France 5 : The Daughters of Birkenau

Title :The Daughters of Birkenau

Time : 72′

Broadcaster : France Tv

Director: David Teboul

Production : Cathy Palumbo and Victor Robert

Summary

What remains 80 years after surviving the hell of Auschwitz? Does the word that took so many years to emerge come more easily to those who share the experience?

David Teboul brings together for the first time four of the very last French survivors of the death camps for lunch. The table is set, and the “daughters of Birkenau” tell their stories in a way they’ve never done before.

Judith Elkan, Ginette Kolinka, Esther Senot and Isabelle Choko find the words to express it all, and make their unheard words heard. Interspersed between their exchanges are excerpts from their individual testimonies, collected at length by the director, as well as that of Marie Chafir, a friend of Esther’s whom the director met at Drancy, then deported with her.

As noted by Télérama: “Through the grace of editing, the words of one, exhumed from the past, and the face of the other, filmed today, build an almost cinematographic moment, quite overwhelming.”