In January 1945, less than two weeks before the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp evacuation, four forced laborer women, Estusia Wajcblum, Rosa Robota, Alla Gartner, and Regina Safirstein were hanged in public, accused of sabotaging the Nazi war machine. Sabotage tells the dramatic unknown story of the women’s underground operation in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is a story of feminine heroism, resistance, and tragedy told through the eyes of Anna Wajcblum Heilman, Estusia’s sister and youngest member of the women’s resistance.
Under the horrific inferno of Auschwitz, Anna writes a diary describing the dramatic story of the women’s resistance, the camaraderie, and the friendship between them.
The screening of the film will be followed by a discussion with Ariela Heilman, daughter of Auschwitz survivor Anna Waczblum; Noa Aharoni, director of the film; and Irit Felsen, a clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of trauma and traumatic loss.
Ariela Heilman was born in Israel and lived in Netanya. The family moved to Boston in 1958 and to Ottawa in 1960. During WWII, her father, Joshua ,served with the Jewish Brigade of the British Army in North Africa. He was a Hebrew teacher and principal in Ottawa, Canada for many years and later worked for the Canadian Government and retired as a translator of English to Yiddish and Hebrew. Ariela’s mother, nee Anna Waczblum, was a survivor of Auschwitz and worked as a social worker with the Children’s Aid Society in Ottawa. Both Anna and Joshua fought in the War for Israel’s Independence in 1948. After graduating Herzliah High School in Montreal, Ariela studied at the joint program of the Jewish Theological Seminary & Columbia University. She worked in Educational Relations at the CBS Television Network, and then went into sales. She began selling advertising for a New York neighborhood weekly and transitioned to Real Estate, which has become her profession of passion. Ariela has been married for over 40 years to Ray Faiola, a recently retired executive at CBS. Their daughter Danika graduated Bronx High School of Science and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is an artist and fabricator of Corporate art installations and together with her husband, she is restoring a mid century modern house to its former 1960s glory. Along with her sister Noa and brother-in-law, Sheldon Schwartz, Ariela has worked and continues to work to keep her mother’s story of resistance and survival in the forefront of the public conscience.
Irit Felsen, Ph.D. is an Israeli born clinical psychologist, specializing in the treatment of trauma and traumatic loss. Her clinical work has focused on Holocaust Survivors and their descendants, and her research on intergenerational transmission has been published in peer reviewed journals and book chapters. She is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University in NYC, Co-Chair of the Trauma Work Group at the NGO Committee on Mental Health in Consultative Relationship to the United Nations, and Chair of the Older Adults Work Group within the Covid-19 APA Interdisciplinary Task Force.
