More recognition for Holocaust doco
Eddy Boas told The AJN that the recognition is an 'unexpected honour'.
Holocaust survivor Eddy Boas’s documentary, Reflections of Courage, has won Best Australian Documentary at the Melbourne Film Awards.
It’s the latest in a string of awards after it won Best Documentary in both Los Angeles and New York, while also being named Best Historical Film at the Cannes World Film Festival, giving it automatic entry into the main Cannes Film Festival next year.
The 50-minute documentary, which is based on Boas’s book I’m Not a Victim, I am a Survivor, tells the remarkable story of his family’s resilience during the Holocaust, their post-war struggles and their hopeful new beginnings in Australia. The film, directed by Australian-Iranian Janet Shay, produced by Karl Jenner and filmed over one day in a Sydney coffee shop, delves into the family’s pre-war life in Holland, survival in Nazi concentration camps and the small acts of kindness that sustained them.
Boas told The AJN that the recognition is an “unexpected honour” and he hopes his documentary will be used to educate younger generations.
“I think it is an honour to be chosen as the winner of Best Australian Documentary,” Boas told The AJN.
“My aim is for this documentary to be used for educational purposes in schools, universities and museums, not just Holocaust museums. Today’s younger generations in schools and universities are brought up in an environment of antisemitism. I hope that once they have watched my documentary, they will realise there is no place for antisemitism in Australia or anywhere in the world.”
Boas’s survival story represents one of the most remarkable tales of family resilience during the Holocaust. Born in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1940, Boas was just three months old when Nazi forces invaded Holland, setting the stage for years of unimaginable hardship that would test his family’s will to survive. Boas and his family, his mother Sara, father Philip, and older brother Samuel, were first sent to Westerbork concentration camp in Holland, before being transferred to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
Incredibly, according to Red Cross records of the time, the Boas family was the only intact family unit of four to survive the concentration camps.