TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Movie Review: The True Story Behind Remembrance (Die Verlonere Zeit)

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Movie Review: The True Story Behind Remembrance (Die Verlonere Zeit)

I feel like I'm a roll because I found another good movie on Netflix.

Remembrance is a 2011 German release of a Holocaust-related film. German-Jewish Hannah Silverstien survived a Nazi prison camp and now lives comfortably in New York with her husband and daughter when she discovers that her wartime lover who had helped her escape survived World War II. The movie crosscuts between scenes of the woman in New York and wartime scenes.

The movie is a good reminder of how war's effects on people can linger long after the conflict is over.

Jerzy Bielecki, photo courtesy of Wikipedia

What I found more interesting than the film was the true story behind the movie. Remembrance was inspired by the World War II experiences of Jerzy Bielecki and Cyla Cybulska.

Polish-born Bielecki was captured by the Gestapo and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Since he spoke some German, he worked at a grain warehouse and as a clerk which allowed him to meet and fall in love with a Jewish inmate, Cyla Cybulska. Blielecki staged a daring escape for both of them. At the tail-end of the war, they were separated and lost each other, each believing the other was dead. Jerzy and Cyla met again in 1983. Even though they discovered they still loved each other, Jerzy had a wife and family whom he would not abandon.

Bielecki was the honorary Chairman of the Christian Association of the Auschwitz Families and is inscribed in the list of the Righteous Among the Nations, Israel's tribute to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from Nazi extermination. He was also made an honorary citizen of Israel. He died in 2011. Cybulska died in 2002.

The daring escape of Jerzy and Cyla from the Geman Concentration Camp has been described in many documentaries and books.

The German title of Remembrance is Die Verlorene Zeit (The Lost Time) directed by Anna Justice. It's a very good film and I recommend it.

Read also
Movie Review: The Physician, Film to Enjoy
Cecilia's Movie Reviews
Movie Review of the Irish Film "Calvary"
A Bottle in the Gaza Sea
Cecilia's Movie Review of "Mr. Turner"

Tags: movies, movie, film, review, reviews. Remembrance, Holocaust, World War II, Poland, Auschwitz, concentration camp, Jews, Gestapo

This is all for now,
Cecilia

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.