Director's Statement:
When I was working on a film on the preservation of the camp at former concentration camp Auschwitz a few years ago, I saw striking drawings and paintings in the archives. I wondered who had made them. Guards, staff, the SS? No, it was made by prisoners, some of whom had been forced and some of whom had made many thousands of sketches, paintings, figurines and pieces of music in the deepest secrecy.
Further research in other camps revealed that prisoners had created many thousands of drawings, jewelry, compositions and even fairy tale books for their children. How was such a thing possible? How could art still be made under the appalling conditions in a concentration camp?
Sometimes pieces of music and camp songs were dedicated to prisoners by the SS. They had no choice. But very often anything was made to escape the daily horror for a while. Or something was drawn to inform the outside world what was going on in the concentration camp.The incredible amount of art, from children's books to wall paintings, prompted me to make a film about
this. Soon, there won't be many survivors left to tell about this dark period. But there are still books, films and interviews, and the art of the prisoners can be added to that, as a creative cry for help in colour and sound.
Manfred van Eijk