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M.A.M.A. PRESENTS… CLILA BAU A Celebration of Life, Laughter and Peace– CLILA & HADASA BAU are the daughters of Joseph & Rebecca BAU, made famous in their marriage at the Nazi Prison Camp featured in the movie “SCHINDLER’S LIST”. Joseph Bau is a famous animator and author, who from his station in the camp, created much beauty and inspiration. He and wife Rebecca saved many many lives and daughters are trying to SAVE THE MUSEUM dedicated to their father in Israel. Jason released this interview with CLILA (pronounced “Tslila” done in late August of 2010 in Maui, Hawaii, USA
Summary & Transcript Below…
Introduction and Themes of Connection and Peace
The transcript opens with a poetic reflection on how the world feels smaller due to advances in communication, yet paradoxically, the more we bridge physical distance, the more difficult it becomes to truly see or understand one another. It likens the world to a stage where actors play roles scripted with fear, doubt, and grief. However, it expresses hope for writing a new page—a better way—emphasizing the need for reverence for life. This reverence is positioned as essential for achieving peace on multiple levels: globally, nationally, in communities, and within individual hearts. The opening sets a contemplative and hopeful tone, suggesting that peace begins internally and radiates outward.
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[01:18 → 02:47] Introduction to Clila Bau and Her Family Background
Clila Bau is introduced as a guest on the show “Mama Presents,” affiliated with the Maui Arts and Music Association. It’s revealed that she comes from Israel and carries a rare name. The conversation quickly pivots to her parents, both notable figures, particularly her father, Joseph Bau. A key artifact introduced is Joseph Bau’s book, Dear God, Have You Ever Gone Hungry, described as the only book about the Holocaust combining humor with narrative—a remarkable and unique accomplishment given the gravity of the subject matter. -
Clila shares the extraordinary story of her parents meeting in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Her father, Joseph Bau, disguised himself as a woman to enter the women’s camp, where he secretly married her mother. Despite the horrific circumstances, Joseph maintained a constant sense of humor, viewing laughter as an invincible human trait the Nazis could not take away. His humor and hope became tools of survival and resistance. He was a graphic artist and draftsman, skills that the Nazis exploited but which also allowed him to save lives by forging documents. The conversation likens his abilities to the scenes portrayed in Schindler’s List, confirming that the couple featured in that film is indeed Clila’s parents. -
[06:54 → 12:03] Humor as Survival and the Role of Laughter in the Camps
The dialogue delves deeper into how Joseph used humor actively to save others emotionally. He recorded jokes in categories and created humorous playing cards to help prisoners cope. His jokes and laughter were a source of hope and strength, preventing suicides and fostering community in the camps. While Joseph’s own book does not detail these acts of emotional rescue, survivors have testified to the importance of his humor. Clila also mentions her mother’s diaries, In the Name of God, which document their rescue efforts with precise details. Despite these harrowing experiences, Clila’s parents consistently spoke openly about the Holocaust, contrasting with many survivors who preferred silence. -
[12:03 → 17:52] Family Stories and The Legacy of Remembrance
Clila recounts touching stories, such as her mother’s interactions with a Holocaust survivor who visited her every Friday to recount the loss of her daughter, Dvorale—who was unknown to her own son, revealing how some tragedies remain hidden within families. The family’s museum in Tel Aviv, housed in Joseph’s original studio, preserves his legacy as Israel’s first animator, graphic artist, author, and poet. The interview touches on Joseph’s linguistic curiosity, especially his fascination with Hebrew. Despite arriving in Israel without knowing Hebrew, he taught himself the language and wrote a book titled Brit Milah, exploring the humor and logic embedded in Hebrew words and letters. 
[17:52 → 24:13] The Hebrew Language and Cultural Insights
Joseph’s linguistic work reveals deep connections within Hebrew, such as the word “bread” (lechem) and “fighting” (lacham) sharing the same consonantal root, symbolizing the struggle for sustenance. He also explored the concept of “Aliyah” (immigration/upward movement), linking Hebrew language to the experience of immigration to Israel. Clila highlights her family’s belief in miracles and optimism, despite their traumatic past. The interview also mentions a creative project where her sister composed music to the Biblical book of Isaiah, especially its vision of a future without war, which was performed with hula dancers, blending cultural traditions.-
[24:13 → 37:11] Detailed Holocaust Narratives and the Wedding in the Camp
Clila narrates a vivid story of how Joseph drew a precise map of the Plaszew concentration camp—one of the few detailed documents about the camp’s layout. She describes the brutal camp commander, Amon Goeth, and Joseph’s cleverness in making a “sun print” blueprint despite adverse conditions. A touching anecdote involves Joseph’s interaction with a young woman who mistook his sun signaling for a call to airplanes, which led to a secret romance culminating in their wedding inside the camp. The wedding was conducted clandestinely, with Joseph smuggled into the women’s camp, and the couple spending their wedding night under extraordinary circumstances while avoiding detection by Nazis. This story highlights courage, love, and resilience amid unimaginable danger. -
[37:11 → 43:02] Philosophy of Life and the Power of Humor
The family’s ongoing mission is to share these inspiring stories, demonstrating how humor, hope, and love persisted even in the darkest times. They emphasize that this philosophy of life—focusing on joy, optimism, and human connection—is a vital part of their parents’ legacy. The interviewee mentions the limited availability of Joseph’s books, which are mostly accessible through the family, as well as the challenges they face in sustaining their museum due to financial pressures and rising rents. They appeal for support to keep this unique cultural and educational institution alive. 
[43:02 → 49:27] Museum, Art, and Global Recognition
Clila describes the museum in Tel Aviv, which includes Joseph’s studio, original paintings, animations, and extensive collections of his work. His art has been exhibited internationally, including at the United Nations and the Spanish Parliament. The family holds catalogs of his work showing a blend of humor and poignant Holocaust imagery. One notable painting illustrates a woman holding a lipstick shaped like a bullet, symbolizing Joseph’s wish that all weapons be transformed into kisses—an emblem of his lifelong commitment to peace. The museum also houses a tiny book Joseph made in the camp, containing 110 poems and 11 paintings, written in minuscule script requiring a magnifying glass, full of humor and love despite the context.-
[49:27 → 51:15] Closing and Call to Action
The interview concludes with gratitude for the opportunity to share their family’s story. Clila provides the museum’s website, josephbau.com, where visitors can learn more and connect. She spells her name for clarity and alludes to more stories to share in future engagements. The closing reiterates the initial themes of peace, connection, and reverence for life, underscoring the enduring power of hope and humor to transcend even the darkest chapters of history.
Overall Summary:
This deeply moving transcript centers on Clila Bau’s recounting of her parents’ extraordinary lives—particularly her father, Joseph Bau, a Holocaust survivor, artist, and humorist. Their story intertwines harrowing experiences of survival in Nazi concentration camps with remarkable acts of courage, love, and the sustaining power of humor. Joseph’s unique legacy as Israel’s first animator and a linguistic explorer of Hebrew enriches the narrative, while the family’s museum serves as a living monument to resilience, hope, and peace. The conversation highlights themes of remembrance, the importance of storytelling, and the healing power of laughter and optimism in overcoming trauma. It closes with a heartfelt appeal to preserve this legacy through community support and continued sharing of these inspirational stories.
01:18
Aloha! Welcome to another Mama Presents. The Maui Arts and Music Association sometimes has guests, and you say, what, is God working funny, great ways? I’m here with Clila Bau. Now, where have you heard that name before? Clila’s a new name for me. Is that a common name? No, it’s a very rare name.
01:49
Israel. She’s from Israel. Now, last name Bau. Where have you heard that name before? You’re not talking. Okay. Clila, I think you should tell them. Her father, is your father the famous one? Your mother and your father? Both. We should pick up some props now. Let’s see what we got first. Look at this. This book. Yeah.
02:19
What’s the name of this quote? Dear God, Have You Ever Gone Hungry. Dear God, Have You Ever Gone Hungry by Joseph Bau. Now, what do you want to tell us about that book? This is a very, very special book, and I’ll tell you why. Yeah. I think it’s the only book written about the Holocaust in humor. The only book written about the Holocaust with humor.
02:47
Well, that’s quite an accomplishment, being that the Holocaust was, I guess you’d say, remarkably, the most significant, horrible act that we consciously think of. How is that that this book came to be written? So maybe I’ll start by saying that my parents met inside a concentration camp. Okay. Did you hear that?
03:17
I want to see if they, okay. Tell me, these people aren’t talking, so you’re just going to have to take over. Okay. Your parents met in a concentration camp? Yeah. And my father got dressed as a woman, smuggled himself into the women’s camp, and that’s how they got married secretly. Oh. Yeah. It’s a very brave story.
03:42
And the most amazing thing is that my father always, always had a sense of humor, always telling jokes, even inside the camp and the ghetto, and he was in horrible places. He never lost his humor. He says, the Nazis can kill us, everything, but they won’t take our humor, they won’t take our love, and they won’t take our hope. And this is how they were.
04:12
And my father, in this book, everything inside he wrote, he painted, and everything was painted inside the camp, and inside the ghetto. All the paintings here. And he hid it in a special briefcase that his parents bought him for
04:35
when he was studying in the University of Plastic Arts in Krakow, Poland. He only managed to study one year when the war broke out. And the Nazis were looking for someone who knew to write in Gothic letters. Those are old German letters. And he knew. So we can say that the art saved his life. Because they used him as a draftsman, as a graphic artist. But thanks to that,
05:04
that he had all the instruments, he saved hundreds of people by forging documents for them. But this he did secretly. And now, in the movie Schindler’s List… Sure. You’ve seen the movie Schindler’s List, right? If you remember, they show a scene of a wedding. So these are my parents. They are the original couple.
05:31
You even see them in the end of the movie putting a stone on their grave. When the movie came out and many journalists came to interview them, one journalist asked my father, tell me, how come you didn’t make a document for yourself and you could have escaped? He said, but if I had escaped, who would have saved the others?
05:56
And then someone else said, aren’t you sorry you could have escaped and not suffer for five years? So he said, but if I had escaped, how would I have met my wife? And this was the way of thinking, like a whole philosophy of life. Always telling jokes. We found a few pages sewn like this and from the camps that he wrote jokes
06:25
in categories. Doctors, lawyers, teachers. Just the beginning of the joke. Too bad not the whole joke. Too bad. Just so he will remember. And he always told jokes. People said, do you know that he saved us by making us laugh? Today they talk about laughter, yoga laughter, if you heard, how good it is for you that when you laugh,
06:54
endorphins are being released and it makes you feel good but we are talking in the holocaust who was talking about the laughter but he knew inside him that laughter is good for you so whenever he saw someone wanted to commit suicide he always kept come come come come told him a joke he started laughing he felt better he made even playing cards and
07:23
humoristic ones because I don’t know how they played it. On each card we have all the symbols like diamond and all
the, each, the four symbols on each card. The paintings are of the life before the war. And when you saw someone wants to jump on the electric barbed wire, you always, come for a second, I have something to show you. I was playing with him some cards. He laughed.
07:53
made him feel better. But the interesting thing is that in his book, he didn’t write about it, how he saved, how he made people laugh. This we heard from other people, how he saved them. And our mom also wrote diaries that we actually would love to publish it in English. It’s called In the Name of God, and she writes memoirs.
08:23
But in a very interesting way, like she writes today, and then she says, oh, it reminds me of, and she goes back. And she’s writing about the Holocaust. Now she saved so many people by endangering herself, and she writes about it with names and everything. And when we read it, I remember when my sister found it, so she asked, because she saw something in the closet that it said,
08:52
The Life of Rebecca Bau, a master thesis by a student in university. So my sister says, Mom, what is it? She said, don’t read it. It’s too hard for you. So she read it all night. Why can’t she read it? And there was written everything with names, how she saved people.
09:17
So in the morning, my sister comes to us crying and saying, Mom, how come you didn’t tell us all that? This I had to do, and we don’t talk about it. So I have no words even to describe what we felt finding out about it. But you have to understand, our parents were always talking about the Holocaust. I don’t know if you know that many survivors
09:45
wanted to forget and didn’t talk about it. Our parents were talking every day. But every day my father came home telling jokes, always. When I was four or five years old on my birthday, he lifted me, put me on a chair, and said, Tzlila, tell jokes. What do I know to tell jokes? He says, tell what I tell.
10:09
so i told his jokes i didn’t understand them now i saw people were laughing i understood it’s okay and i kept on telling you always jokes and my sister our father taught her how to write words and music always funny and she always sang funny songs and everyone was laughing and actually we had a role i think in our lives because people
10:38
My mother was a cosmetician. And many of her clients, they were survivors too. And they always came and told her all the things that happened to them in the Holocaust. She always listened. She never said, oh, I’ve heard it at least 50 times. Never. And I know especially one woman used to come to her every Friday to get her face and manicure
11:08
Every Friday, she told her the same story. And I’m talking to you about 30 years. Wow. Yeah. Same story for every Friday. But the same. She told, I had a little girl. Her name was Dvorale. And I held her in my arms. And the Nazi came and killed her in my arms. And she was dancing ballet. And she was, like she’s talking about her daughter. Every Friday.
11:38
week, the same story. My mom never said, listen, I’ve heard, never. Just asked her the same questions. She was crying. When she finished, our mom said, Zlila, come tell a joke. Hadassah, my sister, come sing us a funny song. We used to do. She laughed, laughed, laughed, went home till next week.
12:03
A few months ago, her son passed by our museum, because we have a museum in Tel Aviv. And he comes in. Hi, we didn’t see you for a long time. We’re talking. And somehow I asked him, you know, your sister, Dvorale, what are you talking about? I never had a sister. Your parents didn’t tell you? No.
12:29
They never told him that he had a little sister. Wow. So the only place she was telling it was when she came to my mom, cried, cried, cried, laughed till next week. So our parents, and our museum today was my father’s studio because he was an artist, a graphic artist, the first animator in Israel.
12:57
And an author and a poet. You have some lithos here. He was the first animator, and he was an author and a poet. There was a book that I saw you show Pastor Rob the other day. Rob Finberg. Ah, it was a book about… He searched the Hebrew language. This is your father? Yeah. He came to Israel not knowing Hebrew. No. No.
13:24
Wow. And then he taught himself, and he taught himself in such a way, too bad I don’t have the book to show, but it’s called Brit Milah. It’s a covenant with the Hebrew language. And he shows the humor and the logic in the Hebrew language. That’s something. And when people look at it, they say, wow, you’re right. We never thought about it. Maybe I can show you
13:54
For example, the word bread. Okay, good, good. So, when he came to Israel, like I said, he didn’t know Hebrew. He went to the store to buy bread. To buy bread. Now, you know in Hebrew, you don’t have vowels. Like here, if you want to say ba, so you write B and A. In Hebrew, if you want to do ba,
14:20
you write the letter bet, but let’s say B, and underneath you put such a sound. A vowel sound. Underneath. Right. And this makes the vowels. But later on, when you know already how to read and write, without vowels. So I never graduated. I know with vowels, not without vowels. But it’s very difficult. So he went to buy bread. All of a sudden, he noticed that the word bread is lechem. Those are the letters. Lechem.
14:50
And fighting in past tense is lacham. Just the vowels are different, but when you are without the vowels, it’s exactly the same letters. So he said, wait a minute. I know how much you have to fight for bread.
15:06
He checked in other languages to see if there was any connection between bread and fighting and he didn’t see. He said, wait a second, this is a special language. Started searching till he wrote a big thick book, each word with a painting explaining the humor and logic in Hebrew. Wow. And people said, what, is there humor in Hebrew? And he proves. I’ll show you maybe something else.
15:35
Oh, look at this. Here it says, when a couple is together for many years, slowly, slowly, their hearts, their heads become one heart. Wow. Or, here is one. I’ll try to explain it. This is the map of Israel. You see here, the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea. This is Haifa here.
16:04
Now they say that Israel is the land of immigration. How do you say immigration in Hebrew? Aliyah. Aliyah. So we are the land of Aliyah. Now Aliyah is also going up. Going up a hill is Aliyah. Like you have a hill, Aliyah Kala.
16:28
Going up the hill. I think it comes from Hebrew. Well, we think that the Hawaiians are the lost tribe, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s true. How do you welcome people? Aloha. What is Aloha? Elohim. Elohim is God. How do you say water? Maya. Maya in Hebrew. Maim is water. Maim.
16:55
So many words. How do you say, you have something, kehuna? What is kehuna? The leader. Koen, in Hebrew. Isn’t that something? Yeah. Yeah. My sister found out about it. Like she went to talk to a professor in university and she says she thinks it’s the Lost Tribes. Yeah. Well, I think that’s terrific. So anyway, going back to this aliyah. Yeah. So, aliyah.
17:26
is immigration and Aliyah is going up the hill. So he said, of course we are the land of immigration. Look, what a hard Aliyah. Like the same word. Wow. And this is the symbol of love and peace. Our father said, if the hand is closed like this, it’s a war. But when it’s open,
17:52
It’s peace. But for peace, what do you need? A heart. And he ended it up. He was fighting for peace and love. Your father was around till when? When did he pass away? 2002. So he lived a long, happy life. 81. Yeah.
18:17
And he… So you girls were very young when this whole experience was on, right? You weren’t even around. No, I wasn’t. Right. I know. I was born in Israel already after they immigrated to Israel. And like I said, my father was a graphic artist, a painter. He was the first animator and he built all the equipment by himself. Wow. Everything. You have to see.
18:47
To believe. He went to the flea market, bought a leg from an x-ray machine, mounted on it a camera and another one, and started making animation. Because in those days, where can you buy machines? Then he wanted to show his movies, so he built a theater. Like he built the projector all by itself, and he was showing the movies. Wow.
19:13
And this studio of his, today we turn into a museum. And it’s a very special museum because it combines the Holocaust, the love for Israel, the Hebrew language, a lot of humor, a lot of humoristic paintings. And, you know, my parents believed in miracles. Because they said every minute that we live, it’s a miracle.
19:43
And they really were always very optimistic. Our mother opened the window every day saying, wow, what a beautiful day. Thank you God for the trees, for the flowers, every day. And they also met each other by miracle, and they found each other by miracle. The story is amazing. And today, my sister and I,
20:13
are also waiting for a miracle because our museum is in, we are afraid that we have to close it. There are some problems that we are having with this apartment that is not ours anymore. Somehow something happened and we don’t know how long we’ll be able to keep it.
20:38
And it’s very sad because we have tourists who come and pupils and soldiers and we tell our parents’ story and the way of thinking and how they’re always with humor and optimistic. Something very special. And so we hope that we’ll be able to keep on this place. What do you need to keep it on?
21:08
Money. That’s it, money? Yeah. You hear that? Okay, calling all people out there. How much time do you have? It’s not limited. It’s the only thing that the landlord is raising the rent and it’s quite high.
21:36
We never know if we’ll have enough for the next month. The way we keep it today is by lecturing, by telling our parents’ story, by telling the philosophy of life.
21:52
This is what keeps it going. And by selling the lithographs and the books, and he wrote, all together he wrote 12 books. I see. This book was translated to English. The others weren’t yet. And so actually we would like to buy it. Sure. If we could buy it, then everything would be sold. Well, I just think that we’re going to have to share this. Have you done shows like this as well?
22:22
Yeah, in Israel. In Israel. What about here in America? No, not yet. Okay. Well, I know a few of you out there, you’re going to see me sending this to you, because I want you to see something very special that’s worthy of some attention, because I think a miracle can only happen
22:44
You know, my old partner used to call business. He said, you make biz and ness. You make a lot of action and it creates a miracle. Ness is a miracle. There you go. Yeah. He was Israeli too. Yeah. So that’s a good thing. Okay, so we’ll make sure to share this interview with some very interesting people. And you know something very interesting? We gave a speaking engagement at the synagogue.
23:14
And there was a group of hula dancers. And my sister, she writes music and songs like I told you, but she also writes music to the Bible. And she wrote music to the… Like she asked my father, our father, what’s the most important chapter in the Bible? And he said it is Yeshayahu. How do you say it? Isaiah? Isaiah. Isaiah.
23:43
I don’t remember the chapter, because it says there that in the end of the days, there won’t be any war. I don’t remember exactly the chapter, but she wrote music to it. And she taught the hula dancers, and they made a dance. And we danced with them. It’s amazing. Maybe I can… Did you videotape it? Yeah, so I can send it to you. Please do. Yeah, it’s so nice. It’ll be wonderful.
24:13
Yeah. We’ll put it on this if we get it. Yeah, yeah. Sure. And then we also gave a speaking engagement at Rob’s church. It was also very nice. And, you know, maybe I’ll tell you a little bit of the story of my parents. You want to hear it? They want to hear it. Yeah.
24:41
So my father, like I told you, was a graphic artist, and the Nazis used him as a draftsman. Right. And one day, while he was making the drawing of the map, Plaszew concentration camp, do you know that this camp today, there is nothing there? The Nazis destroyed it completely, and when you go there, the Polish people don’t even know there was a camp.
25:11
No sign. They have one monument, that’s all. But it’s a very, very, very big, like four kilometers. And no one knows. Today it’s trees and bushes. No one knows there was a concentration camp. The awareness is starting now. And my father drew the map of the camp. And this is the map.
25:40
the original map, and look how he wrote it, as a tour guide, taking the readers into the camp. Here it says, root of tour, and he’s explaining exactly what happened in each place. So today is the most important book written about Plasha, because he tells everything there. While he was drawing this map, in the movie,
26:09
whoever saw the movie Schindler’s List, if you remember the commandeer of the camp, Amon Get, he was a very scary man. You know, in the movie, he’s a short guy, but in reality, he was two meters high, and maybe also as wide. He was very fat. He was… Our parents said, if you just heard him coming, it was like… No word can describe a monster. Horrible.
26:38
So he comes to my father and tells him, I want you to make a blueprint out of this. Now in the old days, do you know how you make blueprints? Today a machine makes it. But in the old days, you had to put the drawing on a frame, underneath you put a special paper that was sensitive to sun rays, you put outside, the sun was doing the copying, and then you develop it.
27:09
So now in Polish and in Hebrew, you don’t say blueprint. You call it sun print. I guess because you did it with the help of the sun. Why in English they call it blue? Because it came out bluish. The paper looked blue. So he tells him, I want you to make a sun print out of this drawing. So our father looks at the sky like this and says, look, no sun today. We were in Poland last year.
27:38
For a week there wasn’t even one ray of sun. Nothing. Unbelievable. So our father said, I can’t make the print today. No sun. What do you mean no sun? I don’t care if there is sun, no sun. I want a print. I want a copy. Or a print. Or a bullet in the head. So my father wrote in the book,
28:08
He was a big specialist in killing, but not in engineering. And he didn’t have a choice. He had to do it. So he put the drawing on the frame, puts underneath the special paper, goes out, waits for the sun. No sun. He didn’t know what to do. He emptied the sky, waiting for the sun to come out. Sun didn’t come out.
28:36
All of a sudden, a young woman goes by and asks him, excuse me, what are you doing? Later, she told him that she thought he was signaling to American airplanes. So he says, do you know, I’m waiting for the sun, but today the sun doesn’t want to come to me. Maybe you would like to substitute a place for me and aim like this, the frame at her.
29:06
So she blushed and ran away, and laughed, and ran away. So he went into the office and he said, oh, I know, I only have a few minutes to live. I’ll try to develop it, whatever will happen. He took down the paper, put it in the developing chemical, and a miracle, the copy came out. So he said, ah, if so, so she was my son.
29:36
And on the next day, he wanted to thank her. He collected flowers, some leaves, and made a bouquet. And he saw where she went to, and he went there to thank her. When he walked into the office, someone was sitting there, jumped and said, Józek, Józek is Joseph in Polish, are you crazy, walking in the camp with flowers?
30:02
Do you know that Amon Get, the commander, is sitting here? If he sees you with the flowers, he’ll kill you. Grabbed the flowers from his hand and threw to the garbage. So her father left. A few days later, while he was standing in line to get his daily soup, all of a sudden, he saw the sun substitute. And she told him that after Amon Get left the building,
30:30
this engineer who threw the flowers to the garbage, took the flowers out, gave it to her, and said, you know, Yuzek Bauer brought it to you as thank you. So they were so happy, and they wanted to hug and kiss, but they knew that even if they touch each other, they’ll kill them on the spot. So they decided to meet in a hiding place. And there they were meeting. And then one day our father said,
30:58
You know what? Let’s get married. Married? In the camp? You must be out of your mind. Tell me, do we have what to lose? Who promises us that we will be alive tomorrow? You are right. And I decided to get married. So my father did eat his daily bread for a few days and bought from someone two teaspoons.
31:27
And then again didn’t eat his daily bread for a few days, and gave those teaspoons to a jeweler, and he made for me two rings. Those rings he gave to his mom, who was in the women’s camp together with his bride. And on the night of the wedding, the women were working hard labor, and they had to, in order to get to the women’s camp,
31:57
They had to cross through the men’s camp. Now, the Nazis turned off the lights. There won’t be any connection between the men and the women. And they crossed like this in darkness. Now, the women had a habit of whistling to the men relatives to let them know, I am alive, because they never knew who would come alive.
32:22
So when they heard the whistle, oh, they knew, okay, my wife or my mother or my daughter or sister are alive, okay. So when they crossed, our mom whistled. And then our father answered her. Like this chic whistle, and he answered till they found each other. In his pocket, he kept a white kerchief. He put it on his head, stood between his mother and his…
32:51
And like this, quietly, secretly, they smuggled him into the women’s camp. He came to his mom’s barrack. He put the ring on our mom’s finger, said, like in a Jewish wedding, and that’s it. Then he told my mom, okay, now we should celebrate our wedding night. What is he thinking about in the camp? And they go to her barrack.
33:22
Barak number 13. In each barak, you know, the men or the women were sleeping on benches, like bunk benches, one on top of the other, wooden benches, along the walls. Our mom was on the third level. On each bench, there were a few women. In each barak, there were a thousand women. Wow. Or a thousand men.
33:51
So my mom’s bench mates went down and let the young couple be together. But the lights weren’t turned off. Someone asked the head of the barrack, why aren’t you turning off the lights? Ah, because the Nazis are on the way to see if any men smuggle themselves here. Our mom heard it. She got so scared. She found a little rag.
34:21
put on top of our father, lay on top of him. Our friends came back, they all lay on top of him. And how did he write in the book? They were pretending to be sleeping, but they couldn’t fall asleep because the cushion was shaking so much underneath them. And really the Nazis came and they found two men and dragged them outside and killed them in a horrible way.
34:51
All of a sudden, our father heard the siren in the men’s camp, calling them to be counted, because they understood men were missing. He told them, listen, if I won’t be there immediately, they’ll kill all my friends, and they’ll kill me in the morning. Again, he put the kerchief, jumped from the bench, ran to the gate. The gate was closed. He didn’t know what to do.
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He looked around, he only saw the electrocuted barbed wires. And he didn’t know what to do. So he said… I said to myself, every morning when we get up, we see people who lost hope and didn’t have the strength to continue. They used to commit suicide by jumping on the electrocuted barbed wires. So he said, I told myself,
35:47
Why should I let the Nazis kill me in the morning? No, I will kill myself. But I will kill it in such a horrible way. I’ll jump on the fence, and when everyone will get up in the morning, they’ll say, look at Yuzek. Where did he spend his last night? With the women. And he jumped on the fence.
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And all his life he said he doesn’t know what a miracle. He climbed up three meters, jumped to the other side, only his pants tore. He ran. The light from the tower missed him. And as he reached, they blew up the trumpet again, canceling the count. And he said, and this was our wedding night without any
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salad, guests, music. But after the war in 1946, they got married again with salad, guests, music, a rabbi. And how my sister says, they got married twice without getting a divorce. You guys, is this what you do? You go around and tell these stories? Yeah.
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You see why? We kind of help these guys. Yeah. Great stories. Very inspirational. Thank you. And they were told to you, I’m sure, with lots of love. I can see it. You just bubble very loving, really, a very healed energy. You know, it’s interesting to me that from such a dark place as a Holocaust and a concentration camp, so much love and so many lessons
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can be learned and shared with everyone. Yeah, it’s true. It’s a beautiful thing. And this is one story. And a lot, also in the book, everything is written. The book is available in stores, is it? No. No. I think the only way to get this book will be through us. Oh, okay. So I can give my email and my… Right now,
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The publisher went bankrupt. Maybe on Amazon, but I’m not sure. But I think the only way to get those books will be through us. And you don’t have any more here? No. Okay, we’ll get them. No, I think if people are interested and they want to get, they can write me and then we can arrange it. We’re going to put some of that stuff up here.
38:39
You want to show some more of those? Yeah. I want to show you something very interesting. This is my parents’ wedding picture in 1946. My parents got married in 1946 also? Oy. Yeah. And… And… It’s your mom and your dad. Yeah. And now look something interesting. Inside the camp, they didn’t have cameras. So what did my father do? He painted stripes on this picture
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So it’s the same picture, you see. Yeah. Wow. Your dad was always in a crack up, I see. Yeah. And for example, look, this is the wedding, my mom, my father, and my grandma. It’s even hard for me to say grandma because I never had. We never had a
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But your parents made it. Yeah. Wow, that’s a miracle. And my father had a brother, one who survived, but he lived in New York. And my mom met her brother, found her brother after 37 years. Wow. Yeah, that’s very, it’s another story, how they met. It’s very, very interesting. Now, here is the barrack and those benches, how they slept on.
40:15
Here is… Every painting has a story. You see here, actually, I don’t have to explain because they’re reaching for the bread, right? And they can’t reach. But the story behind it is that they got this shape of a bread in this shape, and it was very, very hard to divide it among six people evenly. And my father writes in the book
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They could have baked it round, and then it could be easier, but they wanted us to fight. They wanted us maybe to kill each other over the bread. But we managed. My father built a scale, and they were weighing crumb by crumb, so everyone got an even piece. And one day they told the Nazi, no, this bread is not enough for six. Please give us an addition.
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And he said, no problem. Be good, you’ll get in the evening. And they were waiting. And in the evening they got an edition of two people. Two people? For the same bread. That’s why you see here eight. Yeah. Wow. Here, my father painted himself crossed on the swastika. He said…
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If they kill me and someone finds those paintings, then they’ll know who did it to us. Now I saw one that you skipped over there. Which one? The one with the bullets. Ah, no, I didn’t skip because this is Holocaust and this is the Hebrew language. That’s why. No, I didn’t skip. We were thinking, I was thinking about this one because
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Don’t you tell me right now. Okay, this is also very interesting. Watch this. You see here a woman, she has a necklace with bullets. And in her hand, she’s holding lipstick in the shape of a bullet. Now in Hebrew, weapons, you say neshek. Neshek. And a kiss is neshika. The same letters, just you add something. Right, a little vowel here and there. So our father said, I wish…
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that all the weapons in the world will turn into a kiss. Like he was fighting for love and peace. See how much inspiration can come from… You know, that’s why they always say there’s always a silver lining. God’s reason is something that sometimes we don’t understand, huh?
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Well, I feel really fortunate to have gotten to meet you. Because, you know, I came in really at the 11th hour, really at the end. Just by absolute circumstance. And you’re leaving here in just minutes. And your sister already left. But I hope that we can do this again. And I’m also hoping that this tape is going to go out. I’m going to send it to a couple of people in different places in this country.
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And anyone, you don’t have to be anything other than who you are. If you feel like supporting and helping this course, we want you to see it. Is your website something you can tell me about? Yeah, it’s www.josephbau.com. Oh, easy. Yeah, very easy. That’s easy. Okay, good.
43:57
And we opened the book. And if you do Joseph Bau, you find it. And there you can also see some of his animation movies. You can see some programs that my sister and I were interviewed. It’s all in Hebrew, if someone understands Hebrew. And you can see the museum.
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And more examples of his paintings. We have a lot of his oil paintings and… You know, in fact, I have something I can show you. Sure. Do you want to start? One second. Now, we’re going to see something special. It’s fun. Every once in a while, we get someone that comes in, just suddenly finds their way into our world. And I brought her here for you. So…
44:49
She’s going to come back with something very special. So here’s this book, Dear God, Have You Ever Gone Hungry? by Joseph Bau. So you can get in touch with Sliva through the website, I’m sure.
45:14
This is a catalog, which I didn’t tell you. My father’s paintings were exhibited in the UN building in New York. This book was translated also to Spanish, Polish, and Chinese, and Hebrew, of course. The Spanish government had an exhibition of my father’s paintings in the Spanish Parliament in Madrid. Wow.
45:41
We made a small catalog of his works, and this is some of his oil paintings. If you can see, he always painted people. Look, an oil painting in humor. A man is going to the museum, and he looks at the statue, and the statue looks more alive than the person. This is Bereshit. Bereshit is the creation of the world.
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Here are musicians, because my father played the violin and mandolin, and he loved musicians. Here is a ball salesman, something from the imagination. I know you’re going to want to see it more closely, but not at the moment. That’s it for you. Here we put some of the paintings from the Holocaust.
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It was a terrible joke. They said that the entrance to the camp was through the gate, and the only exit was through the chimney. How many people were there in the camp? Twenty-four thousand. Those are the playing cards that he made, but it was a whole deck. We only put in a few.
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And look at this. From all the direction, you see, this is the world. Like people. And there are more works here. This is interesting. Look. All the world is coming to Israel. It’s a person that is built from flakes. Like all the people are coming to Jerusalem. And this is the catalog.
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And here, look at this. This I have to share with you, too. This is a tiny book, look, the size of your hand, that my father made inside the camp. This is a copy. It’s not the original, but it’s exactly the same. 110 poems and 11 paintings. And look at this. Wow.
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And this we would love to translate into English and to publish it this size. And they are so full of humor and love. You won’t believe this person is sitting inside the camp writing it. Look, you need a magnifying glass to read it. You do? Yeah. And it’s called Shvyat Iya.
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The world and I. So anyone who is coming to Israel, of course, you are welcome to come and visit our museum and look in our website and write to us. You have our mail there and we will be very, very happy. And I really thank you for being on the show. Thank you for coming and joining us. You make a special, special…
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effort like you did to make yourself available, God’s going to bless us and bless them, right? JosephBau.com. Spell Clila for me. Okay. I spell it the way my mom spelled it, like in Polish. So it’s C-L-I-L-A. But in English you call it Klila. Actually it should be T-S.
49:27
L-I-L-A. Tzlila. Tzlila. Tzlila. You don’t have tz in English, so it’s hard. Tzlila is music sounds. And there is another story, but this will be for next time when I come here. Okay. We really appreciate having you. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Thank you all for joining us. We’re going to have them back again, right? You bet we are. Thank you again.
50:03
Seems like Now the world’s so small We see it all right here on our TV Seems like
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The more we bridge the distance, the harder it becomes for us to see. Well, if all the world’s a stage for actors in a play. With an ancient script of fear and doubt and greed. To write another page, to find a better way.
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reverence for life is what we need for peace in our world for peace in our country for peace on our street peace in our hearts it starts with peace in our
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Thank you.
