Rare footage of life in Warsaw Ghetto comes back to life in new film

Rare footage filmed on both sides of the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto kept in storage for decades has been brought back to life in a new film.

The 10-minute raw footage was shot in 1941 on 8mm film by 30-year-old Polish merchant Alfons Ziolkowski, after he was granted a pass to enter the ghetto.

It was included in the hour-long film Warsaw: A City Divided by Polish-Canadian director Eric Bednarski, which premiered in Warsaw earlier this month.

The raw footage, interspersed with shots of modern-day Warsaw and interviews with experts and survivors, documents the daily horrors of life in the war-time ghetto.

It was kept in storage by Ziolkowski’s family for decades until it was uncovered by Bednarski, who began directing the film 15 years ago.

“We see crowds of people on the street. We see partially destroyed buildings,” Bednarski told AFP.

“We see children smuggling food from the Aryan side, as it was called, to the Jewish side.

“Desperate children who were starving, who were pushing food through a hole in the wall,” he added.