A Holocaust Survivor Breaks Eighty Years of Silence | Nina & Irena | The New Yorker Documentary

[Music] where were you why in the war where were you in Poland but where were you weren't in the camps no we were we had the Aryan papers what Aryan papers oh yeah yeah cuz when he said holoc my parents were Holocaust Survivors and yeah they were much older with your age you couldn't never survive camps yeah well we were look my father was at one point in Camp but he escaped oh yeah you escaped the camp but no they took him no the camp they took him on the work retail oh and then there was a shed there and they didn't he hid in there and they didn't make a count going back so he was like behind very lucky yes very hi an how are you so nice to see you I get to kiss you more time thank you for thanks for having me I'm excited where's my [Music] popcor oh hello ladies and gentlemen the one tip is to try to restate the question when you can so I'll say I'm not going to do that come on it's going if I can't hear it then I'll say it to you but otherwise I'm not going to repeat what you said no you don't have to repeat can I explain so if I say what I know what you're saying you want to hear about my experiences there and there okay you ready to go I know you give me a lot of that I don't have kids yet and my brother doesn't either but one day we will and I want them to know about you and to know your story how do you want them and my grandkids to remember [Music] you I was born in Kel which is a town between waro and Kow we were way above middle class and if anybody thinks that I come from a stle I get very upset because I have never seen a stle in my whole life my sister was 6 years older supposedly I looked like Shirley Temple I had blonde curls and she was Diana Durban once she heard a tune she could sit down and play it my sister had friends and I she wouldn't let me in she would close the door and they would talk about different things so I would listen through the people and then what if I heard something bad I would run to my mother you know what she's doing in if we were eating something and she wanted what I have she would say you want to eat that it's disgusting how can you have that you know this the minute I pushed it away she would take it and eat it and her name is Irene what her name was Irene Ura Ura Ura and when was the last time that you saw her in um April of [Music] 1943 hi back your glasses sorry sorry it shouldn't fall down know I'm good I'm all right okay no I thought you were closest to the no hi Mom hi hi hi hi Hi how are you Hi hi you have to make the Netflix respond to me go what do you mean go it shouldn't be this is trending now it just gives you new things that are popular want new things pey blinders that's supposed to be good I don't know it's like we didn't really talk about the Holocaust I I guess I knew of course in the back of my mind that she came here after the war I knew it all along but I didn't really think about it and my mother's side we didn't have anybody to visit we visited my grandparents in Brooklyn but um there were no aunts and uncles on her side there was nobody else really we didn't ask many questions when we were growing up it was just not talked about so Grandma um what happens next the war broke out September 1st [Applause] 1939 from the minute the Germans drove in they started picking up Jews in the [Music] street my father decided we're not staying here he figured out somehow that maybe if he went to a priest and the priest would give us a paper saying that we are studying to become Catholic that that will save us the only problem was that we really had to pretend that we're not Jews so we had to go to [Music] church and all the Jews went to the ghetto and it was bad news [Music] there when people used to die they used to put the corpse out in the street and it would stay there to till I don't know who were eventually picked up the [Music] bodies but you were in a way privileged you were on the other side of the wall you were catholic you were fake but were not such a terrific thing because my father was known and we started getting blackmailers coming at night they said if you don't have anything we're going to send the gapo and sure enough they send the gapo and they took my father [Music] away my sister now became the the head of the family my mother was really scared and my mother looked very Semitic whereas my sister and I we didn't she felt that we cannot stay and she somehow got my mother a job on the farm and I was going to be a cowgir they gave me six cows and a stick and go after two weeks maybe we got a note from my sister saying that I'm going towards W to see if there's anybody left from our family love herea that's the end we never heard about her we never heard from her or and after the war my parents went through Red Cross and and the Yem and all that nothing ever we were not could never find trace of her well what do you think happened to her she was probably shocked they probably on the train they might have asked them for papers or something and something happened that maybe was suspicious I don't know was there a moment when you when it dawned on you that Ira was never going to come back I never thought she's never coming back to me she has disappeared I mean but she'll come back many times after the war if I would see somebody that looked like her I would follow them thinking maybe it's her you know but after a while it you know you stop and that's [Music] it I feel the way I feel but I that that's nobody's business how I feel you know and I don't analyze it it's part of me and that's what it is I don't know can you describe any last memories with her from that time do you remember anything you did together no no think about you must remember something from the war together how was you don't remember your last memory of her no I don't think about it that way and I know I'm pushing here I just I'm going to stop in a second but it's in we've never talked about I never even knew you had a sister that's why I'm so interested in this cuz you never told us no well look I didn't talk about that time of my life first of all nobody was interested you didn't talk about [Music] it two I felt that if I start telling my story the way it really happened it was too depressing Goro too horrifying for the kids when they were small so I felt okay sometimes later and later never came good [Applause] great just take a couple of breaths here just finding your cow push into your feet drop hello Hi ninaelle how are you hi honey I'm in the middle of yoga now can I call you back yes you can enjoy your yoga you have a beautiful beautiful grandson I'll talk you later okay H thank you if you reach your arms forward push your left fo and [Music] slow your arms UPS s what would you say is your lesson from what you went through that people are inhuman and and and if there is any God I don't understand that he would let that happen we were now evacuated as Pauls we got on the train and we ended up in Prague the checks decide to liberate their town from the Germans because the Allies are very close the checks P tar on the Germans hung them and then live the match I mean this was terrible I never that that's the smell of the burning flesh but but you you lost your sister surely that's Revenge to burn well isn't that a kind of Revenge something that they deserved no I no I I just you don't do that to other human being I don't come on we are all born little adorable children what happens what happens what happens to people that they can become like worse than animals animals kill because they're hungry but that terrible what people do to people I I that's beyond me I don't care German Jew whoever I don't know it's human races is maybe it's time for it to disappear and and I don't know you think the creatures from outter space will be better I don't [Music] know hi n hi hi [Music] I I I have a feeling that you're going to have a hard time with you know with accepting the fact that I'm I I'm going I'm gone and you know I I feel bad about it but uh it's it's a you know it's a fact of life that's what happens My Le then right your father had five sisters with families and all of them were killed that's correct yeah I didn't know that yeah what do I mean you didn't know everybody so you were one of a few members of the extended family that that survived surv my parents and and I I think growing up I never really understood that no because look when you're growing up you're young you you don't dwell on these things the same thing I didn't dwell while it was happening I I didn't dwell that's what was happening you know I'm very straightforward person that's what happens and you have to accept you don't like it too bad I came to America in 1951 my mother says why are you going to sit home go go to the beach there were two guys there I didn't even look their way but they saw me and they flipped the coin and and Grandpa won and we got married in 53 we had Linda first 2 years later we had Larry [Music] happy birthday thank you thank [Music] you I made a birthday card for you yeah grandchildren I have six and great grandchildren I have [Music] [Laughter] five [Music] hi would I want her to be alive definitely would I want her to be in my life yes but what can I do about it there's nothing I can do that's what happened what's gone is gone [Music] well thank you for having us we had such a great time and uh no it was very nice except when it was annoying you should come and visit me more often not just for the movies spent three days I spent four days with you this week okay well that's going to last me how [Music] long [Applause] Grandma's 90 I had no idea 29 29 I we were never allowed to know your age never Frankie Lane he was singing [Music] jeel in the wake of a breakup you're the best one to call to tell me to like stop crying and get back out there up the you say in Hebrew till 120 okay and all the best keep on kicking make a wish okay a wish that we should all be together next [Music] year [Music] see

Channel: The New Yorker

Views: 216,864

Keywords: 2024 oscars, academy awards, antisemitism, daniel lombroso, education, errol morris, extremism, family history, film, films, grandma, grandson, history, hitler, holocaust, holocaust survivor, holocaust survivors, judaism, nazism, new yorker, nina & irena, nina & irena film, nina and irena, oscars, oscars 2024, poland, short film, short films, the new yorker, warsaw ghetto, world war ii, ww ii, ww2, wwii

Id: oaU8yTPckdk

Length: 22min 27sec (1347 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 15 2023