As Seen Through These Eyes

AS SEEN THROUGH THESE EYES is a window into the surviving art and artists of the Holocaust. This film, however, is more than a Holocaust study; it offers an incredible look at the survival mechanism of humankind, regardless of race or religion, and the profound need to communicate at any cost. The film reveals the emotions of the prisoners from the inside out; through the eyes of the witnesses and the expression of the human spirit.

"A quietly impressive testament to the tenaciousness of the human spirit." (Harvey S. Karten, Compuserve)


The film features interviews with survivors who have given us something that history couldn’t; a journal of the Holocaust as seen through the eyes of the artist, through the eyes of people who by the very act of creating, rebelled and risked their lives by doing what they were forbidden to do. Acclaimed Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal is featured with his sketches made during his captivity in the Mauthausen death camp; Westchester resident Ela Weissberger is featured as a young child in a rare Nazi propaganda film of the children’s opera ‘Brundibar’ filmed in the ‘model ghetto’ Theresienstadt. The day after filming all but two of the children were sent to their deaths. Brooklyn resident Frederick Terna tells how creating clandestine art gave him a sense of total control in a place where there was no freedom; Judith Goldstein of New Rochelle speaks about her childhood and how art and music helped her survive in the Vilna ghetto; and Dina Gottliebova Babbitt, and Gypsy child Karl Stojka tell how they were spared – Babbitt by being forced as personal artist to the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele to paint portraits of Gypsy men, women and children he then used in his monstrous experiments, and Stojka, who has painted over 1,000 canvases because he ‘doesn’t want to forget anything,’ as Mengele’s errand boy. Their art, and that of hundreds of others – survivors as well as those who perished in the evil – presented in the film are documents echoing the message “Never Again.”



Dina Gottliebova Babbitt, who sadly died this summer unfulfilled in her quest to regain her work from Auschwitz, has become a cause célèbre among artists and creative rights activists. Acclaimed illustrator Neal Adams has put together a six-page graphic as well as animated documentary about Babbitt’s plight. Links to both these fascinating pieces follow:

http://www.itslikecool.com/neal/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Q-7_jLMs4.



Director/Writer/Producer Hilary Helstein worked extensively with Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation and is currently the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Jewish Festival. Other members of the creative team include Executive Producer Jerry Offsay (The Believer, Diabolique), music by Anna Nalick and Grammy-winning Lorin Sklamberg of the Klezmatics. The film is also partially scored with the melancholy harmonica music of Henry Rosmarin who just days before death in the gas chamber was brought to the camp commandant and told “Play me Schubert, you miserable dog!” He survived the rest of the war by playing for the SS in their mess hall, “It may look like just an instrument, but to me it is a lifesaver.”


OFFICIAL SELECTION - 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival

"Captures the feeling of what really went on when Adolf Hitler took over power and forced the Jews into slavery and eventually death. One amazing documentary, it’s something the world should pay attention to."
--Shmuel Reuven, JewReview.net

"A living, moving representation of the art and the time during which the art was produced...the film imbues in its audience the sense of sorrow and respect that Roberto Benigni's masterpiece, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, brought to the screen. Helstein's feature holds out the hope that, in some way, these artists were able to protect the minds and preserve the memories of the Holocaust's young victims."
--Elliot V. Kotek, Moving Pictures Magazine