Holocaust survivors provide voices of 'Witness'

By MARY ANN MARGER

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 30, 2000

Witness: Voices from the Holocaust is a remarkable documentary without a narrator, only the spoken testimonies of 19 survivors accompanied by archival footage.

The film is being shown Monday, on the eve of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

From Hitler's denouncing of the Jewish "race" to ultimate liberation, Witness describes the events of the Holocaust through the words of survivors.

The narratives are taken from more than 4,000 videotaped accounts in a project of the Fortunoff Archive, based in New Haven and begun in 1979. Many of the witnesses were speaking of their experiences for the first time, uncoached and unrehearsed. Some are no longer alive.

Some bay area residents who survived the Holocaust are on record, though none appear in the show. A companion book, published in April, contains more extensive accounts.

This is no Schindler's List or Life Is Beautiful. It is, as the press release describes it, "history, not entertainment." WEDU's program manager, wary of its content, scheduled it for 11 p.m. rather than the nationally advertised time of 10 p.m. He needn't have.

Still, the content is heartbreaking. There are occasional breakthroughs of the human spirit as witnesses tell of singing, of making jokes, of writing on smuggled toilet paper. But these brief instances are overwhelmed by the inevitable tragedy. "Sometimes at night, I lay and I can't believe what my eyes have seen," says one speaker.

Yet there is an uplifting aspect in this long recounting. It is the grace and gentleness of the survivors themselves who, despite their trauma, were able to move on.

TV Preview

Witness: Voices from the Holocaust airs on WEDU-Ch. 3 at 11 p.m. Monday.