One night in the aunt’s caravan. The forest, its element. The little sister’s coat. These are the beautiful memories that Zoni Weisz hid for a long time as if behind closed doors of a cupboard. Behind others were torment and sorrow: the empty house when no one came back. His family’s deportation to Auschwitz.
The Dutch Sinto tried to displace the painful past with hard work. Zoni Weisz became one of the most successful florists in Europe, the flower king. But behind the facade of a happy man, he doubted his identity, nightmares haunted him. The war had not forgotten him, as he says. He had to change something – and open the doors.
In the animated short film »Memory Boxes», based on his autobiography »The Forgotten Holocaust», Zoni Weisz describes the long journey of dealing with the murder of his family. She took him all the way to the German Bundestag, where he was the first Sinto to give the commemorative speech on 27 January 2011 on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism. On this occasion, the short film produced by the RomaTrial e. V. and the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe celebrates its online premiere.
To the film:
Germany / Germany 2019, 9′
Director: Hamze Bytyi
Drehbuch / Script: Damian Le Bas
Drawing and Storyboard / Drawings & storyboard: Gabi Jiménez
Erzählung / Narration: Zoni Weisz
Animationen / Animations: Caspar Schleicher
Music / Music: Ferenc Snétberger
Sounddesign und -mischung / Sound design & mix: Marcus Zilz & Simon Steinhorst
Ton- und Musikschnitt / Sound and music editing: Caspar Schleicher
Sound recording: Veronika Patoskova
Scientific Consulting / Scientific advisor: Jana Mechelhoff-Herezi
Script advisor: Kristf Horvath
Audiodeskription / Audio description: Silja Korn & Caspar Schleicher
Translations Romanes / Translation Romanes: Edis Galushi, Benjamin Dislo Harter
Produktion / Production: Caspar Schleicher, RomaTrial
A co-production of / A co-production of: RomaTrial e. V. & Foundation Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Based on the autobiography: “The Forgotten Holocaust”
Von / By Zoni Weisz
German Published in German by: DTV Verlag, Munich
Originally published as Original by: Luitingh-Sijthoff Verlag, Amsterdam
Thanks to / Thanks to:
Zoni Weisz and his family
Uwe Neumärker, Jana Mechelhoff-Herezi & Barbara Hoven, Foundation Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Veronika Patoskova, RomaTrial e. V.
Parlamentsarchiv des Deutschen Bundestags / Parliamentary Archive of the German Parliament
Angela Snétberger
Matthias Winkelmann, Enja Records
Nina Krause, dtv
Bärbel Jänicke
Dominique Eberhardt
