Hélène Berr: A young woman in occupied Paris - A film by Jérôme Prieur
April 1942, Hélène Berr, a 21-year-old student and a brilliant violonist, begins keeping a journal. She tells with great accuracy about the noose tightening: having to wear the yellow star, the Vel d’Hiv roundup, the daily consequences of the anti-Jewish law passed by the Vichy Government. Arrested with her parents, detained in the camp of Drancy and deported to Auchwitz on March 27th 1944, Hélène died in Bergen-Belsen at the age of 24, just a few days before the liberation of the camp by the British army in April 1945.
Utilizing previously unseen footage shot in occupied Paris, official archival images and family photographs including remarkable homemovies, French director Jérôme Prieur offers a captivating adaptation of Hélène Berr’s journal.
Jérôme Prieur’s documentary shows the double purpose of Hélène Berr’s Journal which is both true literary work and a valued account of Paris at that time.
A film by Jérôme Prieur, Melisande Films production, 84 mn + unrelaesed bonuses, 2013
Based on the book "Journal 1942-1944" by Hélène Berr and published over 60 years after its writing
French Publisher : Editions Tallandier (2008)
Paperback Editions Points Seuil and school report edition (2009)
This film has been supported by the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah.
TV diffusion
First TV diffusion : December 2013 - France 2
Awards
Festival "Les Rendez-Vous de l’Histoire de Blois" 2013 : Special Jury Prize
Civil Awards 2014 Society of Multimedia Authors (SCAM) : Star Prize
DVD
DVD available with unreleased bonuses :
- Interview of Mariette Job, Hélène Berr’s niece (19’)
- Interview of Henry Rousso, historian (30’)
- Interview of Jérôme Prieur, film director (30’)
