| Re: Michael Idato's review of the film ‘Inside Hana's Suitcase', screened on November 25th on ABC2 at 8:30pm.
Dear Mister Hassal. Michael Idato's review of the ABC2 screening of ‘In Hana's Suitcase' was atrocious and it requires that a correction and apology be immediately published in the SMH, prominently enough for readers of the Guide to see.
It is offensive to me to see a GERMAN NAZI death camp falsely labelled as ‘notorious Polish death camp Auschwitz'. It is reprehensible that such a poignant story of unbearable loss but incredible healing, such an inspiring and uplifting story about Hana, be so egregiously tainted by a review that is unjust to Polish people. Poland fought against the Nazi menace from the beginning and it did so with unmatched heroism. By doing a little research you will find that Poland was in the top echelon of contributors to Allied victory. Make a deep and dedicated study of this crucial contribution and you will be amazed at what you will discover.
My Polish father fought against the Nazis and came out of a NAZI GERMAN concentration camp in 1945 weighing 38kg. My Polish mother was uprooted from her home and family to slave away for the Germans between 1940 and 1945 and was a displaced person up to November 1949. My mother survives but she is frail and ill and this type of affront is damaging and intolerable at her age and state. No doubt there are many others in similar circumstances but unable to speak out.
These people survived the tragedy of losing loved ones, friends, property, and livelihood. They had to live through the ordeal of occupation, the dangers of being caught in roundups and executed, as happened to my two uncles on my mother’s side. Imagine, the lost opportunities and loss of joyful youthful experiences. Many lost everything except the pride in their record of Poland resisting tyranny and contributing to allied victory so disproportionally above their circumstances and physical capacity. To now be labelled in a way that suggests they were the perpetrators of what they so nobly fought against, at such great personal cost, is despicable.
Now perhaps you might understand how damaging your reviewer’s blunder is. The filmmaker, the United Nations guidelines and even the victims of the holocaust all describe the death and concentration camps as GERMAN/NAZI. Why has your reviewer used this false and offensive phrasing? Does he realise how inhumane it is to the few remaining survivors still suffering from their own war experiences and injustices.
I forgive Michael Idato for unknowingly hurting people who are proud of their record of resisting tyranny, but these types of things must not be allowed to happen again. Please make sure your current and future employees have a rudimentary knowledge of history so that they cannot unknowingly hurt innocent parties by publishing such deplorable blunders in the future.
Yours sincerely
Felix Molski
And the second letter
Inside Hana's Suitcase, 25th November 8:30pm ABC Service\Network: ABC2
www.abc.net.au/iview/#/search/suitcase
I am most appreciative that in this review,the ABC has correctly labelled the Auschwitz death camp as 'Nazi death camp, Auschwitz'. However, the ABC2 Television Guide made a minor error re: 'Hana Brady and her brother George grew up in Poland in the 1930s and 1940s'. The siblings actually grew up in Czechoslovakia, which seems to indicate your reviewer here did not actully view the film! Neverthless, well done in the important matter. As a contrast, the SMH TV Guide reviewer offensively labelled it as 'notorious Polish death camp Auschwitz'.
Felix Molski
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