Good morning?
Good morning, are you going away or coming back so early?
I'm coming back, I took the night train from Szczecin...
Ah, I see you've made a good deal?
A series... Showing the German flight to the North Pole of 1931...
the Polarfahrt
A Zeppelin, I guess?
Three of them, they're great
You must show them to me one day
I'll be glad to show them to you
Good morning
Good morning, Professor?
The dean would like to speak to you
Come on in, please
This is Mrs. Elibieta Loranz from New York
We've already met
In the States, do I remember well?
You translated my works, didn't you?
Nearly all of them
Your Polish is perfect! And to think I've been breaking my tongue
You did very well
Yes, Mrs. Loranz is here on scientific exchange
She's interested in your works, Professor
If I got her right, she'd like to attend your classes
That will be a pleasure for me
Do you want to come today?
If I may
Will you excuse me?
Mrs. Elzbieta Loranz works...
at the American Institute for investigation
of Jews rescued from the Holocaust
Well, let's continue our subject
The moral inferno
Who'd like to speak first?
We already have two political stories
to consider...
and one related to the customs to simplify matters
Yes?
Let's imagine the following situation A man is dying of cancer...
This is the third case of cancer this year
He is treated by an excellent specialist
...who's believing Christian, by the way, it's important
Well, the doctor happen to live
...in the same house as the patient and his wife
The wife starts pestering the doctor
She wants to know...
whether her husband will die
And when, but the doctor can't tell her that
To him, it's like passing a death sentence
As a believer he can't do it
But the patient's wife grows more and more intrusive
The doctor suspects her of having...
special reasons that make her insist on his answer
It appears he's right: The woman is pregnant
It's another man's baby
The husband doesn't know What's more...
She couldn't get pregnant before
She loves her unborn baby,
But she also loves her husband
If he's going to live,
She'll have an abortion
If he dies, she can have her baby
The doctor is to decide about that baby's life
whether he likes it or not He's aware of that
I know how the story ended
Warsaw's a small town
To make things more difficult for you, I might add the baby's alive
Which is perhaps the most important element of the story
Excuse me, I can't make the recording from that distance
I said he baby was alive
And that I considered that fact the most important element
I'd like you to define the characters
...and motives of the heroes
...of that story
It's going to be the more interesting as we both know the archetypes
Though actually, I believe you know different archetypes than I do
Yes, Madam
Thank you, anybody else wants to say something? No?
Let us therefore analyse the previous stories
Yes, Madam?
You said the baby's life was paramount,
...didn't you?
Yes indeed
It just occurred to me -
if I'm allowed to take an active part in the class, that is -
But of course, all those present have equal rights
I'd like to tell you
...about an event
We'll be glad to hear you
I'm afraid it has a weak point for you
it happened in the past
But then it also has an advantage
It's true
Does what I said about the baby's life
...matter to you specially?
Yes, it does
...to some extent
It's the year 1943... February ...the winter
The heroine is a girl of six ...a Jewish girl
...kept in a basement of a house in the neighborhood
But she can't stay there any longer
The girl's father is in the ghetto
His friends try to find a new place for her
The place is found but her future guardians pose a condition
The girl must have an official certificate of baptism
It's a cold evening
The girl visits a married couple
...who have agreed to be her godparents
They are Catholics, and young
The girl's frozen
She has spent all day getting through the city with her guardian to reach this flat
Well, she now goes in accompanied by the guardian
The husband seems nervous The wife is calm
They serve hot tea
The girl wants that tea very much but there isn't time
The parent's waiting, and the curfew's near
But the woman who should start getting dressed
...asks them to sit down instead
Sorry
Get out of here!
Please go out
Thank you
You said it was in 1943?
Yes, in February
In Warsaw?
Yes
In the distant parts of Mokotow district In Odynca street
Yes? What happened next?
Next? Ah, yes
They sat at the table
The man kept walking round the table
They looked at one another
At least the woman made up her mind to say things that were so very difficult to say
They can't keep their promise
Having considered everything...
They cannot lie to the one they believe in
He does demand them to be charitable
...but forbids to give false testimony
The lie they had planned to commit knowing what cause it serve
...proved reconcilable with their moral principles after all
That's it
Then, the guardian and the girl rise from the table
Have some more tea, the woman says
The girl takes a sip
But then she glances at her guardian and puts the glass down
And then,
...downstairs at the gateway
...the girl notices her guardian
It's curfew soon, she says
But the guardian doesn't move
Was there anybody else
...in that flat?
Yes, an elderly gentleman
He was sitting with his back to the rest
In a wheel chair, I believe
Do you know any details?
The tea cups were good quality China, but didn't match one another
There was a green kerosene lamp on the table but it was out
The man never took his hand out of his trouser pocket
...during the two or three minutes of the conversation
They are all the details
Any questions? None?
Maybe doubts?
Yes?
The motivations seems improbable to me it that married couple were really Catholics
That false testimony wouldn't be directed against their fellow man
This is the only motivation I know It seemed quite genuine that evening
What other motives were possible?
How do you think?
I don't know
I can't understand that
I don't know motives which would justify a decision like that
Yes?
Fear...
Imagine another Jewish child had been discovered in that house
And his head smacked against the railing, and the family that had kept him executed
Yes Fear, yes
Is fear a justification to you?
I've just suggested a possible motive I haven't said...
We're going too far
Please consider the moral problems
...that emerge from that story as your homework
As for you,
try and present an acceptable point of view of that woman
Try and understand her
That's all, thank you
It wasn't in Mokotow district
That's right
It happened down town
In Noakowskiego street
Yes
So it's you...
Yes, it's me
And you're alive
I kept thinking, all those years
Whenever I saw anybody playing with a golden chainlet
I said to myself
Oh God, you're alive
A chance family in Prague district agreed to give me shelter
Some relatives of the person who brought me to you
They were moon shiners, I spent two years next to a mash tub
They're with me in America now The man's already dead, actually
And you've come here to look at my face
...while you tell your story
I wanted to tell you who I was back in the States
I tried to write you a letter
And to come here
If it hadn't been for those few words about that baby
I'd never have
Yes
I see
Some say a person who rescue another person has special features
The same concerns the one who has to be rescued
Yes, I believe there are such special features
And you have them
I have them?
Yes
The things you did afterwards
...are well known
Several of my nationals owe their lives to you
Funny, that girl sensed the falsity of that ostensibly...
...Catholic reasoning straight away
The ash-tray's over there
You don't smoke
But I see things
Where are you staying? Shall I give you a lift?
I remember you once drove me all through New York
I have a room in Victoria about 300 meters from here
Perhaps you'd like to have supper with me?
In this where you live?
No
But this is the house
Yes
It's in this very gateway that you said,
Let's go, it's curfew soon
Elzbieta!
Elzbieta?
What's all this stir about?
I didn't hear it ring
I once... Sorry
I'm looking for a woman
There hasn't been one here for ages
But there are several families living in this flat?
Five of them, you must ring the bell for each of them separately
We don't like one another too much
Is this about the advertisement? Come in, please
No
I'm looking for my friend She entered this staircase
A tall woman, black hair...
What?
I'm looking for my friend
Nut case!
Come on, stop it
Excuse me
Is there another entrance?
Is it about the advertisement?
No
There's no other entrance
It's a respectable house
About the advertisement?
No, and she never came back
This means she didn't go in after all
But she did
Elzbieta
Nut case!
Oh God, I've been looking for you
I'm here
I was frightened for a moment
I thought you'd never been here at all
But I am
It's a horrible place
I went to my former flat
That night my father's friend could not think what to do next
It was then that I decided I'd never be afraid again
Why didn't you come here
...all those forty years?
Didn't you want to see this place?
No, it's humiliating
Being helped by others?
Yes, one doesn't like to meet the witnesses
...of one's own humiliation
Even if those witnesses are only houses
All right, we investigate. Analyse and describe
But how could this injustice be abolished?
Why can some be rescuers while others are the rescued only?
Do you know why?
No, I don't
Let's go
A nice flat
I'm on a diet, you see
I didn't expect anybody to supper
The woman I remember couldn't have changed into a person like you
But it did happen
You frightened me
...back there in Noakowskiego street
I'm sorry
If you made all this trip of several thousand kilometers
...hoping for a mystery,
...you're going to be disappointed
The reasons why I had to get rid of you...
...that night are trivial
The impact that night had on my life...
...is quite another problem But let's forget it
The man...
...who walk round the room
...with a hand in his pocket was my husband
He died in 1952
I know
He was a Home Army officer in those days
We had been informed that the family who were take you
...were agents of the Gestapo
Through yourself, your guardian and the priest the Gestapo would
...then get to us... to the underground organization
That could have been a possible give-away channel
And that's the whole mystery
Yes, it's very simple
Later it appeared that...
the information about that family was false
But they were nearly executed by the underground
And you believed
That's only natural
And you lived forty years with that certainty
I didn't ever know you were alive
I left you all alone
I sent you to what was a nearly certain death
And I knew
...what I was doing
Yes, you're right
No idea, no thought, nothing can be more important
...that the life of a child
What do you tell your students?
About how they should live?
I don't tell them anything
I'm there to help them reach their own conclusion
Why?
It's the right that matters
It does exist
I believe it exist in all men
A situation can release either the right or the wrong
That evening released no right in myself
Who's the one to evaluate it?
The One who's inside all of us
I never noticed a mention about God in your works
I'm not a church-goer
I don't use the word God
But you don't need words to be sure
Man is free ...free to choose
He can leave God behind
...if he likes
And what can then replace God?
Loneliness, in this world
And afterwards...
Try to get to...
the bottom of this problem
If there's nothing but emptiness
...afterwards... In that case
Yes, I know that
May I?
Come in, please
Oh I thought you were alone
Good evening, Madam
I just wanted to show you...
Beautiful, really beautiful
Sorry to trouble you...
If you happen to see your so, please tell him about them
He was always most interested in such things
I will, Polarfahrt
Three Zeppelins... 1931
Right Well, good night
Good night, and thank you
A stamp-collector?
More than that, I think He sometimes shows those stamps to me
...like others show their grandchildren
...or pictures of their children
He was wearing a sweater Looked like a neighbour...
A neighbour, yes
Know what? That doctor and patient
...we talked about during the class
...also live in this house
Well, an interesting house
Like any other one
In all houses, in all flats, some people...
And so on, and so on...
Exactly
Thank you
Do those people... the ones I was to go to
Do you know them?
Yes
If that's what you want to know?
Could I meet them?
Would you like to?
All right, I'll take you there tomorrow
It's a small tailor's shop in Prague district
But I'm not going in
I only saw them once after the war
I said, I'm sorry
That was all I could say
But it wasn't enough
Would you like to...
...stay here for the night?
I have another room
Very few people ever stay there nowadays
It's interesting
Do you like it?
What are you doing?
They've got a favourite on TV
I want to show them I'm even better
See? That was rubber stand He can't do that
How do you do it?
Anybody can do it It's a matter of practice
Bend backwards...
A bit more
No, you can't
I can't
It's too late now, you won't learn it I'm sorry
Excuse me
Will you have breakfast with me?
Something more than just 50 grams of cottage cheese
...on the fifteenth day of the diet Coffee without sugar
All right
I get up early, just like you
All right, I'll have...
A normal breakfast
Was that room...
What room?
The one I slept in
Was it your son's room?
Yes, it was
But he doesn't live here, does he?
No, he didn't wan to stay with me
Did you buy these flowers?
Yes, I noticed you put fresh flowers on the table
Thank you
Where is he?
To be brief...
He's far away from me
It's here
I'll do some shopping and come back here to fetch you
Yes, Madam?
I'd like to talk to you
To me?
Oh God... what about?
I'm Elzbieta Loranz
I don't know you, Madam
I know we never actually met, but we were to meet during the war...
No, wait a minute I don't want to talk about the war
Or about what happened
...after the war
Not even about today
I can make you a nice dress, coat, or maybe a suit
Just decide on the out Here you are
You were to save my life, I'd like to thank you for being prepared to do it
Got your own length of cloth?
You see, it's so difficult to buy anything nowadays
I was six years old then It was in February of 1943
Yes
I was twenty-two
Well, a coat?
These fashion magazine are very old
Would you be offended if I send you something more recent?
No, I got this one from abroad, too But it was many years ago
Afterwards, there was no opportunity
And you aren't going to talk with me?
No
I didn't go away just in case
Well, he wanted to make a coat for me
Just what I thought He was in great trouble
Too great a trouble perhaps
Isn't this a strange country
Did you pray yesterday?
Yes