"present a fim based on a true story" "THE BROKEN PROMISE" "CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1938" "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you..." "A watch, everybody knows that." "What kind?" "Omega?" "Now to our trip to the Trencin castle." "Doxa!" "Doxa!" "Don't forget good manners at home." "You will represent our city there." "So try to behave." "Martin Friedman!" "If I catch anybody having a beer again," "I will buy him three more pints and make him drink them all down in one." "Is that clear, Friedman?" "Yes, sir." "That's the watch." "My brothers Vilo and Alex got the same." "That was at my shop!" "What have you done?" "!" "Wait!" "Come back!" "Come here!" "It wasn't me, it was Golonka!" "Explain it to your father." "But I must go to the soccer practice." "There's a scout from Trencin coming!" "Forget it." "Get in!" "May I go to the soccer game?" "Come on!" "Hello?" "Is anybody home?" "Goal!" "I've noticed." "They are good." "Fred!" "Martin!" "Come here." "Good afternoon." "You're both Jewish?" "Because we have to play on Saturdays, too." "We are not all that Jewish." "We even have pork chops sometimes." "Martin!" "Sorry." "Martin!" "Do you want a lift home?" "I will get back to you, boys." "But it looks promising." "Thank you." "You can go now." "And we continue." "Bye!" "Dad, SC Trencin wants me to play for them." "Me and Fred Mahler." "Good for you!" "And how are things at school, soccer star?" "Boring." "We're going to the Trencin castle again." "Aren't you cold?" "So you're off to New York after all, Levi?" "Come on, Mr. Friedman." "What am I, a Rothschild?" "Don't tell me you're headed for Palestine." "My choice was Argentina, the purse said Bolivia, so we are off to Cuba." "You have always been an adventurer." "But emigrating with six women?" "Well, good luck, folks." "You'll need it." "Shalom." "Wait here, Martin." "Fischer wants a goose from me." "Hello, Martin." "Are you coming to ring the bell?" "May I, Dad?" "Of course." "Guys, can I come along?" "Let's go!" "Hurry!" "Three, two, one." "Now!" "Good evening, Father Tiso." "Evening." "When you are ringing the bell here, at least take off that Jewish cap." "My apologies, sir." "Sir, we should go or you won't get in time for the meeting in Bratislava." "I'm getting forgetful." "Father, you got a letter." "It's from Kromeriz." "Can I have the stamp?" "Of course." "Here." "It is from Moric!" "The army will do without him for a couple of days." "So the whole family will be here for Martin's bar mitzvah." "Dinner is ready." "I just hope they won't come in vain." "Who knows if our soccer player will ever master the prayer." "Even the soccer players need a watch!" "I can't be late for my practices." "Don't count on the watch." "You might be disappointed." "Well, come on." "Speak up!" "Martin!" "It's too late for that." "Go to Mrs. Sebo." "She promised to lend us two chairs." "Are you going to the station?" "I have to pick up Moric and Rachel." "And while I am there I shall send this to Trencin." "Martin, after the bar mitzvah you can get married, right?" "I had to wait for the pleasures of marriage till I was thirty two!" "Don't listen to the old man." "The chairs are over there." "Marry our Maria and you can jump her right away!" "Where shall we get wed?" "In your synagogue or in our church?" "My Mom says I should marry a rich girl." "But our Maria is rich!" "She has one flea, a sour fart and ten teeth." "I will ask my Mom if that's enough." "See you." "Welcome home!" "Finally!" "Rachel!" "Let me see him." "Erwin, hello." "Emanuel, welcome." "Moric." "Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine." "Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the universe, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season." "The times are rough." "I'd like all of us to make a promise now." "Let us promise to one another that we'll all meet here again next year." "Let's say for the Pesach." "Shmuel, do you promise we'll see each other here next year?" "Yes, father." "I'll be glad to come." "What about you, Moric?" "Of course, I'll do my best." "Rachel?" "Do you promise to come?" "I do." "I speak for the baby, too." "And you, Emanuel?" "Next Pesach we shall be here." "And you, Vilo?" "Of course, I promise." "And you, Alex?" "You've got my word, too." "And you, Martin?" "But I'm not going anywhere, Dad!" "And you, Dezo?" "Do you promise?" "Yes, Dad." "And you, Herman?" "I'm not going anywhere, either!" "What about our mother?" "So next year all of us will get together here." "Except for our mother." "Because she..." "She hasn't promised anything." "But it doesn't matter." "I will do the cooking." "I know how to make boiled potatoes, for example." "Thank you." "Mazel tov!" "Mazel tov!" "Mazel tov!" "It's a great pleasure to welcome a new young man" " Martin to our congregation." "Especially since our numbers in the Slovak Diaspora have been dropping." "Three weeks ago we became citizens of the new Slovak State." "Although the prime minister Dr. Tiso comes from our neighborhood the state will probably not be well-disposed towards us Jews." "What should we do?" "Accept that, or go back to Jerusalem as the Zionists recommend?" "Or suffer the wrongs as sign of God's grace as the Talmudists say?" "I don't want to provoke hatred and anger of the anti-Semites." "Should we expect God to honor us again with trials as demanding as the Egyptian slavery or the Spanish Inquisition had been?" "Let us hope not." "Today we must show God again that we are worthy of being His chosen people." "This Hitler is dumb." "A star looks much better than a cross." "What cross?" "We're Jewish." "Yeah!" "We have to wear a star and the Catholics a cross." "No." "They don't have to wear anything." "That's not true!" "Right, Dad?" "Come here, Dezo." "Unfortunately, it is so." "How come?" "It's not fair!" "You're right, it is not fair." "Then I'm not wearing a star, either." "Stop it!" "We cannot change it." "I wanna keep going to the movies!" "I'm not sewing it on that." "I'll do it myself." "They will arrest all of us." "I've read the whole decree through." "It doesn't say we can't wear yellow clothes!" "I won't stop going to the movies!" "I want ajacket like that, too." "Vilo!" "Even you were drafted?" "Kind of." "I'm an odd soldier, though." "They armed us with shovels and picks." "At least you don't have to worry about bullets or the yellow star." "The President is coming!" "Let's go!" "Stop by the church." "Calm them down." "Gentlemen!" "Mr. President is sorry but there is nothing he can do for you now." "In Bratislava he has been entrusted with tasks that will keep him busy." "He can't help you." "God be with you." "Jews and dogs not allowed!" "Boys, how come you're not studying at the synagogue?" "We know the multiplication table already, Mr. Feldman." "They let him keep his shop although he's a Jew?" "No." "But he has to run the business for the dumb Slovak who got it." "Shit, it so boring here." "I heard there's a camp for the Jews." "You work in a workshop, play soccer, and nobody buggers you about." "My Mom is crying all the time." "I think I'll just go there and be done with all this." "Let's go to play soccer." "Hey, coach!" "Go on." "I'm sorry, boys, but if anybody reports I have Jews coming here, they'll disband my whole team." "We wanted to quit anyway." "I didn't write this idiotic law." "I could really use both of you." "Look at that bunch of stiffs." "Well, good luck." "I'm really sorry." "And we go on." "Hey, guys!" "Fred!" "Martin!" "Why don't you put together a Jewish team and come to play us in Biskupice?" "It's a deal." "See you!" "No!" "No!" "Boo!" "Boo!" "Ten minutes left in game!" "Filthy Jews!" "Goal!" "Boo!" "Let's beat them!" "Catch him!" "Come on!" "You'll be all right, the head always bleeds the most." "How many times have I told you that the worst anti-Semites are in Biskupice?" "Hi, Moric." "Let's go." "No, Dad." "Patronka is a camp for foreign Jews." "There are no Slovak Jews." "Only Hungarian, Romanian, Polish." "I was sent there by the Gestapo when the Czechoslovak army was disbanded." "I told them I was homeless." "The Slovak state is shipping them all out to Palestine now." "The ship is leaving in three weeks." "And I fxed up for all of us to go." "You mean you want to smuggle us into a camp for foreign Jews?" "I paid everybody off." "It's all set." "I see." "You think we leave everything behind, voluntarily go to the camp pretending to be Romanians, and sail bare-assed to Palestine?" "This will be the last transport to Palestine." "Are we going, Dad?" "Shut up and go to bed!" "Now!" "How do you get there?" "Through Hungary to Constanta." "From there by ship straight to Haifa." "Yeah, it will be some fshing boat they'll cram 400 people into." "And we'll go right down with it!" "They are sinking all the time!" "Better get drowned in the Black Sea." "Hitler has seized half of Europe." "Do you know how many pogroms there've been in Germany?" "They're even building camps here now." "This is the very hysteria that stops you thinking logically!" "You think it's logical I have to wear a yellow star?" "And my brothers can't go to school?" "No!" "But let us calm down and try to be rational." "At worst, but I don't think it will come to that they'll send us to Germany, to work there." "All the Germans are in the army." "They'll need the labor force." "I've worked hard all my life." "Better to work in Germany than get drowned or get shot by the English." "I don't want to start over bare-handed in a desert!" "Hitler will exterminate all the Jews." "Hitler needs us!" "He'll need all hands he can get!" "I know you mean it well, Moric, but I have more experience." "And what would become of Vilo?" "That's the biggest problem." "But I could explain it to him." "He could always take care of himself." "Vilo is your brother!" "Wait." "He means it well." "MARCH 1942" "This is my brother Martin, sir." "So you're really going to Poland?" "This Monday in a labor transport." "Damn it." "How old are you?" "I'm ffteen." "Great!" "They transport you at sixteen." "As soon as I teach him something, they'll send him to Poland!" "I won't turn sixteen till summer." "What can you do?" "Can you plane?" "Varnish?" "All right, give him the broom." "He'll fnd the floor himself." "Thank you!" "Come on!" "Move it!" "Get in!" "Your name?" "Wait here." "Ah, Friedman." "All right, mother, that's enough." "The train is about to leave." "Take care, bro." "It's gonna be all right." "I hope so." "Write us as soon as you get there!" "The Goldmans got a postcard from Poland." "It said:" "Soon we'll see our grandpa Jacob." "When did their grandpa go there?" "He died ten years ago." "My Mom won't make me get in a transport." "My folks are not to blame, couldn't do anything." "Good evening." "Hi, Martin." "Will you have a cup of tea?" "Martin, look." "Not even Fisher has a stamp like this." "It's from Moric." "He made it to Palestine after all." "Well, that's the beneft of hindsight." "We couldn't have left Vilo behind." "Does Rachel know about it?" "Not yet." "I'm going to show it to them!" "Be careful with that stamp!" "Don't worry." "I'll pack you some potato pancakes." "I'll stay there overnight." "It's closer to my workshop." "Well?" "Good, isn't it?" "Look at this." "I got it on Monday." "From Fred." "I used to play soccer with him." ""I am writing to you for the sake of your safety." "I work here in the camp as a carpenter." "The coach from Trencin... is putting together a soccer team for the camp commander..." "...and he needs players like you."" "Well?" "How could you ever do that to Mom?" "Get up, you goddamn kikes!" "Quiet!" "Be quiet!" "The guardsmen came for us!" "Wait." "You gonna be transported!" "Pack up!" "I'm going to get Dad!" "Father!" "Come on, Dad!" "Hurry up!" "Go, Dad!" "Bye." "Let's go." "Where are they taking them?" "I don't know." "It's secret." "To Poland." "They're off to Poland, too." "I'm going tojoin Fred in the camp." "No way!" "In a month I'll be sixteen and get transported, too." "So what?" "In the camp I can play soccer and there are no transports." "Once you're there, it's over!" "Here you have a chance to run away." "Exactly." "Alex and Rachel are gone." "In a month I'll go, too." "Why not?" "I have a friend there, and they want me in the team." "Let's go." "Well?" "Do they ft?" "They're too big." "I won't have any feel for the ball." "But the shoes must last you!" "And you're still growing." "I think they are good." "At least one size smaller." "Please." "All right then." "Hello." "These are better." "We'll take them." "How much?" "Thirty fve." "Give it here." "Mr. Miller, we need to buy leather." "I've had to send customers away." "Who's the owner here, you or me?" "But you're cutting into the principal." "That's typical of you Jews." "You're down and out but you're still giving advice." "Hand me some more comfortable shoes." "Come and help me!" "When I became your employee I had no idea I'd be assisting in bankrupting my old shop." "Help me!" "Have you ever got drunk in your life?" "Only with tea, huh?" "That's why you Jews ended up like this." "You can't even get drunk!" "You always care about some "principal"!" "Lecturing all the time." "But you know shit about life!" "Money will be there long after we're gone." "Damn it, that was a great idea!" "Oh my God." "These blisters are getting infected." "Gangrene might have set in." "I'm not a doctor but this could lead to amputation." "It has to be disinfected." "THE LABOR CAMP, MAY 1942" "Come on!" "Move!" "Get down!" "Now!" "Move, you bastards!" "Hey, you!" "Come here!" "You have a nice watch." "I got it for my bar mitzvah." "Give it to me." "Why?" "Come on!" "But it's mine!" "You need it no more!" "If you wanna know the time, come and ask me!" "Give it to me!" "Get lost!" "Faster!" "Faster!" "Move it!" "Next!" "How did you get here?" "They dragged me here." "You didn't volunteer?" "Are you crazy?" "Next!" "You didn't volunteer, either?" "What are you, a mental case?" "Name?" "Friedman." "Your full name!" "Martin Friedman." "Move!" "Faster!" "Martin!" "Fred!" "When did you arrive?" "Today." "It's so good to see you." "You, too." "I was told you had three years of experience." "When did you start?" "At eleven?" "No." "Only three months ago." "I've been helping my brother." "They'll fnd out and send you to Poland!" "The norm here is forty stairs, and you've made what, three?" "It is not fair!" "I volunteered!" "I'm going back home." "Now you're here and nobody cares how you got here!" "Understand?" "Get real before it's too late." "Boss, we'll help him." "He'll catch on fast, you'll see." "Well, if you think so." "Next." "Move on!" "If you don't want the soup, I'll give you one stair for it." "You guys are Polish, right?" "No, we are Slovaks." "From the border." "Whatever." "My brother and sister were transported to Poland." "No, no, they just went to work there." "They took them to Majdanek." "Everybody kaput." "Kaput?" "That's impossible." "They gas them and then burn them." "All of them go up the chimney." "The shift is over!" "That's it for today!" "Thank you." "He's picking up pretty fast." "Tomorrow you'll see something." "We haven't had a player like him." "You'll see." "Don't let him do that to you!" "Let's go!" "Gaby!" "Yes, sir." "Give me the head count!" "I'm so goddamn thirsty!" "Sorry, that's all they had." "Is the head count still needed, sir?" "Didn't I make myself clear?" "Gimme the head count!" "Wake up!" "Get up, everybody!" "We're doing the census!" "All right!" "Fine!" "That's okay!" "What are you going to sing for me?" "Your favorite, of course!" "One, two." "She was shitting by the fence popping her eyes." "She wiped her ass with the green grass." "Here you go, my love, there is a fragrant gift." "It's for you that I have wiped off my shit!" "What are you, mute?" "How come he ain't singing?" "You're not happy in Slovakia anymore?" "You'd rather be in Poland, huh?" "Goal!" "Next." "Our soccer player!" "Give him two slices." "That was a fne passing play you showed yesterday!" "Thank you very much." "Line up!" "Come on!" "Move!" "Your name?" "Attention!" "All of us will get transported." "Bullshit!" "Who has any skills is staying." "Doctors, cooks, soccer players." "Any problems?" "No, sir." "Your name?" "Martin Friedman." "Age?" "Eighteen years." "Wait a moment!" "Please!" "Step back!" "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Move!" "Get back!" "Where are you going?" "I should take this to the kitchen." "Put it down!" "Get back!" "The Kramers took poison!" "Call the doctor!" "I could still save them." "To hell with them!" "Let them croak if they want it so badly!" "Back off!" "Tegenbaum!" "Move!" "Bierman!" "Steiner!" "Faster!" "Steier!" "Levi!" "Shut up!" "Back to line!" "Oberfeld!" "Friedman!" "Kriegel!" "Goldstein!" "Aren't you a soccer player?" "Yes, I am, sir." "Don't you know that this man is in my soccer team?" "I didn't know that, sir." "So now you know." "Cross his name off the list." "Yes, sir." "Take off the tag." "Wait for me in my office." "Go!" "Into the train!" "Move!" "Faster!" "Mr. Feldman!" "I'm Martin Friedman." "We bought these shoes from you." "What happened to my family?" "Give us a break." "We'll talk tomorrow." "I haven't heard from them for months!" "Your family was transported." "Where to?" "Poland!" "Back off!" "Come on!" "Move!" "Vilo?" "Martin!" "Hey, folks!" "Stop!" "There is no God!" "God doesn't exist!" "How could he ever let this happen?" "All this is a fraud, too!" "I don't want to be a Jew!" "I don't want to be a rabbi!" "I don't want to be a Jew!" "Move!" "Move!" "Let's go!" "Each one of you must pick at least two bags of mulberry leaves." "Or there's no silk, and you will go back to the workshop." "If anyone even thinks of escaping I'll shoot you myself like rats!" "All of you!" "Is that clear?" "Get in the truck!" "Come on, boys!" "I can see you're starving." "Why do the bloody Germans suddenly need so much silk?" "Thank you." "For the parachute ropes, maybe." "Fuck them and fuck the damn war!" "Why did they pinch you?" "You sure don't look like some rogues." "We didn't do anything." "We are Jews." "Vilo!" "Thanks." "I could easily run away." "That's too risky." "Where would you go?" "If anybody hides a Jew, they shoot him and his family!" "You are safer here because you're so good at soccer." "Friedman, are there two of you sleeping there?" "No." "My brother has come to see me." "So this is your fellow lodger." "I have to go anyway." "Thanks, Martin." "You are new here?" "Yes, I'm Shany." "Martin." "Shany." "Peter." "I've been in jail for over a year, in Bratislava." "Did they beat you there?" "They call it investigation." "What for?" "They said I was in the Communist underground." "The heroic German army is fghting the Jewish-Bolshevik regime in Russia." "This fght will decide the fate of the entire Western civilization!" "Communism is the end of anti-Semitism, racism, and all discrimination." "The Asiatic communism has brought but famine, robbery, terror, and executions!" "Stalin, so worshipped by the Bolsheviks, has driven his own wife to suicide!" "Stalin is a brilliant chess player." "And the Red Army has the best fghting spirit in the world." "Hitler has made a big mistake." "Serving a good cause makes one happy, so you get the chance to contribute to the victory of the Western civilization!" "You'll end up as a Communist, too." "As a Jew, you have no choice." "Starting tomorrow, you will work ten hours a day!" "And you have my permission to work on Sundays, too!" "Hurrah!" "Hurrah!" "Look!" "Thirty kilometers is a long way." "I'll pay somebody to drive me." "Just pick enough leaves for two." "I don't know." "Hello." "Oh my God!" "Martin." "How come you're here?" "Didn't they take you?" "Come on in!" "What's this?" "Take no notice of that." "They came on July the 2nd." "Took away your whole family." "Everybody's gone." "But our house looks like they'd come back any minute." "The furniture is just waiting for the folks from the city hall to share it." "You know what?" "Better go before somebody turns you in." "Where's your partner?" "He's coming!" "Let's go!" "Where have you been?" "Why are you breathless?" "I was doing some sprints." "I play right wing in the camp team." "Let's go!" "Quickly!" "We're late." "Nobody was there." "What was I thinking?" "I knew they wouldn't be there." "You okay?" "I'm fne!" "Martin!" "Vilo." "Sorry, I couldn't bring you anything to eat today." "It's okay." "Got any news?" "No." "You?" "Neither." "See you." "Come on, get in." "And you, too, move it." "As a kid I often had this recurring dream." "I'm all alone in my home town, running around, looking for my buddies." "Suddenly, I know I'll never see them again." "That's exactly how it felt today." "What if it's all decided?" "Maybe it is our fate." "Fate, my ass!" "I can tell you the future right away." "Soon there'll be another transport." "And I'll be on it." "If you ever manage to run away." "Where to?" "In Poprad there's a comrade Brontos." "You can trust him." "He works for the undergorund." "Tell him Shany sends you." "He'll take care of you." "Line up!" "Your name?" "Martin Friedman." "Age?" "Nineteen years." "Occupation?" "Silk worm breeder." "Step back!" "Name?" "Milan Lipa." "Off with you!" "Move!" "Martin!" "Fred!" "Martin!" "THE CAMP INFIRMARY, JUNE 1943" "Hold on!" "Hold on!" "It's almost done." "Hold on!" "Almost done, hold on!" "Hold on!" "Okay, okay!" "Done!" "Okay, fne." "Your brother had so much water on his lungs he'd never have lived to see tomorrow." "It gushed out of him." "You must understand, Mr. Friedman, it was a desperate measure." "Thank you." "What's the difference, Martin?" "You gonna die here today, and I'll die somewhere else tomorrow." "That's our fate." "So go in peace." "We all have to die." "The container is full again." "Gosh, it is pouring out of you." "It's not splashing in me that much." "Yesterday I sounded like a pool." "Hello." "How is our patient doing?" "How does it look?" "Better." "But he still has a fever." "Checkmate." "You won again." "The whole camp is talking about the patient who narrowly escaped the grave." "Even the commander wants to see you." "Vozar?" "Why?" "Vozar is gone, thanks God." "After Stalingrad we got a new commander." "But he is a strategic thinker, no need to be afraid of him." "Otherwise, it looks good." "So you're the one who refused to die although the doctor gave up all hope." "It's the doctors who saved me, sir." "Anyway, you have an incredible will to live." "I'll send you to a sanatorium to recuperate." "But that doesn't mean you're no longer a prisoner." "There'll be no guards but we'll be informed." "Thank you." "If I were you, I'd better stay here." "There'll be no more transports." "Nobody believes Hitler could win the war." "The Slovaks are getting scared." "Maybe that's why they're sending me to the sanatorium." "Don't forget you're still a Jew and here you're among your own." "I've always taken risks and it's always worked out well." "Something is telling me to do it again." "Take care of yourself, you lunger." "THE PULMONARY SANATORIUM, JULY 1943" "Hey, kid!" "Time to get out!" "Dr. Kolar will examine you to see if you have the contagious tuberculosis." "Strip to the waist and sit down." "File it, please." "How long have you had TB?" "For years, doctor." "How many years?" "I don't know exactly, but it's been a long time." "How do you know you have it?" "I keep sweating." "Hold your breath." "I have a fever." "I make a few steps, and feel tired." "Well, the good news is, you're not consumptive." "If you've ever been." "Where are you from?" "A concentration camp." "Listen." "I'll keep you here as long as I can." "But you'll have to help me out every morning." "Sure." "The head doctor is also a Jew but..." "Whatever." "No one else needs to know." "In the morning, I'll need you to have an elevated temperature." "Yes, of course." "Oh my God, you didn't get your lunch?" "How is it possible?" "You have to make yourself eat." "Enjoy your meal." "Sorry!" "When you're young, you have to try hard to pick up a girl." "Then you get TB, and it goes by itself." "Good morning, gentlemen!" "Take your temperature, please." "Mr. Janos!" "Your temperature!" "What are you doing here?" "Me?" "Nothing." "I was praying a little." "Praying." "Are you Catholic?" "No." "I'm just a believer." "So you're Protestant." "Thus a virgin, right?" "Pardon me?" "And a bad patient." "From ten to twelve we're supposed to walk outside to get some fresh air." "I'm Josephine." "Martin." "Come on, Martin." "I'll show you the ropes." "Nobody was born a good patient." "Come on!" "Come on!" "I'm coming." "Are you all right?" "I've sprained my ankle." "Check it for me." "A little higher." "Higher." "Higher." "I'm sorry." "How do you handle it?" "Don't women turn you on?" "Of course they do." "You can't help it." "That's why I'm asking." "What can you do about it?" "I don't know." "Before I was born, my mother had vowed me to the service of God if she'd give birth to a boy." "And so I took the vow of poverty, chastity and obedience." "I can't own anything, can't refuse an order." "I must not know a woman." "Sometimes I wish I were born a girl." "He still has a temperature." "And his sheet is sweat through." "How are you feeling today?" "I can't breath well." "And it hurts." "What do you have there?" "You are a Jew?" "The temperature is elevated." "And the sheet is completely wet again." "This is an interesting case:" "The X-rays are negative he keeps sweating, but his temperature isn't going down." "After six weeks there has been absolutely no change in his condition." "Mr. Friedman, I'm sending you back." "Where can I fnd Dr. Kolar?" "He's no longer here." "Why?" "Dr. Kolar was a Jew and some of our patients complained about that." "Hello." "Nurse!" "Doctor, please, could I..." "Yes, doctor?" "Here is the report." "Yes, Mr. Friedman?" "Well, I..." "Dr. Kolar mentioned some experimental drug." "If you need a volunteer..." "Dr. Kolar didn't know what he was talking about." "Thank you." "I'm going back to the monastery tomorrow." "Brother Rudolf." "If you are a true Christian, I have to tell you something." "Sit down." "I am a Jew." "They want to send me back to the concentration camp." "THE ORDER OF BROTHERS OF MERCY, FALL 1943" "Yes?" "Good morning." "Can I see brother Rudolf, please?" "Come in." "If I understand this correctly, you don't want any pay." "Why not?" "I've always wanted to prove my faith in deed." "Have you burdened your conscience with a sin?" "Who hasn't, father?" "Do you want to vow your life to God?" "I'd be happy to help here in the monastery for a year or two." "All I need is board and lodging." "In summer, there's plenty to do in the felds." "But in winter your help will be needed in our ward." "I hope you don't have any religious prejudices." "In our ward for the feeble-minded there are also Jews." "We've always taken in the worst cases, regardless of their families' faith." "No problem." "That's why I'm here." "All right then." "God will reward you for it." "Thank you, father." "I know who you are, Martin." "Not who you pretend to be, but who you really are." "So who am I?" "You know it!" "I don't have to tell you." "How do you know?" "I receive signals." "What signals?" "From the outer space." "I see." "But of course." "Do you know how many healthy and beautiful people got transported?" "If Hitler succeeds these poor wretches will be all what's left of the Jews in Slovakia." "Almighty God, our Lord who let our Savior take upon him human body and undergo the death on cross so that the mankind would get the example of humility worth to be followed let us kindly follow his example of patience..." "Hello." "Check it yourself." "Go outside and put your ear to the ground." "You'll hear the artillery from the front like they were behind the hill." "But they are 300 kilometers away." "Those mercenaries of the Jews are approaching." "Can I help you?" "Two kilos of nails and a pipe elbow." "What size the nails?" "80 millimeters." "And the pipe elbow." "Charge it to the monastery, please." "What mercenaries of the Jews?" "The Russians?" "Who else invented communism?" "The goddamn kike Marx!" "There are Jews even in the monastery." "Are you saying the monks are Jews and Bolsheviks?" "Ask him." "Don't you have Jews in that nut house?" "But they go to the Mass with us." "That's their diabolical trick." "How many of them are there?" "I don't know." "You don't?" "No." "Bye." "See?" "I told you." "Give us the Jews!" "Brother Rudolf!" "Brother Rudolf!" "Calm down!" "They're not looking for you." "They came for the Jews." "Take care of him." "Stay here." "Thank you!" "Here, put it on." "They came to kill the Jews!" "Do you hear them?" "Give us the kikes!" "They're vampires!" "We're asking for trouble if we let them stay!" "Let us have them." "What vampires?" "All I got here is a bunch of poor crippled wretches." "They were entrusted to me and now they're under my protection." "Who wants to harm them must step over my dead body!" "You've heard that." "Let's go home." "Well?" "Do you hear it?" "Yes, I do." "Look!" "And do you know where to fnd these partisans?" "Brother Rudolf, thank you for everything." "Think it over." "Who knows how long the war will last." "SPRING 1944" "Yes?" "Are you Mr. Brontos?" "Shany sends me." "Come in." "Any idea of what you'd like to do?" "I'd like tojoin the partisans." "Very well." "Martin Petrasek." "It's okay." "Must be Schwartz." "Welcome." "THE PARTISAN CAMP, SUMMER 1944" "Vasil!" "Goal!" "Fuck you!" "That was great!" "The Germans!" "Martin!" "A boar!" "Over there!" "Shoot it!" "Shoot, damn it!" "I'm telling you, shoot!" "You two will carry the boar." "Why do I always have to carry everything?" "Because you're a parasite!" "This is anti-Semitism and discrimination." "It's not fair!" "It's an order!" "I shot it, I'll help them." "No." "You're coming with me." "Schwartz is a goddamn Jew." "A lazybones, got hands like this." "Martin, you're my friend." "I will tell you something." "I hate the Jews!" "I'd send them all to hell." "But the Soviet Army forbade anti-Semitism." "Anyway, in the evening, we'll play chess." "That's my sport!" "There." "Bloody hell!" "Fuck!" "Son of a bitch!" "Vodka is a great companion, but a lousy chess player!" "Put it back." "It's all right." "It was the vodka playing, not you." "I know you're good at it." "Put it back." "I'm going to take a piss." "My name is Petrasek and you don't know me, understand?" "Okay." "And I am Novak now, a partisan." "And you don't know me, either." "Check." "Cheers!" "Cheers." "Fuck!" "Today is not my chess day." "Next time I'll show you!" "Shit." "Why did they arrest you?" "For nothing." "All day I'm lugging the machine gun." "Then I ask the commander if somebody could give me a hand with it." "And he calls me a Jewish swine." "Now they're trying me in there for disobeying orders." "But that can't be That's it?" "Yes!" "I swear on the Holy Torah!" "It's just because I'm a Jew!" "Comrades!" "The victorious Red Army is approaching Warsaw." "The time has come for us tojoin in the active struggle against the Nazis." "All Slovakia is rising against the Germans and the Hlinka Guards." "The Slovak Army is turning its cannons against the fascists and tomorrow we will join them." "Our sector is the city of Zvolen." "Hurrah!" "Welcome!" "Martin, report to the captain!" "What does the captain want from me?" "You, Martin, are comrade Justice." "What took you so long?" "Forward, march!" "Why are they condemned?" "What did they do?" "Who knows." "They're Germans, Nazis!" "Listen to my order!" "Attention!" "Aim!" "Fire!" "Right turn!" "Forward, march!" "Let us promise..." "But I'm not going anywhere..." "It will not be easy." "The problem is that not enough Slovak troops havejoined us." "The Red Army is still far away and the Germans won't let the enemy attack them in the rear." "Hitler is sending SS and Wehrmacht divisions." "Heavily armed, having their baptism of fre." "We must resist at any cost." "Do we have a chance?" "Of course." "There's always a chance." "What's the use of the money in the mountains?" "Order is order!" "The Germans are approaching." "They're tired of the fghting, too." "It can't be true!" "You remember me, doctor?" "I am Martin Petrasek." "Come on." "You're not Friedman anymore?" "No." "I'm not a Jew anymore." "Neither am I." "But I'm still Feher." "A mistake, huh?" "Have you met Vilo already?" "He is alive?" "!" "He's a partisan, too." "What are you doing?" "Fuck this war and fuck the uprising!" "Fuck everything!" "I'm going home!" "Where are we gonna go, Petrasek?" "Move!" "Come on, boys." "Everybody take some money." "There's hard currency in that bag." "Where do you fnd a Jew to change it?" "THE PARTISAN CAMP, DECEMBER 1944" "The coffee, boys." "Cezar?" "And some sugar." "Thanks." "Guys, an airplane." "Everybody out!" "Hurry up!" "They patrol the whole road." "Only here we can cross it." "I won't get caught again." "I'm not going back to a concentration camp." "Wait." "Let us eat frst." "The last bullet I keep for myself." "Tonight we're gonna get over." "There are no Germans on the other side." "Don't worry, we'll sneak through." "I won't die here of exposure." "Watch out!" "It's hopeless." "Martin, loosen the belt!" "Undo it!" "Please!" "I'd give you something to eat." "But the partisans took all my flour and potatoes." "The Germans took the cow." "I have nothing left!" "Well, you've got nothing, and we've got nothing, too." "Why should we be suffering?" "Let's end it up." "Hold on." "Let me check again." "Hey, old man!" "Get us some liquor!" "That's it." "If I didn't know you..." "What?" "I'd say that you're a Jew." "Are you crazy?" "!" "Shit!" "Vasil, what's your problem with him?" "Why do you call my buddy a Jew?" "Fuck you." "I think the only Jew here is you." "Drop your pants!" "I bet you're circumcised." "I'll drop mine, if he drops his." "What are you, a fagot?" "You want to see his dick?" "That's enough!" "Shut up!" "The Germans!" "Fire!" "I'm going to the village." "No." "Martin will go." "Martin!" "And take no grenade." "We're gonna stay here." "We have to rest." "Give me your gun." "You are a soldier, me an economist!" "Go, economist!" "There's nothing to eat." "Times are hard." "I don't want it for free." "How much do you want for a pig?" "Where would I get a pig?" "At least two hundred crowns." "Where would I possibly break this?" "That's a lot of money." "Keep it and throw in a sack of potatoes." "Okay." "You'll get the potatoes and onions, and horseradish and the liquor as well!" "Don't worry, my boy!" "Like I were in a hotel." "Don't you have a toothache?" "Just a moment." "I'll be right back." "Boys, let's have a drink." "Cheers!" "He wants me to pull out a healthy tooth." "The customer is always right." "I pull it out and he'll shoot me!" "Wet you whistle, doc!" "Pluck up your courage!" "Don't worry." "People in Russia have iron teeth." "Who has golden ones, is a rich man." "Can get every woman!" "Cheers!" "Have one more and get to work." "This one?" "Yeah." "Shit!" "THE TATRA MOUNTAINS, FEBRUARY 1945" "Hurrah!" "JUNE 1945" "Give me the picture of Tiso." "You don't need it anymore." "That's what they said about Benes." "Tiso is going to the basement just like Benes did." "One never knows." "Change of address" "Can I help you?" "Hello." "Excuse me." "I was born in this house." "You are Friedman?" "It's horrible what they did to you." "But we got this house from the city three years ago." "We put in so much money and work." "There werejust bare walls." "The plaster was falling, the basement was moldy." "I don't want to make any claims." "Could I just have a peek in the attic?" "I don't know if this is the right time." "We have really lost everything." "All right then, come in." "Thank you." "We didn't keep our promise." "My parents died in Auschwitz." "Along with my brothers Alex Dezo Herman my sister Rachel, my nephew Erwin and my brother-in-law Emanuel." "Fred Mahler and Robert Fischer were also murdered in Auschwitz." "The President of the Slovak State Jozef Tiso was condemned of high treason and was hanged in 1947." "After the war my brother Vilo and I emigrated to Israel." "In Haifa we were met by our brothers Moric and Shmuel with his family." "In the concentration camps died more than 450 Jews from Banovce." "Only less than one ffth of the 90 000 Slovak Jews survived the war." "Dedicated to my mother J. Ch., director"