Private Project

Saving Auschwitz?

Auschwitz has become the very symbol of memorial sites. Emblem of the Shoah, for the last 70 years it has given rise to intense confrontations over what it should become. Each period fostered its specific debates, its memorial high stakes, various tentative manipulations… So many threats, and perils that had to be overcome each time.

Today, now that the last of the survivors are disappearing, new challenges arise: the difficulty of preserving the site over time, the impact of a million and a half visitors who flood in every year, the development of a “horror-oriented tourism” and the urbanization of the surrounding area…

Could it be possible that Auschwitz might lose its true meaning, and even be in danger of disappearing altogether?

A look back on its tormented history, never before told, and its future which is currently being written.

  • Jonathan Hayoun
    Director
  • Jonathan Hayoun
    Writer
  • Simone Harari Baulieu
    Producer
    http://www.effervescenceprod.com/en/simone-harari-en/
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Sauver Auschwitz
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Television
  • Runtime:
    60 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    December 30, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    300,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    France
  • Country of Filming:
    France, Italy, Poland
  • Language:
    English, French, Polish
  • Shooting Format:
    HD
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16/9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Toronto Jewish Film Festival
    Toronto
    Canada
    May 11, 2018
    Canadian Premiere
  • Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival
    Jerusalem
    Israel
    December 16, 2017
    Israel Premiere
Distribution Information
  • Terranoa
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: Video on Demand, Hotel, Airline, Ship, Theatrical, Video / Disc, Free TV, Paid TV, Console / Handheld Device
Director Biography - Jonathan Hayoun

Producer, Author and Documentarian

Jonathan Hayoun is a young filmmaker known for the documentary “Rwanda: a Dialog with Those Who Remember”, which was also published as a book.

He has also directed a documentary about the author Philippe Forest for « La Règle du Jeu » (“Rules of the Game).

He is the past President of the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) who organized and accompanied numerous delegations to Auschwitz, anti-racist leaders, representatives of French gypsies, as well as groups of French and Iranian students.

In this capacity, he participated in the first commemoration of the Shoah in the African Great Lakes region.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Could Auschwitz disappear one day? This is the question I am raising in this film.

This question may appear unseemly, but since its inception, Auschwitz has never stopped being a threatened target. The risks and dangers are numerous, they seem to come one after another and yet all also coexist at the same time; the Nazis wanted it destroyed. It was then left abandoned, then it became an instrument in the hands of political or religious propagandists and finally seems to fall prey to commercial interests.

The erosion through time has already required two appeals for donations in the amount of many millions of euros. As for the surrounding neighborhoods, many of them dream of the disappearance of this burdensome and macabre mausoleum.

Auschwitz, at the whim of societal trends, remains the international emblem of the high stakes of keeping historical events memory alive. It must be preserved as a beacon for humanity so that 'Never Again' will never become just an empty slogan.