Eighty years after the tragic summer of 1942, when the Antwerp police assisted in the arrest of thousands of Jews, students from the Royal Atheneum, a super-diverse school, delve into the poignant history of their city. What does this past mean to them today?
In the summer of 1942, Antwerp authorities collaborated with the German occupiers to arrest and deport over 10,000 Jews. Only 500 of them would return after the war. This dark chapter in Antwerp’s history was long hidden, but now a group of final-year students from the Royal Atheneum is bringing this painful past to light. They meet descendants of both the Jewish victims and the police officers involved. For these young people, the past may not be their own history, but it is a story that continues to affect them. As in The Interview (about Afghan refugees) and Lost in Transition (about a lost generation of Serbs), Thom Vander Beken once again intertwines past and present to critically highlight overlooked traumas in a way that can make it hard to avoid one’s responsibility.
This film will be screened on January 28, 2025, in recognition of International Holocaust Remembrance Day (held annually on January 27), with the director in attendance.
A collaboration between Kazerne Dossin and Vredescentrum.
