Plattsburgh resident's Holocaust story goes global

Dec. 29—PLATTSBURGH — For years, retired SUNY Plattsburgh professor Vladimir Munk has shared his survival of Nazi-era concentration and extermination camps with local schoolchildren.

Now, the world, via Virgil Films' global distribution via DVD and streaming services, learns his story captured by writer Julie Canepa, producer Bruce Carlin and director Paul Frederick of Adirondack Coast Studios in "Return to Auschwitz: The Survival of Vladimir Munk."

It is available on AppleTV, Amazon Prime Video, Vimeo, Vudu, GooglePlay, KinoNOW and YouTube. The DVD is available on Amazon Prime and at Walmart.

"What an honor it is to be bringing Vladimir's story to audiences everywhere," Virgil Film's President Joe Amodei said.

"The team at Adirondack Coast should be commended for helping to keep stories like this available to see for generations to come."

The film, produced in part by Mountain Lake PBS, premiered at the Strand Theatre in Plattsburgh and was selected for the Lake Placid Film Festival in October 2021.

The documentary was a Finalist at the Berlin International Art Film Festival and an Official Selection at the Montreal International Film Festival 2021 and won in the Indie Fest Film Awards.

"We put the show out for two years broadcast on PBS, and it had six months for streaming rights," Frederick said.

"At the end of that streaming rights in October, we made a deal with Virgil Films," Frederick said.

"It is one of the companies that gets you on the big platforms. It's available at those places as a pay-for-view at this point. I think it's $9.99 to buy or $4.99 to rent. It opens it up to a whole different audience that maybe doesn't necessarily have PBS. It's also been subtitled in 13 different languages."

'LITTLE SHOW THAT COULD'

Canepa, Carlin and Frederick accompanied Munk to Poland on Jan. 27, 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Soviet Army's liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the notorious concentration and extermination camp used by the Nazis to murder more than 1 million people during World War II.

The feature-length documentary follows the Czech Holocaust survivor, who at the age of 95, returned to Auschwitz-Birkenau, one of the camps where he was held prisoner and where his family members perished during World War II.

Munk, born in 1925 in Pardubice, Czech Republic, was sent to Auschwitz with his father on Oct. 1, 1944; his mother followed 11 days later. Separated soon after arrival, he never saw them again.

Munk was one of 110 members of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Foundation's Survivors Delegation who chose to make the journey back to this place of genocide. He wanted to honor his loved ones, but also to ensure that the atrocities which occurred there will never be forgotten.

"It's kind of the little show that could," Frederick said.

"It's almost three years since we shot it. Now, millions and millions of people have been able to learn about his story and a lot of people are learning about the Holocaust."

On the PBS website is a teacher's guide, which breaks the show into chunks that allows teachers to teach Holocaust history.

Nearly one-third of all adults, if asked today, do not know what the Holocaust was. It is the film's hope that through telling Vladimir's story, he will bear witness to the horrors of this dark moment in history for those who have doubts about its scope and validity.

"There are some projects you do not for the money, and this was definitely one of them," Frederick said.

"We did it for the cause and to help spread the word. It's pretty timely, you know, with the rise in antisemitism going on. I think it's important that this is seen by as many people as possible. We're working hard to make sure everyone's got the option to watch it if they want."

For Canepa, the film has been quite a journey.

"And I think the most important thing for all us were we so fortunate to have the support of PBS," she said.

"Our exclusive with them was for the first six months, and so they will continue to promote it for the next year and a half. But this contract with Virgil allows us to get the film out on a wider scale and actually on a global scale."

There are different versions of the film available on Vimeo now, which can stream in the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and Italy.

"Our goal was to get the film in front of as many people as possible, especially given the current climate," Canepa said.

"This has allowed us to do that, so we just continue to be really proud about getting the film out there."

TURN IN PRAGUE

Canepa recently returned from Prague, where the film was screened in Munk's hometown.

"That was just a real exciting moment," she said.

"We had some people from a group called Státní Okresní Archiv Pardubice. They were instrumental in not only commemorating the deportation of Vladimir's family but also of creating an event where the film was screened on the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Jews of Vladimir's hometown.

"To get the film in front of the Czech people, and particularly from his hometown, was really very impressive. They were really moved by the film because it was literally one of their own. The film was about one of the people from their town and his journey of survival. It was really well received and that was very exciting."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell