Holocaust Memorial Day 2018 in Geneva with Holocaust Survivor Eva Schloss

My late father, Belsen liberator Leonard Berney, found talking about Belsen very painful immediately after the war. My mother tells me it was a totally taboo subject at home.

Luckily for him, and us, about 40 years after the war ended, he started to talk about it. I assume he found the experience cathartic because he talked about it increasingly as the years went by. I remember him first telling me about it, and my realisation that he had played a pivotal role in a very important moment in history, albeit a highly unpleasant and traumatic one for all concerned.

He eventually wrote a book about his experience at Belsen; his account of the camp's liberation, called Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp - A Personal Account. He also started to deliver lectures about his experience and even appeared in two very important Holocaust documentaries in which he was interviewed about liberating the camp: Night Will Fall and No Asylum.

I noticed that, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2018, a screening of No Asylum (which is about Anne Frank's father's struggle and ultimate failure to get his family out of Holland as the war was approaching) was taking place in Geneva. So I contacted the producer of the documentary, Paula Fouce to ask if I could attend, as Geneva is only a one-hour flight away for me. She told me that the screening would be attended by Eva Schloss, Anne Frank's step sister, who herself was an Auschwitz survivor. Paula also told me that the day after the screening, there would be a special Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in the United Nations General Assembly Hall during which Eva would give an account of her experience before, during and after her time in Auschwitz.

It was such an honour for me to be part of the screening and ceremony and to meet Eva, Paula and all concerned.

Here are a few photos of my time in Geneva for Holocaust Memorial Day.

With Paula Fouce, producer of No Asylum

With Her Excellency Aviva Raz Shechter, Permanent Representative of Israel
to the United Nations Office at Geneva

With Eva Schloss and her grandson Eric Schloss

Showing Eva and Eric Schloss dad's book
Liberating Belsen Concentration Camp - A Personal Account

Couldn't help noticing that the carper of the cinema was the same as appears in
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining!

A video message from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres

Eva Schloss giving her keynote address

Former laureates of the Menuhin Competition, violinists Dmitry Smirnov and Anne Luisa Kramb
with pianist Gordon Black, Artistic Director of the Menuhin Competition performing
J.S. Bach, Bloch and Bartók

Everybody wanted a piece of Eva!

Joe Stevens, Eva Schloss and Paula Fouce under the
magnificent United Nations emblem

In front of the iconic Allée des Nations, United Nations Office at Geneva

References:

• Highlight of the week: #Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss showing her prisoner number from concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooed on her arm. Schoolchildren from the Geneva area came to the Palais des Nations to listen to her story. https://twitter.com/UNGeneva/status/960168569496469506
• Anne Frank’s childhood friend says world still hasn’t learned about genocide | UN News http://ow.ly/5Hjd30in5Po
• 2018 International Holocaust Remembrance Day http://ow.ly/4jIx30in60f

• No Asylum: The Untold Chapter in Anne Frank’s Story | Ciné-ONU http://ow.ly/AbIl30in6ev
• Musical #violin performance during  #HolocaustRememberanceDay  @UNGeneva by former Menuhin Competition laureates: Anne Luisa Krumb, Dimitry Smirnov, accompanied on piano by Gordon Back https://twitter.com/orbisswissphoto/status/958116817993641984
• United Nations News: Eva Schloss, a Holocaust survivor and childhood friend of Anne Frank has a message for the world about genocide: “We haven’t really learned.” https://www.facebook.com/UN.News.Centre/posts/10155430983106872
• Ciné-ONU #Geneva screening documentary film “No Asylum: The Untold Chapter of #AnneFrank Story,” with Eva Schloss and Paula Fouce. https://twitter.com/orbisswissphoto/status/957622069730127872
• Remembrance & Beyond: Eva Schloss at the United Nations – Reimagine Earth http://ow.ly/CVK130in6Rx by Eric Schloss, Eva Schloss's grandson

Preview of "Night Will Fall"

Yesterday, I was invited to a preview (the first-ever public screening) of the feature-length documentary "Night Will Fall" at the BFI Southbank. The audience comprised those involved with the making of the film. My father, Leonard Berney, appears on screen many times, giving his account of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.

The film is really quite harrowing and it doesn't pull any punches at all. It gets across in graphic detail what it was like to witness the horrors at the aftermath of the Nazi concentration camps, close up. Just watching it on film was difficult enough, so to have actually been there; to have seen it and smelled it first hand is an experience that is difficult to imagine. 

When the credits had finished rolling and the lights had faded up, the audience were in stunned silence.

Night Will Fall (2014)
Feature Length Documentary
Synopsis
In the spring of 1945, Allied forces liberating Europe found evidence of atrocities which have tortured the world’s conscience ever since. As the troops entered the German concentration camps, they made a systematic film record of what they saw. Work began on a documentary to show the horror they witnessed to the German population.

Sidney Bernstein, chief of the Psychological Warfare Film Section of SHAEF commissioned the film. Those involved in the production included Alfred Hitchcock and renowned editor Stewart McAllister; they produced perhaps the most remarkable testament of the 20th Century. “No German can say he didn’t know” insists the commentary, co-written by Richard Crossman, the future cabinet minister.

These sentiments were judged by the British Government to be unsuitable to the bridge-building mood towards Germany. The film was never shown.

40 years later an American researcher found a rusty can marked “F3080” in the vaults of London’s Imperial War Museum. It was in very poor condition and the last roll was missing, but in 1985 a scratched and blurry copy was shown on PBS in America. Now after three years of work by Dr Toby Haggith of the IWM, the entire film has been fully restored and piece by piece, frame by frame, the lost last reel has been put together from the original shot lists. For the first time in history the completed “F3080” is ready to be shown.

Spring Films is co-producing with Angel TV a 90 minute documentary for theatrical and television release. This documentary, ‘Night Will Fall’ is to coincide with the release of the remastered original film and will tell the remarkable story behind the making of the film, the people involved and the reasons why it was never shown.

Team Credits
Director: André Singer
Directorial Advisor: Stephen Frears
Executive Producer: Richard Melman
Producer: Sally Angel

Partners
Angel TV
Cinephil

Belsen liberator, Leonard Berney, takes part in landmark Belsen documentary "Night Will Fall"

Leonard Berney, second from right

Those involved in the original production included
Alfred Hitchcock!

Leonard Berney was interviewed in Haifa, Israel earlier today about the part he played in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. Then a Major in the British Army and only 25 years of age, he was one of the first of the allied troops through the gates of Bergen-Belsen on 15 April 1945.

"Night Will Fall", a feature-length documentary, produced by Spring Films in association with Angel TV and the Imperial War Museum will be released in 2014.

Synopsis

In the spring of 1945, Allied forces liberating Europe found evidence of atrocities which have tortured the world’s conscience ever since. As the troops entered the German concentration camps, they made a systematic film record of what they saw. Work began on a documentary to show the horror they witnessed to the German population.

Sidney Bernstein, chief of the Psychological Warfare Film Section of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) commissioned the film. Those involved in the production included Alfred Hitchcock and renowned editor Stewart McAllister; they produced perhaps the most remarkable testament of the 20th Century. “No German can say he didn’t know” insists the commentary, co-written by Richard Crossman, the future cabinet minister.

These sentiments were judged by the British Government to be unsuitable to the bridge-building mood towards Germany. The film was never shown.

40 years later an American researcher found a rusty can marked “F3080” in the vaults of London’s Imperial War Museum. It was in very poor condition and the last roll was missing, but in 1985 a scratched and blurry copy was shown on PBS in America. Now after three years of work by Dr Toby Haggith of the Imperial War Museum, the entire film has been fully restored and piece by piece, frame by frame, the lost last reel has been put together from the original shot lists. For the first time in history the completed “F3080” is ready to be shown.

Spring Films in association with Angel TV and the Imperial War Museum is producing a 90” documentary for theatrical and television release. This documentary, ‘Night Will Fall’ is to coincide with the release of the remastered original film and will tell the remarkable story behind the making of the film, the people involved and the reasons why it was never shown.

Spring Films is an award-winning, London-based production company specialising in international co-productions and high-end documentaries for television, cinema, DVD, IMAX and multi-media platforms

For more information, please visit: 
http://www.springfilms.tv/productions/in-production/memories-of-the-camps