Film and discussion as part of the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism. Stanisław Zalewski spent a total of 600 days in captivity and in Nazi concentration camps. Like many other contemporary witnesses, he found it difficult for a long time to talk about his experiences; the memories were too painful. Magdalena Żelasko and Michał Kozioł accompanied Zalewski for over three years and explored his memories. Documentary / AU 2024 / Director: Magdalena Żelasko / 100 min. / Original version with German subtitles
In September 1943, 17-year-old Stanisław Zalewski was arrested in Warsaw as a member of a Polish resistance group and sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp for forced labor. From there, he was sent to Mauthausen and finally to the Gusen camp, where prisoners were forced to work for the German arms industry under inhumane conditions. Like many other victims of Nazi terror, Stanisław Zalewski remained silent about his painful experiences for a long time. It was only after forty years that he began to talk about them at events, commemorations, and in schools, and he continues to do so today, even at the age of 99. Now, for the first time, he has told his deeply moving life story in a feature-length documentary film as a profoundly impressive “ambassador of remembrance.”
After the screening, we invite you to a discussion with director Magdalena Żelasko.
Doors open: 7.30 pmStart: 8 pmAdmission: free
The film will be shown in the original Polish with German subtitles.
A further education event by STRAZEkultur at Kultur- und Initiativenhaus Greifswald e. V..
Monday is movie night at STRAZE.
Stanisław Zalewski in the former crematorium of the Gusen concentration camp in April 2022, pictured with Bernhard Mühleder (member of the education team at the Mauthausen Memorial) and Martha Gammer (chairwoman of the Gusen Memorial Service Committee) CEE FILMS
Trailer; vimeo: LET'S CEE