Yad Vashem · Our Story · 2020

The German Nurse

Elka Burnstein survived the war, she says, because everywhere, even in the worst places, people were kind to her. The kindest was a German nurse she met in a refugee camp in Germany, Hildegard Neugebauer.

Client: Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center
Project: Our Story, twelve films by six filmmakers
Direction, art direction & screenplay: Daniella Koffler
Music & sound: Eitan Shefer
Archive film: Filmarchiv Austria
Runtime: 5:07 · English subtitles
Kind: Testimony film

Elka Burnstein

Elka was already an orphan when she arrived in Auschwitz. She did forced labour at a German camp called Hochweiler and marched in the death marches. In 1944, in a displaced persons camp in Germany, she woke one morning to find that everyone had been taken away in the night. Then she saw Hildegard.

Hildegard took her home, to her parents in a German village, and was a mother to her. Elka told them her name was Ellie Carl, and that she had lost her parents when Dresden was bombed. The film is the story of that home, of the kindness she found in it and of the secret she kept there. When we met Elka the first impression was of a woman of enormous charm, and of an exceptional sharpness.

Photograph of Elka and Hildegard together, shortly after the war — Elka and Hildegard, shortly after the war. A keepsake the two of them had taken together.

Film still: a hand holding the photograph of Elka and Hildegard, beside the film's Hebrew title — The film opens on it. A hand holds up the photograph beside the film’s title, and the story begins from the two faces in it.

Film still: Elka sitting alone on an iron bed in an empty barrack, her face in her hand

The camp, 1944

Alone in the morning.

“When I woke up in the morning, I was alone. Everyone had been taken away during the night.”

Film still: Hildegard, in her nurse's cap and striped sleeves, holding Elka by the shoulders and smiling at her

Hildegard

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”

“She asked why I was crying. I told her in German.” The film draws them in soft pencil and watercolour on pale paper, the nurse in her striped sleeves, the girl in grey.

A German home

“Hildegard took me home with her, to a German village named Hermsdorf.” The film is led by the physical materials present at the decisive moments in her account, set as photographic textures against the drawing: the plush of a train compartment, the lace of an apron, a tablecloth, a pram.

Film still: Elka and Hildegard facing each other in a dark-red train compartment — On the train, with Hildegard.

Film still: Elka at a train window, the moon over a snowy forest — The snowy forest, through the window.

Film still: a little train passing a house with a cherry tree and a swastika flag — The house in the village.

Film still: Elka at a table with tea and cake, Oma beside her in a lace apron — “I ate cake with Oma.”

Film still: Elka beside a pram among grown-ups in patterned coats — “Outside there were mothers with babies in carriages. Everything was alive!”

Film still: Elka seen from behind at a window, and through its panes, archive film of a synagogue full of people — “A synagogue. There used to be Jews here.” Through the window, archive film of a full synagogue, from Filmarchiv Austria.

Film still: Elka and Hildegard seen through a window, a gramophone in the dark room before them

The secret

“I wasn’t the girl Hildegard thought she was adopting.”

“She really was good to me, so why didn’t I tell her? I was scared.”

Film still: Elka at a tall gilt mirror, and in it, instead of her reflection, a grotesque horned face

Opa

In the mirror.

“Opa hated Jews. He said that they’re evil creatures, stinky pigs. He’d strangle me if he knew.” The film shows it in a mirror: Elka in front of it, and instead of her own reflection, the creature Opa described looking back at her.

Film still: Hildegard holding Elka outside the house with the cherry tree

Hildegard

“I just couldn’t take the risk.”

Hildegard holds her, the house behind them. Elka keeps her secret.

Film still: a row of Russian soldiers in green uniforms with rifles

The end of the war

The Russians.

“When the Russians came looking for Nazis, I didn’t know what to do. Telling them who I was was the hardest thing I had to do.”

Film still: Opa on his knees, hugging Elka, Oma standing beside them

Opa

“We saved you, and now you are saving us.”

“But Opa said, ‘Ellie, we saved you and now you are saving us.’”

Leaving

“When the war was over I had to find out if anyone from my real family survived.”

Film still: Elka in front of a shop window — After the war.

Film still: a hand laying folded sweaters in an open suitcase, banknotes beside it — “She didn’t want me to go, but she gave me money, food and clothes.”

Film still: Hildegard alone at a window, looking out — “I felt like I had to leave right then, because I also really wanted to stay.”

Photograph of Elka and Hildegard, older, seated together in conversation — Elka and Hildegard, years later. Elka found her sister in their home town and immigrated with her to Israel. Forty years later, a German journalist found Hildegard.

Film still: a hand holding the photograph of Elka and Hildegard's reunion — The film closes on it. The hand from the opening returns with a second photograph: “Elka and Hildegard happily met again.”

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