Work in progress | Documentary, HD, 76 min
Dear Helen
Director: Diana Groó
Producer: Julianna Ugrin
I am the only member from my family who is able to go with my Holocaust survivor grandmother to the yearly tribute in Ravensbrück. We stay at the former SS buildings. Artist come to perform, survivors remember, days are devoted to memory. Although I am there to support my grandmother, it seems she is much stronger than me. But how do I deal with this location, with spending all my summers in a death camp? How can I balance my feelings in between hate for this place and overcoming the unbearable memories of my grandmother’s and her mother’s past that all became part of mine?
I grew up with the knowledge of a horrible trauma that happened to my family 78 years ago. A big part of my family perished in concentrations camps.
My grandma is 95 years old now. We have a very special bond between us since my childhood. I follow her everywhere she goes even if it is painful for me. Will the upcoming Holocaust Memorial event in the fall bring an end to my painful journeys and let me live in the present?
Dear Helen is a film-letter, an experimental docu-diary, dedicated and addressed to my great-grandmother Helen, who perished in Rechlin KZ, in the arms of my grandma.