My father and his fellow survivors, who were sort of the family that we grew up with, didn't
talk about the Holocaust.
In '88, it was the 45th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and my father, who
had never wanted to get involved with coming back to Europe, decided he wanted to go.
I said I'll go with you, so, we booked a tour.
We were walking through Auschwitz on the tour, and he just started talking to me. This is
what I saw here and this is what I saw there. And then, we sort of had to be quiet for the
tour guide.
People stopped listening to the tour guide and were listening to him.
See how small the beds are? Two people were sleeping in each.
He hit me straight with a bat. Straight in here and broke four teeth.
They were killing for nothing.
There was a young woman with us with her mom doing the same thing. And she was in the film
business, and she said we have to go back and tell your father's story separately.
The next morning there were two white Mercedes taxies waiting at the hotel, and we had a
sound person and a videographer and a producer.
They kept the tourists aside so we had access to filming both in Auschwitz and Birkenau.
And so we had the day.
We came here to Auschwitz, we saw the name Auschwitz.
They brought us in kettle wagons, which the windows were covered up with barbed wire.
And we opened the doors. Right away it was a panic. They assessed, jumped outside. Roust,
roust, roust, roust.
They took us out, men side, the women and children the other side.
Left, right, left, left, right, left, left, right, just like that.
We couldn't ask nobody where we going, but the whole time they told us that the men still
going to go to working camp, and the women going to to go to housing, where we going
to see them everyday. So we believed them.
They were shaved and stripped and tattooed. 8-3-5-2-2, I'll never forget the number. And
went into the Auschwitz and labor camp.
When we got here to Auschwitz, we got into the hospital glove. And we don't know what
they going to do with us.
So, they took me, and they saw I have good blood, some kind of good blood, I didn't know
about it. And they start taking blood from me.
One day, the homes were open, and so I went by and I saw all my friends. They're castrated.
I was shocked. I'm here lying their, taking blood, it's not so bad, but they, had it all
castrated, all of them, all of them.
In the film, someone asked him, you know, to what do you attribute the fact that you
survived. He said 'I was lucky. I wasn't smart, I wasn't brave, I was lucky.'
When I came here, and I saw naked men, women, and children arranged straight to the barracks.
I was surprised when I saw women and men together naked. Said something is wrong, cause I didn't
know where my family went the week before.
So now I saw where they went, and then I saw a big ditch and smoke and fire smell with
meat and everything. Then, I know where my family went, how she disappeared.
And that was the end of my family.
Hearing a story is one thing, being there is something else. When we lit candles at
the blown-up crematories in Birkenau. When he stood in the crematory and I stood in the
crematory, that was tremendously moving and powerful.
He knew where the ash pit was, where they buried the ashes. And he went down there and
he poked around with a spoon he brought and he pulled out ashes and bones. And we put
them in a plastic bag and we were taking them back with us.
He got terribly emotional, this one scene where he has his hands on the barbed wire
and where he talks about the deniers.
There are a lot of people that say the crematorium never exist.
Let them tell me there wasn't crematoriums and there wasn't Auschwitz and Birkenau.
I think that's one of the reasons we wanted to make this film so badly. Because when his
generation is gone, there are no witnesses left.
Having it put on film, having the story recorded was very cathartic for him.
My name is Icek Wluka, and I'm very happy that I'm telling this story, not just for
my kids, but the world shall never forget what happened.
Next to me is my oldest son David. I'm supposed to come by myself and he wouldn't let me go
by myself. He says, 'Dad, wherever you go I go to.' And I'm very proud of him.
What was amazing about that whole period was being there and being with him and listening
to his experiences and his feelings about what went on.
I guess it was cathartic for me as well.