Our Trip to Indianapolis (9/3/10 - 9/6/10)
Post date: Nov 1, 2010 12:39:42 AM
After nearly two months of research about Frank and the events surrounding his Holocaust experience, we finally left for Indianpolis on September 3rd. Our group consisted of Sean, myself, my husband Matt and our cinematographer, James Hollenbaugh. After an eight hour drive and some interesting sites en route, we finally arrived at Frank's home around 6 PM that evening. As you can see from the pictures in our album, the setting and interior of Frank and his wife's, Barbara's home is absolutely beautiful.
They immediately made us feel at home and continued this amazing hospitality over the next two days of our visit. For me, meeting Frank was like seeing someone again that I had known for years. I had spent nearly two months doing research about Frank, reading any article Sean or I could find about his story, watching his Shoah tapes and also reading e-mails that Frank had sent to prepare us for the project.
During and after a great cookout, we spent Friday evening getting to know each other and planning our schedule for the next two days. Matt took some great pictures which are part of the slideshow on the front page. We also got to know Frank's late family by looking at pictures
of the Grunwald's before the Holocaust and some pictures of Frank and his father after the war. We ended the evening being serenaded by Frank with some jazz accordian. It was an absolute pleasure to both watch and hear him play.
Saturday AM dawned bright and early. Frank and Barbara had some great pastries and coffee ready for us and amidst quick bites of food, Jim, Matt and Sean prepared our "studio" aka Frank's living room for our main interview which was our goal for the day. While they were working at this task, I spent time talking to Frank about his story so that I could better formulate my interview questions. Once the lights were set up, we set about making sure Frank was comfortable. We then began the interview.
In total, we spent over 5 hours in front of the camera that day. Although I have conducted several interviews of Holocaust survivors throughout the past few years, this interview had a depth that I was not previously accustomed too. Frank's story also had many unusual aspects compared to the stories of many concentration camp survivors. The first was his age, he was only 11 years old when he arrived in Auschwitz in December of 1943. Secondly, his entire
family including his paternal grandmother were placed into the Auschwitz "Family Camp," a special camp established by the SS in Auschwitz that consisted of two transports of Jews from the Terezin/Theresienstadt Ghetto. The camp was established in the event that the Red Cross would pay a visit to Auschwitz. Third, Frank managed to be saved during a selection at the time of the final liquidation of the family camp in July of 1944. All of these aspects, plus some which we are saving for the film made the interview especially fascinating for me.
While Jim and I worked with Frank during the interview, Matt and Sean spent the day scanning and photographing Frank's family photos and other artifacts. We finally finished filming the main interview around 5 PM that evening. It was a long and exhausting day for all of us, and particularly so for Frank. Fortunately we did take a break for a lunch with his daughter-in-law, Karen, and his adorable grandchildren. The kids were really excited to see Grandpa as a "movie star."
Saturday evening, Frank and Barbara treated us to a great dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. While we spent most of our time talking about non-Holocaust issues, a few times Frank mentioned stories about some of his experiences that included some darkly humorous elements that had us reeling. If any of the other patrons were listening in to our conversation they probably thought we were simply crazy.
Following dinner, the gentleman spent the evening filming Frank while he worked on his most recent sculpture. This sculpture depicts a female genocide victim and it was an incredibly powerful piece to see in person, even in it's unfinished state. While they worked on photographing and filming Frank, I had the opportunity to get to know Barbara and Frank's eldest son Andy, who had stopped by to drop off their dog, Skylar for the remainder of the weekend.
After a few hours of sleep, our task on Sunday was to shoot "B" roll and tie up a few loose ends from Frank's interview. Most of our day was spent taking a tour of the resevoir via Frank's boat. The
resevoir upon which Frank's house is situated is rather large and the houses surrounding it were quite beautiful. It was also a nice way to unwind after the difficult material of the previous day.
Once we returned from our boat ride, we finished packing up the equipment, filmed some final footage and bade Frank and Barbara farewell. While happy with our sucess from the weekend, it was sad to say goodbye. We are all looking forward to seeing them again soon.
