Six Million and One

Past present and future mix in Six Million and One, an eloquent, intense and surprisingly humorous portrait of documentary filmmaker David Fisher and his siblings, as they retrace the footsteps of their late father—a Holocaust survivor who was interned in Gusen and Gunskirchen, Austria. David’s journey takes him to the U.S., where he meets American WWII veterans who participated in the liberation of his father and Gunskirchen camp. This sparks a remarkable journey to Austria by the Fisher siblings. The four Fisher siblings descend into the dark underground shafts of Gusen, part of an Austrian forced labor camp, where their father once slaved during the Holocaust. Illuminated only by flashlights, the Fishers seek meaning in their personal and family histories inside the dark labyrinth of Gusen’s tunnels—a metaphor for the murky history of the Holocaust itself.

Winner of Best Documentary at Dokfest Munich. Winner Silver Horn for Best Director at Krakow Film Festival. Official Selection IDFA

Director's note ~ My siblings didn't want to read my father’s memoir… it contained things that were locked away for so long. I also did not want to read it and yet felt compelled to do so. I learned of Gusen village, Gunskirchen forest, beatings, hunger, cannibalism, homosexuality.... it uncovered all my father’s demons. Some names and issues were familiar—others seemed to be weird, hallucinatory, nightmarish. I set out on a quest to decipher them. I made half the journey alone. I forced the second half of the journey on my siblings, who didn't want to participate, even while they were crawling around tunnels and enchanted forests. This isn't a film about the Holocaust, because we spent most of our time laughing and there is nothing funny about the Holocaust; it’s about a rare kind of intimacy and sibling bond that replaced pain with bittersweet humor.