Secret Courage: The Walter Suskind Story ( Suskind ) ( Süskind )

Secret Courage: The Walter Suskind Story (DVD) (*)

$22.99

Original Title: Suskind
Alternate Title: Süskind
Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Dutch ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Dutch ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Netherlands ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
80 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 2005 and produced in:
Netherlands ( France, Benelux )

Directed By:
Tim Morse
Karen Morse

Written By:
Federico Muchnik
Ries Vanderpol

Actors:
Wendie Sakakeeny ..... Narrator

Synopsis:

Walter Suskind was a German Jew living in Amsterdam who was forced by the Nazis to serve as the Jewish head of deportation at the Hollandsche Schouwburg (the Jewish Theater site) in Amsterdam. Using his fluent German, his skills as an actor and businessman, and unfathomable courage and tenacity, he orchestrated the escape of almost 1,000 Dutch children and adults who were marked for transport to the death camps. Walter took the secret of his mission to his death at Auschwitz, and only a few survivors and resistance workers knew what he had done. There is only passing mention of Walter Suskind in history books and archives; the mission of this film is to recreate the story in its entirety, to share it with the world, and to ensure its preservation for future generations.

Walter Suskind was a German Jew who fled from the Nazis to the Netherlands with his wife and daughter. When the Germans invaded Holland, Suskind was put in charge of a deportation center in Amsterdam while his wife, Hannah and daughter, Yvonne were held hostage in Camp Westerbork, a way station from which Jews were later sent to their deaths in the concentration camps of Germany, Poland and neighboring countries. The deportation center, which Suskind supervised, was called the Hollandsche Schouwburg, a gutted theatre located in the Jewish section of Amsterdam. Directly across the street from the Schouwburg there was a childcare center (a crèche). A streetcar ran between the two buildings. Seizing upon the opportunity to save human life, Walter Suskind devised a plan enabling him and his accomplices to smuggle children from the confines of the crèche to freedom and safety. During the 1-1/2 years that Suskind was in charge of the Hollandsche Schouwburg and with the help of four separate groups of resistance workers, Suskind was able to save almost one thousand infants and children and many more adults. The infants and children were placed in a network of safe houses in the countryside. There are some particularly compelling aspects to this story. When the streetcars stopped in front of the theatre, blocking the Nazis' view of the crèche, Suskind was able to effect the rescue of children by distracting the German guards. He fraternized with the Nazi officer in charge of the deportation effort, Commandant Ferdinand Aus der Fuenten and, speaking fluent German, he told jokes, offering cigars and schnapps to Aus der Fuenten and his cronies. Over time he came to be seen as a Nazi collaborator when quite the opposite was true. The operation was never betrayed or discovered by the Nazis. Only a few people directly involved with the escapes ever knew the existence and the details of the rescue operation.

Walter Suskind was a German Jew living in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. He was forced to serve as the Jewish head of deportation at the Hollandsche Schouwburg (the Jewish Theater), the main deportation site in Holland. Using his fluent German, his skills as an actor and businessman, and unfathomable courage and tenacity, he and an intrepid group of resistance workers orchestrated the escape of close to 1000 Dutch children who were marked for transport to the death camps. In Secret Courage , we hear the stories of five of the saved children in their own words. Eleven of the resistance workers interweave their own stories, painting a picture of an incredible rescue operation fraught with intrigue and danger, but also carrying the emotional and ethical burden of deciding who could be saved and who could not.

This product was added to our catalog on Saturday 10 March, 2012.

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