Children of a Model Ghetto

Short Synopsis

"Children of the Model Ghetto" reveals how art, music and undying friendship helped six girls of the concentration camp Terezin survive the Holocaust.

Description/Treatment

Treatment for the one-hour documentary “Childrenof a Model Ghetto”

Children of the ModelGhetto is a documentary about theexperiences of the survivors of Terezin, a very unique Nazi concentration camp.

Many of the brightest, mosttalented individuals within the occupied territories were held there. Thesewere individuals with international reputations, people who could not simplydisappear to Auschwitz or Bergen-Belsen without the international communitytaking notice.

Terezin was used as ashort-term solution, a place to “hold” prominent individuals before deportationto the extermination camps. Within a relatively short time, Terezin was filledwith famous artists, actors, musicians, composers, athletes, writers, scholars,philosophers and diplomats. 

Prisoners were forced towork long hours under harsh conditions. Thousands were transported toextermination camps nearly every day. Starvation, overcrowding, harshtreatment, and disease took their toll. Yet through it all brilliant minds werecreating, performing and teaching.

Many artistic, theatrical,musical and literary masterpieces were created in the camp. Secret concerts andplays took place in basements; makeshift art galleries were furtively createdin barracks; clandestine lectures and readings were held in attics. For years,this concentration camp was a covert cultural haven.

By March 1945, all but a fewof Terezin’s best and brightest had disappeared. The only proof of theirexistence there lies in the plays, poetry, literature, compositions, scores,drawings and paintings found hidden within the camp’s walls after liberation…and in the memories of the survivors, the Children of the Model Ghetto.

 Although teaching andstudying were strictly forbidden, the Children of the Model Ghetto received instruction from some of the mostaccomplished individuals of the era. The insight and inspiration generated byTerezin’s artists and performers live on in the memories and hearts of thecamp’s youngest survivors. And the youngest among them are now 79 years old.

 Eight of these survivorsshare their stories in Children of the Model Ghetto. They tell of life before, during, and after theHolocaust, weaving a universally compelling story. They share photographs oftheir families, friends, homes and communities taken before and after theHolocaust. They relay their experiences with the influential artists andintellectuals of Terezin. The film-makers combine these elements with archivaland current images. Many of the works created in Terezin are featured, as well,including the famous children’s art created under the pedagogy of famed Bauhausartist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis. The sound bed incorporates themes penned byTerezin’s composers. Even those intimate with the Holocaust will gain insightfrom this film.

Children of the ModelGhetto provides previously untoldrevelations into history and humanity, and a timeless testament to theconsequences of extremist politics. It‘s a true “beauty from ashes” story,illustrating the persistence and resilience of the human spirit, the enduranceof humanity against inhumanity, and the necessity of artistic expression tohuman existence.