‘I Want to Tell The World What it is to be Chased’: Virtual-Reality Holocaust Film About Survivor of Nazi Germany to Make Its World Premiere at Venice Film Festival

A Holocaust survivor, who is the subject and star of a new virtual reality film about her life that will make its world premiere at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, spoke to The Algemeiner about having her film presented at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world.

“I was so moved that tears came to my eyes because this is all [for] the world to know what happened during World War II to the Jews and to my mother,” said Marion Deichmann, 90, adding that she hopes to attend the film festival and see her film, Letters from Drancy, presented on the world stage.

“My mother died in the gas chambers [at Auschwitz] and that to me is the ultimate evil that man has done to man, so I want the world to know what happened,” she added. “I want to tell the world what it is to be chased [and] to be hunted.”

The Venice Film Festival announced on July 20 that Letters from Darcy will be a part of its official film lineup. The film is one of 44 projects from 25 countries selected for the Venice Immersive section of the festival, which will run from Aug. 30 – Sept.9.

In Letters from Drancy, virtual reality allows viewers to travel with Deichmann across the borders of Northern Europe during her childhood, crouch next to her and her mother as they hide in a truck from a Nazi guard, witness her separation from her mother who was taken by the Nazis, and see the help she received from the French Resistance in Paris and her survival of D-Day in Normandy, France.

The project was filmed on location last year in Paris and Normandy and features 360 video technology as well as 3D environments, motion capture, a spatial soundtrack, and archival media and documents. It is part of a three-film series that will debut at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, and was created by the museum and the award-winning production company East City Films. The three films will be shown on a monthly rotation at the Illinois Holocaust Museum in August and Letters from Drancy will premiere at the museum in October.

Deichmann was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, on Nov. 18, 1932, shortly before Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany on Jan. 30, 1933. She told The Algemeiner that practically from birth, she faced antisemitism for being Jewish. “Little by little we lost all our rights in Germany,” she explained. “Some came to America [but] we did not and when we wanted to come to America, the doors were closed and we had nowhere to go.”

The only child to German Jewish parents, Deichmann’s parents did not get along and her father left for Brazil in 1939 before the outbreak of World War II. Marion and her mother, Alice, fled Germany when she was seven and went to Luxembourg but when that was invaded by the Nazis, the mother and daughter fled to France, joining Alice’s mother in Paris. When Marion was 9 years old, Alice was arrested during the mass arrests of Jews in Paris in July 1942, known as the Vel d’Hiv roundups. Alice was sent first to Drancy, a suburb of Paris, and then sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where she was immediately killed in the gas chambers. Alice was 39 years old when she was murdered.

Deichmann was raised by her maternal grandmother, who survived World War II, and her uncle. She wrote about her experiences during the Holocaust in her memoir Her Name Shall Remain Unforgotten, which is dedicated to her mother. She remained a resident of France up until two and a half years ago and now lives in Chicago.

Letters from Drancy is a tribute to Deichmann’s mother and the 6 million Jews who were killed during the Holocaust, she told The Algemeiner. She said she hopes the film will educate viewers about the persecution Jews faced in the Holocaust and hopefully teach them to be more tolerant of others from different races and religions.

“Working alongside Marion, witnessing her courage and resilience, has been an awe- inspiring experience,” Ashley Cowan, the CEO and executive producer of East City Films, said in a released statement. “Our film captures her compelling journey in a way that only VR storytelling can, allowing audiences to immerse themselves in her story like never before. Marion’s story is a testament to the strength of the human spirit, and we believe it has the potential to leave a profound impact on viewers, urging them to embrace empathy, compassion, and understanding.”

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