emigrated to Massachusetts and, eventually, became an engineer. His daughter, Cheryl, said for her father, the Brookline interviews fulfilled that final father-son promise.
鈥淭hat he would live to tell the story of what happened in the Holocaust, as well as to their family,鈥� Lefman said. 鈥淚 think he would be tremendously proud.鈥�
Filmmaker Harvey Bravman said the hours of interviews reveal survivors detailing not just a historical legacy, but an emotional one.
鈥淭hey wanted us to know about the people they lost,鈥� Bravman said. 鈥淭hey wanted us to know that they loved them. And that they don鈥檛 know why they were the only ones that survived. It鈥檚 still hard to talk about.鈥�
But survivors did talk about it, some telling their stories near the end of their lives. Building a living memorial, which Bravman hopes will preserve these voices for years to come.
Soul Witness will play at the Criterion New Haven Cinema Thursday at 7:00 pm.
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