BBC Documentaries

Prisoner Number A26188: Henia Bryer (2013x15)

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The German invasion of Poland in 1939 marked the beginning of the Second World War and the escalation of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. It also was the beginning of one of the war's truly inspiring and remarkable stories. Prisoner A26188 tells the story of a young Polish girl Henia. Born into a middle class Jewish family, she lost her father, brother and sister during the German occupation, survived four concentration camps, and went on to bear witness to the creation of Israel in 1948. Now in her eighties, Henia's harrowing personal testimony starts with her family's removal from their home in Radom, Poland, to the ghetto, then Plaszow concentration camp, made famous by Schindler's list, onto Majdanek then Auschwitz and finally Bergen-Belsen. Henia describes with calm and dignity the terrors of the camps, the cruelty of the SS, the Death March and how, through a combination of her own resourcefulness and luck, she survived. In this extraordinary testament Henia explains, how after being reunited with her mother and brother, she makes her way to Palestine, sees in the birth of Israel, falls in love with a young South African and moves to Africa to start a new life. Filmed by her niece, this is her story of survival, and a legacy to her family and other survivors of genocide.