The Peretzniks (Perecowicze)

LODZ, POLAND

Hanka Blumsztajn.

My name is Hanka Blumsztajn - now I live in Israel,

in Petach Tikvah, which means the Gates of Hope.

Jerzy Borensztajn.

Jerzy Borensztajn - I live in Tel Aviv now

Lilka Rozenbaum.

I'm from Lodz, from the Peretz school, now I live in Boston

Paulina Lajfer.

I'm from Lodz, now I live in the State of New York

Henryk Chmielnicki.

My name is Heniek Chmielnicki, I live in New York now

Mira Lejb.

Currently I live in the US

Freda Rozenbaum

I live in London, and partly in Tel Aviv,

Ewa Rozenbaum.

My name is now Ewa Yerushalmi I live in London and in Israel, I sort of divide my time

Marek Rozenbaum.

My name is Marek Rozenbaum. Currently I live in Israel in Ramat Ha'Sharon

Henryk Lewkowicz.

Now I live in Ottawa, Canada.

Golda Tencer.

I live in Warsaw now. I stayed. My emigration was only to Warsaw

Janusz Tencer.

I live in Sweden now.

Jurek Dancygier.

I live in New York, in Manhattan.

Beniek Chencinski.

I live in Toronto now, in Canada.

Sarenka Kagan.

I live in Israel, in Jerusalem.

The Peretzniks.

A film by Slawomir Grunberg Based on an idea by Golda Tencer.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL

My name is Sara Kagan, though friends always called me Sarenka.

That's you there in 3rd grade, the end of school year…

After the war, like many Jewish children,

I found myself at the orphanage in Helenowek.

I was sent to the Peretz School right after it was opened.

When I graduated in 1957, many Jews from Lodz chose to emigrate, mainly to Israel.

I stayed.

I returned to Peretz after graduating from university…this time as a teacher.

- Everyone remembers right?… - You were a good kid, polite…

I decided to go to Israel only after they closed down the school in 69.

Who? Heniek? Great!

Of course!

Shalom.

My behavior at school was 'unsatisfactory' …

This film is about my Jewish school, its students, and the people

who created it and who are now scattered all around the world.

Oh, this is Tosia…

Not Tosia but Tonia.

In 1st grade nothing was taught in any other language

but Yiddish, they even taught Polish in Yiddish.

I was neither Polish nor Jewish, I was just Sara, I was simply a human being

I don't think we considered ourselves Jews.

We felt that we were Poles of Jewish origin.

I was 100% Polish and 100% Jewish and I never

thought one conflicted with the other in any way

I never had any identity issues.

I think we had a Christmas tree with real candles on it

I always felt Polish, Poland was my homeland.

For me… the Polish army… I was a true Polish patriot.

I am a Jewish child and a Polish flower.

Pre-war Lodz was one of the economic and industrial centers of Europe.

It was also a meeting point for many different cultures and nationalities.

This so called 'Promised Land' was inhabited by Poles, Jews and Germans,

but also Czechs, Russians, Austrians, English, French, and the Italians.

Both culture and business flourished in Lodz.

In both areas, Jews were among the successful ones.

Before the war they accounted for about 1/3 of the city's population.

World War II brought about the most tragic events in the history of Lodz Jews.

The Lodz Ghetto became the second largest after the Warsaw one,

and it existed longer than any other ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe.

60 thousand Jews perished in the Lodz ghetto alone.

Another 130 thousand Lodz Jews were murdered in death camps.

After the war Lodz turned out to be one f the least destroyed Polish cities.

A handful of those who survived in the ghetto

were now joined by some 50 thousand Polish Jews,

who survived the war mainly in the Soviet Union.

Slowly, Jewish life in Lodz was being revived.

LODZ, POLAND

In 1945 the Yitzchak Leyb Peretz Jewish School was established in.

Lodz, Named after one of the leading Yiddish writers in Poland.

KILINSKI STREET

More and more kids were enrolling in the

Peretz School and, despite its shabby building on Kilinski Street 49,

the school was soon considered the best Jewish teaching facility in post-war Poland.

We used to always walk to school in groups, of 2 or 3.

We walked in groups because it was more fun, and because sometimes it was… safer.

The school meant everything.

It was a place for study, for fun, for frienship…

Ballet, shows, culture. It was everything.

The Peretz School was my love, my home, my life.

I never found anything like it in my life.

It was everything, it was our entire world.

The school was my entire life.

It was my family, it was my home.

We were a very close-knit bunch, the things we did together …you would not believe.

We all knew each other inside out… really, and

we had an immense tolerance for one another.

Everyday together… it created friendships, which are important forever.

The school provided meaning in my life.

It was no regular school, for me it was a way of life, really.

Back, when the Jewish school was 'really Jewish' we

didn't go to school on Saturdays, but on Sundays.

As we walked to school, we saw empty streets you know…

On Sundays everyone's either in church or sleeping or

something, and there we were with our school backpacks.

Getting to school by tram on Sunday with a schoolbag wasn't easy.

Only Jewish kids had bags like those, you could see them from afar…

The whole tram would laugh and murmur something.

Our parents asked for us to have classes on

Saturdays, instead of Sundays, like everybody else.

Those Jews of Lodz who sent their children to a Jewish school did so

partly in order to familiarize them with elements of Jewish tradition,

but partly also in order to protect us from the outside

world. And so the school became our only reality.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL

Oh, I'm so happy…

20 years... Hanka, you haven't aged at all…

Here's my sweetheart.

You must take a look at me here. I was always tall and beautiful,

and for being so beautiful they cut off my head of like this...

This is me in kindergarten.

Graduation at the Peretz Jewish School.

Graduation at the Peretz Jewish School.

As I was leaving Poland, everyone asked me „Why are you going, kid?”,

I just put my head down, I had nothing to say, I was a young girl…

I have friends all over the world,

I don't know if we would be so close now if we had stayed in Poland.

Our life stories are so alike, though I live in Israel,

Heniek is in Canada, and Golda stayed in Poland.

When I go back to Poland, I see the willow trees, forests… My God how I miss that…

In Israel, I see the red sunshine and those colors you know, like in van Gogh

the colors in Israel are beautiful.

In Poland on the other hand you have so much green and the houses are grey.

In Israel... In Israel everyone is nervous

and obnoxious, but when there is war or shootings, everyone is suddenly together.

And I don't know where I am, I am completely divided between two worlds,

and at age 60 I still don't know who I am, maybe you can tell me…?

In 1956 most of our classmates left Poland.

They opened the borders then and allowed emigration.

And so the Jewish population shrunk instantly from 80 thousand to 30.

50 thousand Jews left.

One of the people, who left in 1956 was Daniel Libeskind,

NEW YORK, USA

one of the most renowned contemporary architects.

We were among the first Jews to leave to Israel,

it was kind of an expulsion but we were kind of a happy to be part of it.

I remember the people that moved into our apartment had

already slept in the apartment while we were there sleeping,

to make sure that they get the possession of

the apartment. So had nothing except of fear...

During the time, when Jews were allowed to leave Poland for Israel,

a wave of Jewish repatriants returned from the Soviet.

Union, which was forbidden by Stalin until then.

A new crowd of kids appeared at the Peretz School

and you could now hear Russian in the hallways.

ASHKELON, ISRAEL

Wow, so many years, so many years..

At the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s some 20 thousand Jews left Poland.

Now, every two or three years, Polish Jews from

all over the world reunite in Ashkelon in Israel.

The Peretniks are always well represented.

40 years, but I recognized them, I recognized them, I did.

Most Peretzniks lived in the very heart of.

Lodz, just a few blocks away from each other.

And the school was the actual central to their lives.

The school was a kind of oasis for us.

Lodz was quite antisemitic at the time

and the school gave us a feeling of security.

As Jews, we grew up in an atmosphere of a potential

war, even the Polish population felt this way.

At school, we could talk freely about who we were,

but God forbid that someone should hear us outside

I felt safe there, at the school.

It was like a little Jewish nook in Lodz, which wasn't very friendly

I don't think I even knew of any other schools,

I always say that I crossed over to the 'Aryan side' only after graduation.

It was a kind of seclusion within our own

community where we knew nothing bad could happen,

while outside it could be dangerous.

The Peretzniks' favorite Polish literature teacher.

Mrs. Kwiatkowska Lives in Lodz till this day.

Come in.

We have green tea here, I see…

No, this is mate, not green tea! Don't dare to spill it!

Let's see what we're saying here.

We talk about them all the time

I remember all the teachers.

Polish was taught by Mrs. Kwiatkowska.

Who I was a bit of a nuisance for sometimes…

Once, but seriously

I liked her very much nevertheless.

Mrs. Kwiatkowska - she was romantic.

She taught us beautiful Polish literature, She taught us how to explore it,

- Hania Blumsztajn?! Oh God... - to discover this beautiful literature.

And I am still a romantic myself, and I follow my heart and not my head,