Q&A With Anna Jacobs

What do you think happened to your brother?

I don’t know what happened because when they took me away to concentration camp he was working on a farm. I found out that all the Jewish people were rounded up and taken I don’t know where to be killed—in the gas chambers or in cars with gas. I tried with the Red Cross to find out and I didn’t get any answer. So I don’t know where he got killed or where he disappeared. We found out from the Red Cross that my father was killed in Maidanek in 1943 and the rest of the family that was in the ghetto Warsaw, I don’t know. I’m still looking for answers.

How did you feel the first time she saw The Memory Project?

I felt sadness, I felt tears in my eyes, and I felt happiness. All three things, because in my memory everything is still alive—and I’m sad. And I’m also very proud that my daughter is not going to let this be forgotten. People who never knew about it will learn about it and they will see what really, really happened. A lot of people say this never happened and I am the proof that it did. Remembering is painful but doing something about it—I’m very proud.

What was like it talking with students about the film?

We went to schools where the children never heard about the Holocaust and they were amazed to hear the stories.  They didn’t know before that how many people were killed just because they were Jewish. Not because they were bad or committed a crime or something—just because they were a different religion. The children couldn’t believe it. And the teachers were amazed at how the students responded.  There were children who were 15 or 16 years old, and at that age, I was thrown out of my house with my family. They came over when the class was finished and said, “Mrs. Jacobs, can we hug you?” If you get through to one or two children and they will tell others in the future what happened, then it’s worth it.

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