The Buchenwald Ball (2006)

The Buchenwald Ball is a film that celebrates survival. Uplifting, full of swagger and joie de vivre, it tells the story of 45 orphans who escaped the Holocaust and found their way to Australia after their liberation from the Buchenwald concentration camp. These child survivors came to be known as the Buchenwald Boys, a group of friends who drink hard, argue with gusto, sustain one another, and dance to live. The film documents their struggles, their humor, and ultimately the tenacity of their human spirits in the aftermath of unimaginable tragedy. Whether they are debating how to celebrate the 60th ball or the existence for God, the Boys are full of vigor and humor. Four of the Boys-Szaja Chaskiel, Sam Michalowicz, Henry Salter, and Joe Szwarcberg-now in their seventies and eighties, share stories from before and after their liberation, revealing memories of childhood homes, the last moments with murdered parents, surviving Nazi ghettos, camps and death marches, and their emigration to Australia. The film follows Chaskiel on his first visit to Poland and Germany since his liberation. Accompanied by his son, Mark, Chaskiel visits the camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald, where he visits Block 66, the children's block, where he and most of the Boys were imprisoned. Every year on April 11, the anniversary of their liberation, the Buchenwald Boys hold a ball filled with music, dancing, and an energy that defies their advancing ages. The ball is a defiant celebration of life, friendship, family, and love.