L'DOR V'DOR (From Generation to Generation)

So many of us can trace our career choices to events that took place before we were born.

Litewski family: Markus, Chaim, Musia, and Rachmiel. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 1960

My father, Markus Litewski, born in Zawiercie, Poland, met my mother, Musia Szmulowicz, born in Vilnius, Lithuania, during the summer of 1946 at the displaced camp in Rome's Cinecittà, the Italian Hollywood. In those days, the film studios were housing both Jewish and non-Jewish displaced war refugees. In late 1945, Cinecittà housed some 1800 displaced and stateless persons. Prior to arriving at the Cinecittà, my mother had spent time in various Nazi camps, and was liberated from Dachau in late April 1945. The only surviving person in my mother's family was her sister Hinda, who met a Greek national and immigrated to Israel. My father had been in Auschwitz. From his rather large family, only two sisters (Adela, who immigrated to Israel and Genia, who immigrated to Scotland), survived. Once my parents became a couple, they took the decision to get as far away from Europe as possible. They arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in January 1948. There they had two children, Rachmiel and me. Markus and Musia lived productive and relatively happy lives in Brazil. They remained in close touch with their surviving family members. Markus and Musia lived for their children. And we, their children, understood early on that these two giant human beings had gone through unthinkable trauma. And for that, and for their sheer humanity, we honor them. I joined the UN, the organization that helped my parents in the DP camp, as a TV producer and documentary filmmaker.

My father, Markus Litewski, second person on the left, in Cinecitta, Rome, June 1946.

My mother, Musia Litewska (née Szmulowicz), in 1947

Father’s and mother’s marriage certificate (Issued by U.N.R.R.A.). Note that their marriage was certified by the "Camp Director" and officiated by the camp rabbi