Stel a Pencil for Me
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New York Daily News
Short Takes: More movie reviews
by Elizabeth Weitzman - 2007-11-09
If Michele Ohayon's absorbing documentary didn't provide the proof, you'd never believe the story she tells about Holocaust survivors Jack Polak and Ina Soep.

Jack and Ina met in Amsterdam in 1943, but couldn't see each other again because Jack was already - though unhappily - married. Soon after, they were deported to the same labor camp, where their feelings grew. When possible, they shared a few minutes alone; otherwise, they communicated through secret love letters. As Jack and his wife were shipped off to Bergen-Belsen, Ina was slated for Auschwitz - and then, at the last minute, sent to Bergen-Belsen instead.

Could a happy ending possibly have emerged from the tragedies they experienced? Not even Hollywood could invent a romance more extraordinary than this one.

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