Documentary on Holocaust photographer Roman Vishniac

2024-03-24 18:04:32, Kosova & Bota CNA

The new documentary "Vishniac" tells the story of 20th-century Jewish photographer Roman Vishniac, who was born in Russia, survived the Holocaust and worked as a photographer in America. As VOA correspondent Anna Nelson reports, his acclaimed photographs later helped inform the filmmakers of the film Schindler's List, which tells a story of Jewish rescue from the Holocaust.

“I remember how many of his photos were processed in the darkroom. I also remember how close my father was to me. I would ask him about the people in the photo and he would say: "These are our people."

The story of Jewish photographer Roman Vishniac is told by his daughter Mara Kohn Vishniac. Some of the thousands of photographs he took appear for the first time in this documentary simply called "Vishniac".

Roman Vishniac was born into a Jewish family in Tsarist Russia in 1897. From 1935 to 1938 he traveled through Eastern and Central Europe photographing Jewish communities, unaware that they would soon disappear.

Mr. Vishniac's photographs became the ultimate documentation of daily life in Jewish communities before the Holocaust.

Filmmaker Laura Bialis spoke with photographer Vishniac's daughter Mara and recorded her stories before she died in 2018.

"He went to all the places where different things are happening. He was in Moscow during the revolution, then fled Moscow and went to Berlin in the 1920s. He was in the Weimar Republic when the Nazis took power in Germany. A little later "Kristallnacht" happened, and he was in Berlin during this event. Then he went to France, where he photographed people on the 'Kindertransport,'” she says.

The documentary explains how photographer Vishniac experienced the beginning of the Holocaust in Europe and managed to avoid being sent to a concentration camp.

In December 1940, he and his family traveled from Lisbon to the United States, where he made an important contribution to the field of photography.

Polish cinematographer Janusz Kaminski filmed many scenes in director Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List based on Mr. Vishniac's photographs because they reflected everyday Jewish life that was hard to find elsewhere.

The documentary's producer and director Steven Spielberg's sister, Nancy Spielberg, says the message is clear: if humanity does not learn from its history, we may face a repeat of it.

"I think Mr. Vishniac's photographs are a message for everyone. We are a society that needs to see an event, not read about it. We need proof, everyone wants proof! So this is proof of the uncontrolled spread of inhumane actions. Maybe this will help us understand each other better, maybe it will help create some tolerance, maybe it will bring back civility to the civilized world," she says.

Documentaries like this can change minds and help people remember horrific historical events that are becoming more and more distant as the years go by. "Vishniac" will be shown in select theaters across the United States throughout this year./ VOA