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| Steal a Pencil for Me |
Given what we know about the Nazi concentration camps, it is difficult to think of them as anything other than places where millions of lives were lost. Indeed, it is almost too difficult to think of them as places where life struggled to press on and love could blossom.
But both of course did, as is sublimely realised is this inspirational documentary by Israeli-raised filmmaker and Academy Awardnominee Michèle Ohayon. It tells not one but two intertwined stories: of Dutch Jewry during the war and of two unlikely lovers caught up in the mælstrom.
Their story begins in 1943 Amsterdam under the Nazi occupation when Jack Polak, a young accountant trapped in an unhappy marriage, falls in love with a young woman, Ina. But no sooner have the lovers met than they are deported, along with Jack's wife Manja, to Westerbork, and then to Bergen-Belsen.
During the course of the war, Jack and Ina fight to keep their affection alive, and resort to writing secret love letters to sustain their hopes and their will to live. Theirs is a truly astonishing story and a truly remarkable film.
