Demonstration; DPs inflate rafts for trip to Palestine; family life; DP protest in Bari
Creator(s)
- Menachem Shapiro (Subject)
- Mr. Menachem Shapiro
Biographical History
Menachem Shapiro was born in the DP camp Santa Maria di Leuca, Italy on June 21, 1946 to Hannah Buz (b. 1912) and Moshe Shapiro (b.1906) both from Shavli, Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire.) Hannah and Moshe and had one daughter, Rivka, born in 1938. Moshe worked at a wood processing plant. Hannah and Moshe were sent to the Shavli ghetto in July 1941; Riva was sent to Auschwitz in November 1943 during the children's roundup; she died there. Moshe was sent to Dachau or a subcamp of Dachau and oversaw the building of roads for the SS. After liberation, Moshe traveled via Greece to Italy in a jeep with a friend from the Beitar youth movement, Dov Similansky. In Italy they met other family members who survived. Moshe, Hannah, and Menachem legally emigrated to Palestine in February 1948. They spent the next two years living with their father’s sister who had immigrated to Palestine in the 1920s. Moshe Shapiro probably acquired his film and still picture camera on the black market in Italy.
Scope and Content
Very brief shot of protest/parade in a field, probably in Italy (like Film ID 4154). DPs inflate large rafts on a beach in DP camp in Italy and carry Israeli flags. 07:05 Menachem in his carriage with a still camera. Young men participate in formal ceremony or initiation. The men on the rafts on the water preparing for trip to Palestine. 08:30 Hannah squeezes into her baby’s toy rocking horse. Pan of the DP camp in Italy, huts. Moshe with Menachem - good CUs. Friend makes faces and shows off her baby on camera (possibly Chaim Springer and his parents). More shots of Moshe and Menachem. 09:47 Man polishes shoes and walks a small lizard caught on a rope. The family of three at leisure. Menachem and Hannah make faces for camera, Menachem plays with his father, CUs. 11:03 Demonstration, parades and DPs, men and women in uniform carry signs in Hebrew and English, possibly a protest in Bari, Italy (like RG-60.1804). Children stand under sign: “Down with British Terror in Palestine!” 12:05 Children parading, filmed through a wire fence. A large crowd gathers to hear speeches by three men. Sign: “UNRRA Camp.” A smaller group assembled in a field, with flags.
Subjects
- DISPLACED PERSONS (DP) CAMPS
- BEACHES
- TOYS
- DEMONSTRATIONS
- ITALY
- PROTESTS
- DISPLACED PERSONS (DP)
- BOATS
- UNRRA
- ZIONISTS/ZIONISM
- JEWS
- CAMERAS
Places
- Santa Maria de Leuca, Italy
Genre
- Film
- Amateur.