“Hiding & Saving Jews from the Holocaust” - a Film Series at the POLIN Museum

, 16 November 2016
The film series “Hiding & Saving Jews from the Holocaust” will be screened at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN, featuring films from various countries, which will examine the complex events of hiding and rescue in Czechoslovakia, France and Poland. The theme was selected to mark the anniversary of the official establishment of the Council to Aid Jews Żegota, which took place on 4th December 1942. Admission is free.


03/12/2014, 7:00 pm

“W ukryciu” (in Hiding), Dir. Jan Kidawa-Błoński, Poland, 2013, fiction.

Occupied Radom.Janina (Magdalena Boczarska), a well-known cellist, lives with her father. One day, the man brings home the beautiful Ester (Julia Pogrebińska), seeking shelter for the communist, the daughter of a friend. Initially, opposed to her presence, Janina, more and more, becomes fascinated by this strange woman. To the moment Janina’s father is caught in a round-up on the street, the Polish and Jewish women lived totally separate lives in the outside world. Now, in this isolation, emotions are aroused which neither of them expected.

10/12/2014, 7:00 pm

“Musimy sobie pomagać” (We Must Help Ourselves), Jan Hřebejk, Czech Republic, 2000, fiction.

This black comedy about heroes and traitors is full of unexpected turns, gestures of solidarity and bourgeois hypocrisy. Józef and Maria Čižk are a childless couple living in a small Czech town occupied by the Nazis. Not all the willingly, they provide shelter to David, a camp escapee and son of Józef’s pre-War employer. Against their will, the Čizk couple become heroes, but heroism demands victims on both sides.

This film won awards in Lwów (for best film and direction) and won the Critics’ Award in Cottbus.

17/122014, 7:00 pm

“Ostatnie metro” (The Last Metro), François Truffaut, France, 1980, fiction

Maria Steiner (Catherine Deneuve) and her husband Lucas are German Jews. They run a theatre on Montmartre. When, during German occupation, the situation of the Jews becomes uncertain, Lucas fakes a trip to South America. In reality, he hides in the theatre’s basement and prepares a new play. A young actor in their employment (Gérard Depardieu) falls in love with Maria.

This film, by one of the most important French directors, is the precursor of a new wave. It was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Non-English film category. It has won a dozen or so awards presented by the French Academy of Art and Film.