In the summer of 1942, the Antwerp police helped the German occupier to arrest the Jews of the city during several nightly raids. More than 10,000 Antwerp Jews were deported and after the war, only 500 would return alive.
Eighty years later, a group of sixth-year pupils from a super diverse school in Antwerp discover the painful truth about what happened to the Jews of their school. They meet relatives of some of the Jewish families that were arrested, but they also meet relatives of the police officers who were responsible for those arrests.
We have been silent about this involvement for far too long. What can we learn from the events that took place in the summer of 1942? How can youngsters with a multicultural background in today’s Antwerp try to make sense of this painful past? A past that might not be their own but that continues to deeply influence the society they grow up in.
Production funding by the Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF). Produced by Marc Goyens for Quetzalcoatl.
Thom M. Vander Beken 