Nina & Irena: A Holocaust Survivor Breaks Eighty Years of Silence

[soft music]

[Woman] Where were you?

What?

[Woman] In the war? Where were you?

In Poland.

[Woman] But where? You weren't in the camps?

No, we had the Aryan papers.

[Woman] You had what?

Aryan papers.

[Woman] Oh. Yeah.

Yeah. 'cause when he said Holocaust, I'm thinking,

my parents were Holocaust survivors

and they were much older than your age

couldn't never survive the camps.

Yeah. Well, we were lucky.

My father was at one point in camp, but he escaped.

Oh! Yeah.

He escaped the camp?

No, they took him, no, the camp,

they took him on a work detail.

Oh.

And then there was a shed there

and he hid in there

and they didn't make account going back

so he was left behind.

Very lucky. Yes.

Very.

[soft music]

Hi hon. How are you?

So nice to see you. Huh?

I get to kiss you more times.

Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

Where is my vodka?

[soft music]

Oh, hello ladies and gentlemen.

[Interviewer] The one tip

is to try to restate the question when you can.

So I'll say-

I'm not going to do that.

Come on, it's going.

If I can't hear it, then I'll say it to you,

but otherwise I'm not going to repeat what you said.

[Interviewer] No, you don't have to repeat.

Can I explain? So if I say what is-

I know what you're saying.

You want to hear about my experiences there and there.

[Interviewer] Okay. You ready to go?

[newspaper crinkles]

I know you gave me a lot of shit that I don't have kids yet,

and my brother doesn't either.

But one day we will.

And I want them to know about you

and to know your story.

How do you want them and my grandkids to remember you?

[soft music]

[Nina] I was born in Kielce

which is a town between Warsaw and Krakow.

[clock ticks]

We were way above middle class,

and if anybody thinks that I come from a shtetl

I get very upset because I have never seen a shtetl

in my whole life.

My sister was six years older.

Supposedly I looked like Shirley Temple.

I had blonde curls and she was Deanna Durbin.

Once she heard a tune, she could sit down and play it.

My sister had friends and I, she wouldn't let me in.

She would close the door

and they would talk about different things.

So I would listen through the peephole

and then what if I heard something bad?

I would run to my mother,

You know what she's doing in there?

If we were eating something and she wanted what I had,

she would say, you want to eat that?

Ew, disgusting.

How can you have that?

You know this, the minute I pushed away,

she would take it and eat it.

And her name is Irene? What?

[Interviewer] Her name was Irene?

Irena.

[Interviewer] Irena. Irena.

[Interviewer] And when was the last time that you saw her?

[Nina] In April of 1943.

[soft music]

[train whistle blows]

[birds chirp]

Hi.

I banged your glasses. Sorry. Sorry.

It shouldn't fall down. No, I'm good. I'm all right.

Okay. No, I thought you were closer to this.

No. Hi mom.

Hi!

Hi. Hi.

Hi. Hi. How are you?

Hi. Hi.

You have to make the Netflix respond to me.

Go.

What do you mean go?

[all laugh]

It shouldn't be this slow.

What's this trending now?

It just gives you new things that are popular.

So I want new things? Peaky Blinders,

that's supposed to be good. No.

[Linda] I don't know,

it's like we didn't really talk about the Holocaust.

I guess I knew, of course, in the back of my mind

that she came here after the war.

I knew it all along, but I didn't really think about it.

On my mother's side,

we didn't have anybody to visit.

We visited my grandparents in Brooklyn,

but there were no aunts and uncles on her side.

There was nobody else really.

We didn't ask many questions when we were growing up.

It was just not talked about, so.

[vacuum whirs]

[Interviewer] Grandma, what happens next?

[dramatic music] [crowd cheering]

[Nina] The war broke out September 1st, 1939.

[crowd cheering]

From the minute the Germans drove in,

they started picking up Jews in the street.

[suspenseful music]

My father decided we are not staying here.

He figured out somehow that maybe if he went to a priest

and the priest would give us a paper

saying that we are studying to become Catholic,

that that will save us.

The only problem was that we really had to pretend

that we're not Jews.

So we had to go to church.

[church bell rings] [soft music]

And all the Jews went to the ghetto

and it was bad news there.

When people used to die,

they used to put the corpse out in the street

and it would stay there till,

till I don't know who eventually picked up the bodies.

[Interviewer] But you were, in a way, privileged.

You were on the other side of the wall.

You were Catholic, but- Yes.

[Interviewer] You were fake Catholic.

But it was not such a terrific thing

because my father was known

and we started getting blackmailers coming at night.

They said, if you don't have anything,

we're going to send the Gestapo.

And sure enough, they send the Gestapo

and they took my father away.

[soft music]

My sister now became the head of the family.

My mother was really scared,

and my mother looked very Semitic.

Whereas my sister and I, we didn't.

[crowds cheering]

She felt that we cannot stay.

And she somehow got my mother a job on the farm,

and I was going to be a cowgirl.

They gave me six cows and a stick and go.

After two weeks, maybe, we got a note from my sister

saying that I'm going towards Walcz

to see if there's anybody left from our family.

Love, Irena.

That's the end.

We never heard about her.

Never heard from her

and after the war, my parents went through Red Cross

and the Yad Vashem and all that.

Nothing ever.

We were not...

Could never find a trace of her.

[Interviewer] What do you think happened to her?

She was probably shot.

They probably, on the train.

They might have asked them for papers or something.

And something happened that maybe was suspicious,

I don't know.

Was there a moment when it dawned on you

that Irena was never gonna come back?

I never thought, she's never coming back.

To me, she has disappeared, I mean, but she'll come back.

[soft music]

Many times after the war

if I would see somebody that looked like her,

I would follow them thinking maybe it's her, you know?

But after a while, you know, you stop and that's it.

I feel the way I feel.

But that's nobody's business how I feel. You know?

And I don't analyze it.

It's part of me, and that's what it is.

Yeah.

[soft music]

[seeds rattle]

[Interviewer] Can you describe any last memories

with her from that time?

Do you remember anything you did together?

[Nina] No. No.

[Interviewer] Think about it.

You must remember something from the war together.

[Nina] I wasn't...

[Interviewer] You don't remember your last memory of her?

[Nina] No, I don't think about it that way.

[Interviewer] And I know I'm pushing here.

I just, I'm gonna stop in a second.

But we've never talked about,

I never even knew you had a sister.

That's why I'm so interested in this.

'cause you never told us.

No.

Well, look...

[soft music]

I didn't talk about that time of my life.

First of all, nobody was interested.

You didn't talk about it.

Two, I felt that if I start telling my story

the way it really happened, it was too depressing

or too horrifying for the kids when they were small.

So I felt, okay, sometime later

and later never came.

Good?

Great.

[Yoga Instructor] Nice big inhale, lift your arm.

Just take a couple of breaths here.

Just finding your cal.

Push into your feet. Drop your shoulders.

[Nina] Hello?

[Giselle] Hi, Nina. Giselle speaking.

How are you?

Hi, honey. I'm in the middle of yoga now.

Can I call you back?

[Giselle] Yes, you can.

Enjoy your yoga.

You have a beautiful, beautiful grandson.

I'll talk to you later.

[Nina] Okay, hun. Thank you.

[Yoga Instructor] Bring your hands to your hips.

Either one.

If you reach your arms forward, it's more core.

Push into your left foot

and slowly lift up.

Beautiful!

Get your arms up if they were on your hips.

Swing your hands around,

holding onto your right ankle and your right knee.

[Interviewer] What would you say is your lesson

from what you went through?

[Yoga Instructor] Keep working at that.

That people are inhuman

and if there is any God,

I don't understand that he would let that happen.

[train engine chugs]

[train whistle blows]

We were now evacuated as Pauls.

We got on the train and we ended up in Prague.

The Czechs decide to liberate their town from the Germans

because their allies are very close.

The Czech poured tar on the Germans,

hung them, and then lit the match.

[match crackles]

[suspenseful music]

I mean, this was terrible.

I remember that.

The smell of the burning flesh.

[Interviewer] But you lost your sister.

Surely that's revenge to burn?

[Nina] What?

[Interviewer] Isn't that a kind of revenge,

something that they deserved?

[Nina] No, no. You don't do that to other human being.

I don't with you. Come on!

We are all born little adorable children.

What happens? What happens?

What happens to people that they can become

like worse than animals?

Animals kill because they're hungry,

but terrible!

What people do to people, that's beyond me.

I don't care.

German, Jew, whoever.

I don't know.

The human race is...

Maybe it's time for it to disappear

and I don't know,

you think the creatures from outer space will be better?

I don't know.

[soft music]

[Woman] Hi, Nina! Hi. Hi.

I have a feeling that you're going to have a hard time

with accepting the fact that I'm going, I'm gone.

And I feel bad about it,

but it's part of life.

That's what happens.

Smiley, then, right?

[Interviewer] Your father had five sisters

with families and all of them were killed.

[Nina] That's correct. Yeah.

[Interviewer] I didn't know that.

[Nina] Yeah. What do mean you didn't know that?

Everybody.

[Interviewer] So you were one of a few members

of the extended family that survived?

[Nina] That survived, yeah.

My parents and I.

[Interviewer] I think growing up,

I never really understood that.

[Nina] No, because look, when you are growing up,

you're young.

You don't dwell on these things.

The same way I didn't dwell while it was happening.

I didn't dwell on it.

That's what was happening. You know?

I'm a very straightforward person.

That's what happens and you have to accept it.

You don't like it, too bad.

[camera shutter clicks]

[people cheer]

I came to America in 1951.

My mother said, why are you going to sit at home?

Go to the beach.

There were two guys there.

I didn't even look their way, but they saw me,

and they flipped a coin and grandpa won.

[gentle music]

And we got married in 53.

We had Linda first.

Two years later we had Larry.

Happy birthday. Thank you.

Hi.

Hi! Hi!

I made a birthday card for you.

Yeah?

Grandchildren, I have six

and great-grandchildren I have five.

[Nina laughs]

Hi grandma!

[soft music]

[train whistle blows]

Would I want her to be alive?

Definitely.

Would I want her to be in my life?

Yes.

But what can I do about it?

There's nothing I can do.

That's what happened.

What's gone is gone.

Well, thank you for having us.

We had such a great time, and...

[Nina] Oh it was very nice

except when it was annoying.

[both laugh]

You should come and visit me more often.

Not just for the movies.

[Interviewer] I spent three days,

I spent four days with you this week.

[Nina] Okay? That's going to last me how long?

[upbeat music]

♪ Ah ah ♪

♪ Ah ah ♪

Grandma is 90?

I had no idea!

29, 29.

[all laugh]

We were never allowed to know your age.

Never.

[bright music]

♪ Frankie Laine, he was singing Jezebel ♪

In the wake of a breakup

you're the best one to call

tell me to like, stop crying and get back out there.

♪ I walk up to the tallest ♪

♪ And the blondest girl ♪

As we say in Hebrew,

[speaks in Hebrew]

[Nina] Till 120. Okay.

[Nina] And all the best. Okay.

Keep on kicking.

Make a wish. Okay.

I wish that we should all be together next year.

♪ I said, Won't you let me see ♪

♪ I said, Won't you let me see ♪

[all cheer]

[upbeat music]