The Boys of Buchenwald

Infobox Film
name = The Boys of Buchenwald


image_size =
caption =
director = Audrey Mehler
producer = David Paperny
writer =
narrator = Saul Rubinek
starring =
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = National Film Board of Canada
released = 2002
runtime = 47 minutes
country = flag|Canada
language = English
budget =
gross =
website =
amg_id = 289924
imdb_id =

"The Boys of Buchenwald" is a documentary made in 2002 by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady that examines how the child survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp had to assimilate themselves back into normal society after having experienced the brutality of the Holocaust. The documentary features interviews with the survivors, including Elie Wiesel.

Plot

Over four hundred orphans from Buchenwald were sent to an orphanage in France where they were educated and cared for. [Citation
last = Ramsay
first = Cynthia
title = Friendship from depths of hell
newspaper = The Jewish Independent
year = 2003
date = 2003-01-10
url = http://www.jewishindependent.ca/Archives/Jan03/archives03Jan10-02.html ] The documentary follows the orphans, who are now old men, as they reunite on the 55th anniversary of the liberation of Buchenwald by the American army.

The now elderly men all agree that their friendships in the orphanage made the tremendous losses they suffered more manageable. “I had just lost my father, and I had witnessed my brother’s murder right next to me,” one survivor says, addressing his best friend. “And then I met you. You were a God send.”

The inhuman treatment they had received in the concentration camps meant the boys needed to relearn how to live in society. The boys of Buchenwald spent their childhoods surrounded by terror and death, and, as a result, they were rebellious against authority, full of anger and under-educated. In fact, society viewed child survivors as damaged goods who would go on to become psychopaths.

The boys had to relearn everything — even their meals proved challenging. Their extreme hunger and inexperience with ordinary behavior robbed them of table manners. They threw food, shoved it in their pockets to save for later, and gorged themselves, clearing their plates in a matter of minutes.With the help of benevolent guardians who gave consistent discipline the boys slowly relearned how to behave.

Once it was time to leave the orphanage and go out on their own, many of the boys moved to Australia or Canada to distance themselves from their awful pasts. There they established homes and careers near one another so that they could still come together for meals and Jewish holidays.

Awards

*Gold Remi Award at the WorldFest International Film Festival in April 2004

*Bronze World Medal at The New York Festival in January 2004

References

ee also

External links

* [http://tjctv.com/?p=151 "The Boys of Buchenwald" reviewed by "The Jewish Channel"]
*amg movie|id=1:289924|title=The Boys of Buchenwald
* [http://www.papernyfilms.com/productions/The_Boys_of_Buchenwald Paperny Films Web site]
* [http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/Camps/BuchenwaldEng.html for more on the Buchenwald concentration camp]
* [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005198 Buchenwald concentration camp]
* [http://www.radfilms.com/buchenwald_concentration_camp_album.html Buchenwald memorial]
* [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Wiesel.html Elie Wiesel's biography]