Scene from film: Chanoch and daughter
Photo: Moshe Zimmerman
Survivor's victory on evil
Film depicting Holocaust survivor's journey to be screened to Austrian students at Nazi camp
Moshe Zimmerman's film "Pizza in Auschwitz" will be screened at the Mauthausen concentration camp on December 9th in the presence of Austrian high school students.
Prior to the screening, the movie will also be presented at the This Human World festival in Vienna. The film's main character, Holocaust survivor Daniel Chanoch, will be present at both screenings.
Chanoch, an eccentric and belligerent figure, views the Mauthausen screening as an achievement.
'We're not victims.' Chanoch during journey
"Toady I have a highly importantly educational and informative role to play," he says. "It's important for me that Austrians youths realize, despite the denials, that Austria joined forces with the Nazi regime."
"I travel with this movie worldwide, but my return to Mauthausen is an immense achievement," he says. "This camp was the head of the snake, it was among the most terrible camps. The living conditions there were extremely difficult and the Germans used to prepare soups cooked with human flesh for the prisoners. I was only a kid, but this is a sight I will never forget. What's a greater victory than to return to a place where human rights were deprived with a movie whose essence is human rights?"
Chanoch says he intends to lead the student tour at the camp on his own.
"I will show them that it happened, it ended, and right now despite all we must look forward," he says. "I, who hold a hospitalization card signed by Mengele, the doctor who used to present me as an object to Red Cross representatives, want to tell them that we overcame all these monsters, and that we're alive. I'll be holding this tour based on memories."
'2 million Jews fought Hitler'
Chanoch also says that he objects to the nature of Holocaust commemoration undertaken by the establishment.
"I object to the whiny hasbara of Yad Vashem, which praises misery," he says. "The camps strengthened us. I learned about life in Adolf's facilities…we are not victims and I'm fed up with being portrayed as part of a herd led like sheep to the slaughter. They're feeding us with nonsense."
The Holocaust survivor says he is proud of the Jewish people for establishing a state and is delighted that he was able to build a family.
"It's true that many of us went to the crematoria, but what needs to be emphasized is that more than two million Jews fought Hitler," he says.
In the film, Chanoch is accompanied by his children, Sagi and Miri, on a "Shoah Reality" journey among the camps he was held at during his childhood in Europe. The journey reaches its climax during a night spent at his hut in Birkenau. Instead of looking into the silent testament to the horror that took place at the camp, the story focuses on the Chanoch family's chaotic journey to complete the mission.
