Chełmno. Szymon Srebrnik sings a prewar hit song “Mały, biały domek” on a boat on the river Ner as he did at the request of camp guards.
Chełmno/the Rzuchowski Forest. Srebrnik approaches a clearing where bodies
were incinerated.
Treblinka. Czesław Borowy, a farmer from Treblinka, observed cars with Jews on a
railroad spur next to his house. When Lanzmann’s interpreter Barbara Janicka inquires about his lack of empathy for the victims, Borowy responds with a Shakespearesque phrase: “it doesn’t hurt me when you cut your finger.”
Treblinka (Stacja Muzeum in Warsaw). Henryk Gawkowski, a retired driver from
Małkinia, runs a rented train with a German Ty2 locomotive. He pushed cars with
victims into the Treblinka camp with a smaller locomotive.
Sobibór. The crew are walking around the camp on its west side. Jan Piwoński – a retired railroad worker – explains: “back then they hunted people here.”
Sobibór. Piwoński traces the topography of the camp: “let’s walk up there so I’ll show exactly where the camp used to be.”
Brzezinka. The majority of victims disembarked the trains at the Old Jewish Ramp. Rudolf Vrba argues that extermination was so swift due to an elaborate deception
about the true purpose of the camp.
Birkenau. In 1944, Filip Müller had a moment of existential crisis upon discovering
a German order to have the Czech family camp liquidated. The pond into which
human ashes were dumped close to Crematoria IV and V.
Warsaw. Miła 18 Street – the address of the bunker of the Jewish Fighting
Organization and a mass grave of the fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in
1943. Simcha Rotem was a day late there only to learn about the deaths of other
fighters. The number plaque on the wall has been moved to the other corner of the building.
Warsaw. In 1943, Simcha Rotem and Yitzhak Zuckerman were shocked to learn
that Poles could live their normal lives beyond the burning Ghetto. Their narrative
is cut with images of busy streets in Warsaw. Here, the intersection of the
Jerozolimskie Avenue and Krucza Street
