Ballad of a Child c. 1962, 1962.

Format:

Video

Contributor:

Adam Matthew Digital (Firm), digitiser.

Series:

The Holocaust & War Crimes

Wars & Revolutions

Language:

English

Genre:

Internet videos.

Fiction films.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (video file 0:09:47) : Sound, Black and White.

Place of Publication:

c. 1962,

Marlborough, Wiltshire : Adam Matthew Digital.

Summary:

A reconstruction of true events, this short drama follows an expectant mother's journey to the hospital. As she goes into labour, she recollects the events of the Second World War and how she was taken from her family in Lidice to be raised by a new family. [WARNING: Contains distressing images of dead bodies, including children.]. Opens with footage of children playing. An older woman lays flowers. A boy flies a kite upon which the name 'Gagarin' is written. A Mercedes pulls up and two black men get out; a man and woman file out of a bus. A woman takes a photograph, a man gardens, a pregnant woman is escorted to a car/ambulance by a doctor. They drive past a sign, 'Lidice' (CR, north of Prague). Voiceover begins, explaining that it has been twenty years since WWII, as footage of soldiers (SS), guns and army vehicles plays. Memories of the child told by the grown woman. Separated from her mother by soldiers. Footage of a village being bombed, houses burning down. Images of destruction and rubble. Soldiers eating and inspecting the ruins. Hands lined up against the wall and the sound of gunfire, implying an execution. The pregnant woman is the one reminiscing about her transportation. Close up of train wheels and children's' faces behind bars. Iron sign, 'Arbeit macht frei' from a concentration camp, dialogue of 'strange doctors' and images of naked children being examined. Cut with images of starving and dead children. Reminiscing of an event in November 1942, 20 years ago. An image of a married couple who were to be her new parents. Lebensborn programme. Not allowed to speak Czech. Nazi paraphernalia. Symbolic planting of roses planted by the people of Hiroshima, Leningrad, Coventry. Images of women and men killed in the camps. Crying new born. The number of men, women and children taken from Lidice, and the number who returned, is written in Czech at the end.

Notes:

Description based on online resource (viewed on 17 October, 2017).

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.