German director explores Holocaust survival story
True tale of boy’s survival premières in Warsaw
WARSAW, POLAND — A stirring movie by Oscar-winning German director Pepe Danquart about a Jewish boy struggling to survive the Holocaust had its world première in Warsaw on Wednesday.
A German-French co-production with mostly Polish actors, Run, Boy, Run is the true story of 10-year-old Yoram Friedman, who escaped the Warsaw ghetto in 1943 and — hunted by the Nazis — hid in the woods near the city.
He occasionally got help from farmers, but also faced indifference, hatred and betrayal. Posing as a Catholic Pole named Jurek Staniak helped him find lodgings in exchange for work on farms.
His right hand injured in an accident, a surgeon refused to operate, on discovering the boy was Jewish. Another surgeon treated him, but too late to prevent amputation.
In an interview on the eve of the première, Friedman said he does not live in the past.
“I don’t go back to that. What happened, happened,” he said. He admitted, however, that dreams about his ordeal were still haunting him a decade ago.
He believes the movie will reach many people around the globe with the message that “we must never forget that this really took place.”
His family, except for one sister, perished in the Holocaust, and after the war Friedman was taken to a Jewish orphanage in Poland. He studied mathematics and moved to Israel in 1962, where he taught for 40 years. He was in Warsaw for the movie debut with his wife, Sonia, daughter, Michal, son, Zwi and some of his six grandchildren.
The film had its festival debut at the Rome Film Festival in November. The public debut at Warsaw’s Jewish History Museum was attended by Danquart and Israeli writer Uri Orlev, who told Friedman’s story in a 2001 book. The movie is to be released in Germany, North America, Israel and Japan, among others.
Danquart’s Black Rider won the 1993 Oscar for short films.