Special thanks to:
Penn State University, Office of the President
Penn State University, College of Communications
Hart & Simona Hasten Family Foundation
Eastman Fund
Barbara Palmer Trust
Mimi Barash Coppersmith
Herschel & Eileen Leibowitz
No. 4 Street of Our Lady is scheduled for release in spring 2009, with a special screening for all those involved in the making of the film set for March 1.
The upcoming release of this feature–length documentary culminates three years of production work that has taken the filmmakers to Israel, Ukraine and numerous locations around the United States, where they have gathered material, conducted interviews and captured dramatic moments on camera.
What motivated Francisca Halamajowa to reach out to her Jewish neighbors at the risk of her own life? What did the townspeople know or not know about what was going on in her home? What role did her children play in this rescue operation? What did her descendants, who grew up in Communist Poland, know about her past, and how did they feel about her actions? These were some of the questions that began to intrigue the filmmakers, as they embarked on this project.
Moshe Maltz's diary provided an ideal starting point for this investigation. The film uses entries in the diary as a timeline to explore some of the painful moral and ethical dilemmas that acts of rescue and survival often entail. Incorporating the written and oral testimonies of those who were there and their descendents, the film also provides new information about what befell the Jewish communities of Eastern Galicia during the Holocaust, and in particular, the town of Sokal. At the same time, it reveals how traumatic events of the past continue to play out years later.
No. 4 Street of Our Lady creates a dialogue of varying points of view, as Moshe Maltz's written recollections and responses to events are woven together with the present–day oral memories of the remaining living survivors, as well as the handed–down stories of the Halamajowa family, and the recollections of the rescuers's former Ukrainian neighbors. It also makes use of old videotape, home movies, archival footage and testimony found in Yad Vashem. Interviews with Professor Omer Bartov of Brown University, an internationally recognized scholar on Jewish life in Galicia, Amos Goldberg, an expert on Holocaust diaries, and Irena Steinfeldt, head of The Righteous Among Nations Department at Yad Vashem, provide historical and geographical context.
Of the 15 Jews saved by Halamajowa, only four are alive today. In July 2007, the filmmakers brought three of these survivors and the rescuer's two granddaughters back to Sokal, where they spent eight days filming. With the help of Moshe Maltz's diary and local residents, they were able to locate the house at No. 4 Street of Our Lady where Halamajowa had provided shelter to three Jewish families as well as other sites of historical significance.
Contact us at: info@streetofourlady.org
The following is an interim list of contributors to the film:
Gerald and Carol Abrams, Barbara R. Palmer Trust, Doug and Claudia Anderson, Barclays Capital, Barrack Foundation, Baskets by Gayle, Jonathan and Jacqueline Bernstein, Edward and Inga Schreyer Book, Sol Cohn, Mimi Barash Coppersmith, Alexander and Amy Bird, Janet Fowler Dargitz, Davidowitz Foundation Inc., H. Richard Dollinger, James and Julia Donnelly, Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund, Eugene and Emily Grant Family Foundation, Fidelity Investment Charitable Fund, Sidney and Helen Friedman, Roger Gershon, David and Lola Wood Geselowitz, Erica Green, Andrew Gutman, Hart & Simona Hasten Family Foundation, Peter Hirsch, Anne M. Hoag, Lauren Homel, Lyle and Anna Johnson, Richard and Sally Kalin, Eliezar and Gail Kamon, Philip Klein, Richard and Joy Vincent–Killian, Cynda and John Kostyak, Mark Langdon, Herschel and Eileen Leibowitz, Simon Lemmer, Herbert and Trudy Lipowsky, Jules and Louise Lippert, Gertrude and Samuel Levine, Mark and Maria Livolsi, Bette Davis Madway, Michael and Riv Maltz, Barbara Marder, Theodore and Jacqueline Matlow, Richard and Marjorie Milgrub, Christine and John Nichols, Daniel Ottenstein, Bruce and Suzanne Pincus, Alan Polonsky, William and Martha Rabinowitz, J. Paul Rutter, Shirley Birenbaum Sacks, Herbert Sarwin, Amit and Judy Schejter, Richard and Sandra Sherman, Henry Schoenfeld, Elaine Small, Stephanie Snyder, Stephanie Sorkin, Gerald Stein, Edward Steinberg, Charles and Sydell Tauber, Ruth Traynham, David and Sue Werner, Wilf Family Foundation, Joseph and Janice Yewdell, Will Ziefert, David and Rochelle Zohn.