While no one can go back in time, virtual reality devices provide a portal to see and hear what three Holocaust survivors experienced during those frightening years by showing recently-made films that integrate archival photos and new footage to show how they survived in France, the Netherlands and China. The films are being shown at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie starting Aug. 1.
Eight people at a time will strap on a virtual reality headset and sit in a chair that rotates to allow 360-degree viewing of the films that surround the audience. Three films will be shown, with each running for a month.
Starting August 1, “Walk to Westerbork” will accompany Rodi Glass as she revisits Amsterdam, where she was in the Westerbork transit camp and Vittel internment camp.
In September, “Escape to Shanghai” will share the story of Doris Fogel’s journey from Nazi Germany to the horrific conditions in one of the few places that offered haven to Jews without a visa during the Holocaust.
In October, “Letters from Drancy” will tell of the bond between Marion Deichmann and her mother and Deichmann’s daring journey across Northern Europe borders.
Senior Vice President of Education and Exhibitions Kelley Szany, who served as project director and executive producer of the films, recalled her emotions when she first saw a rough cut of “Walk to Westerbork.”
“I started bawling my eyes out,” she admitted. “I couldn’t believe, even as a rough draft, how extraordinary it was.”
She explained the museum wanted to share some lesser-known Holocaust stories, “whether that be stories specific to the experiences of Western Europe, Dutch Jews and French Jews. And even the story of Shanghai and how Jews were able to find safety in unknown parts of the world.”
The three women featured in the films are members of the Museum’s Survivors Speakers’ Bureau. “They are often giving talks to students and adult audiences at the Museum,” Szany said.
Rodi Glass of “Walk to Westerbork” said that she wanted to participate in this project because “I’m a Holocaust survivor from The Netherlands and in all the years I’ve been affiliated with the Skokie Holocaust Speakers’ Bureau and Museum, I’ve always been very aggravated about the fact that whoever visits the Museum has never heard about what happened in The Netherlands. They always think that the Holocaust only happened in Eastern Europe.”
Glass reported that there were 140,000 Jews living in The Netherlands when the war broke out.
“Seventy-five percent were murdered,” she said.
Glass returns to The Netherlands each year and so they filmed her there. She noted that the two camps where she was held prisoner are gone and now “there’s nothing to show people how it really was.”
Glass hopes the film will also demonstrate to people that are not Jewish that this was done to people solely because they were Jewish. “We were not doing anything bad to anybody,” she said. “We felt we were accepted as Dutch people but obviously it was just an illusion.”
Glass, who is 87, has built an amazing life for herself. She was married for 62 years, and has three children, six grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. She had a business called Parties by Rodi for 42 years.
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“I think you should always celebrate every occasion that comes along and celebrate every day of your life,” Glass explained. “Every day that I survived and my family survived is a bonus.”
While many people may not know about Jews in the the Netherlands, they might also not know that Jews escaped to China for eight years during the Holocaust.
“I’ve been telling my story for 35 or 40 years,” said Doris Fogel, whose experiences are shared in “Escape to Shanghai.” Living conditions were terrible, she said, but it was one of only a few places that accepted Jewish refugees.
Most of the filming for Fogel’s story was done in Chicago because the crew couldn’t travel to Shanghai during the pandemic.
Some filming was done in Berlin, where Fogel was born, though. “It was amazing because I was able to go into the house that my mother and I left in 1939,” Fogel said. “The whole experience has been amazing.”
Fogel has been active in the Jewish community throughout her life. She was executive director of the Jewish Federation in Fort Wayne, Indiana for eight years and president of her temple twice.
She is a paralegal who ran her husband’s law office. The widow has three children and eight grandchildren.
At 89, Fogel continues to lecture about her experiences. “It’s very gratifying to educate people,” she explained.
The third story is that of a woman who has been grieving for 81 years.
“Letters from Drancy” tells of the loving bond between Marion Deichmann and her mother, who was taken away from her by the Nazis when the girl was only nine-and-a-half years old. Deichmann didn’t learn for several years that her mother had been killed.
Deichmann said that she participated in this project because, “This is my mission. Since my mother died a horrible death in Auschwitz, I want the world to know.”
Deichmann, who moved to Chicago 2-1/2 years ago, was born in Germany but lived in France for many years. During the war, “I was saved by French people who were in resistance to the Nazi regime,” she said.
When she was almost 15, Deichmann came to the United States with her uncle and her grandmother. She later met and married a Frenchman and they returned to his country in 1951, but moved back here three years later because he loved America, she said.
The 90-year-old is a psychologist who worked for the World Health Organization for nearly 20 years. She has three children and three grandchildren.
Even though she has shared the story of her mother many times, Deichmann said, “It’s been 81 years and every time I talk about it, it breaks my heart.”
Szany said she hopes that these three films “expand awareness and knowledge of the Holocaust beyond Eastern Europe; that there was suffering and persecution that took place all across German-occupied Europe. I hope that viewers that watch the film gain some sort of empathy of understanding the ultimate dangers of hatred and what that can lead to.”
The films were created by the museum and East City Films, an award-winning production company, and the presentation takes place in the Richard & Jill Chaifetz Family Virtual Reality Gallery.
The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is at 9603 Woods Drive in Skokie.
Reservations are required for viewing the virtual reality films, which are free with museum admission of $18 adults, $12 seniors, and $8 students. For information, call 847-967-4800 or visit ilholocaustmuseum.org.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.