"Steal a Pencil For Me"

Steal a Pencil For Me, 2007

Dir.: Michele Ohayon

Prod.: Bryan O'Brien, Michele Ohayon, Theo van de Sande, Ted Sarandos, Jos van der Linden

"I'm a very special Holocaust survivor," proudly proclaims 93-year-old Jaap "Jack" Polak. "I was in the camps with my wife and my girlfriend; and believe me it wasn't easy."

Thus begins the romantic documentary of quite possibly one of the best and most unconventional love stories I have ever heard or seen on screen: the story of Jack and Ina Polak. At the time of the filming of this documentary, the happy couple, currently residing in New York City, were about to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

As a Jew, I have a, shall we say, morbid fascination with World War II history, especially the Holocaust era. I am very fortunate that no one in my family had to live through the camps or experience Nazi occupation. However, I have always been drawn to this particular time in history. It's about the triumph of the human spirit, the determination to not roll over and die. Steal a Pencil For Me has both of these themes, along with stunning visuals and touching interviews with Ina, Jack and their friends, as well as beautiful narration taken from the letters Ina and Jack wrote to each other during the war. It's enough to make you sigh with longing.

In pre-war Amsterdam, Jack was an accountant. He fell in love with Ina, a diamond dealer's young daughter, at first sight when they met at a party. He wanted to marry her, but the problem was ... he was already married. He tried to divorce his wife Manja in 1941, but she said she did not want to. They were unhappy, but neither of them wanted to be alone.

This completely took me aback. I hadn't known going into this documentary that Jack was a married man, carrying on an affair with a woman nearly ten years his junior! This was about to get very, very interesting.

Director Michele Ohayon follows Jack and Ina's stories, painfully similar to others I have heard about this time period: they were dragged from their homes by Nazi officers, threatened with guns, their belongings were ransacked or sold. They were forbidden to own bicycles and radios. Ina recounts hearing about her neighbors committing suicide rather than be overtaken by the Nazis.

In July of 1943, Jack and his wife Manja were deported to Westerbork transit camp in Holland. Ina and her parents arrive two months later. Upon discovering this, Jack goes directly to the housing authority of Westerbork and asks to be placed in the same barracks as Ina - along with his wife.

This is either the smartest or dumbest man on Earth, I thought to myself. This is just asking for trouble.

"He won my heart by sheer persistence," says Ina with a smile. Even in her eighties, Ina is still a beautiful woman with apple cheeks and curly hair. She describes fondly how she and Jack would hold hands and take walks at night in Westerbork, until curfew. However, Ina kept her affair with Jack a secret from her parents, and she was concerned about hurting Manja. So, in order to keep their love a secret, they began writing letters to one another - beautiful, lyrical letters that professed their undying love for one another, how they would survive the war and be together forever. Jack would always address his letters to Ina with, "My dear little lady", and Ina would sign all of hers with "many kisses." Ina's sister would be their messenger, carrying the letters back and forth.

It seems as though every time I watch a Holocaust documentary, I learn something new. For example, in Steal a Pencil For Me, I learned what made the Westerbork transit camp unique. First off, a transit camp was, at first, a refugee camp for Dutch Jews trying to escape the Nazi regime. However, the inevitable happened - the Nazis took over, and turned Westerbork into a deportation camp. Basically, this is where Jews waited to be transported by train to either Auschwitz, Sobibor, Bergen-Belsen or Theresienstadt. What made Westerbork unique was, they had the modern conveniences. There was a sports arena, a hospital and very good schools. On Tuesday nights there was a cabaret. Those who taught at the school were Jewish teachers and professors who could no longer teach at public schools and universities. The doctors in the Westerbork hospital were Jews who were no longer allowed to practice in hospitals. This was all an illusion, however. Though the Jews who were interred at Westerbork were given all of this so that they would believe that Westerbork was not a bad place.

During a visit to Holland shortly before their anniversary, Jack and Ina visit Westerbork, which is now a memorial site and a museum, open to the public. While there, Jack encounters a group of Dutch schoolchildren on a class trip and takes a moment to share his wisdom and perspective on the Holocaust. He tells them there is no difference between a Jew and a non-Jew, a white man or a black man. "We are all born the same, we all die the same," he adds. 

Back in 1943, Jack and his wife Manja were deported from Westerbork to Bergen-Belsen. Three months later, Ina's name appears on a list to go to Auschwitz. However, at the last minute, her father pulls some strings and she is sent to Bergen-Belsen instead.

This is where Jack and Ina's letters take very dark turns. The flowery language is gone. Jack refers to himself as an "old man, getting older". Ina describes hunger pains, the misery of being unclean.  

While Jack is sent to do hard labor, Ina gets a job in one of the S.S. offices, taking minutes and German shorthand. This job kept her and Jack in paper and pencils so that they could keep writing their letters - at this point, these letters were keeping them alive. It gave them something to live for.

This is what I love about stories like this. Jack and Ina's love kept them alive. It was a little hard at first for me to accept this love, because, after all, Jack is still married. Manja is still alive, in the camps with Ina and Ina's sister. But the way they are so tender to one another in their letters, there is still a tiny spark of hope between the lines. Jack promises that they will get through this together, Ina suggests that they might move to America and start a new life. Despite all of the suffering around them, they still have a beautiful positive outlook on life, and are still deeply in love. It's incredibly admirable.

In 1945, when it was rumored that liberation was imminent, Jack and Ina exchanged their letters, so that they would both have the letters written by their own hand. This was Ina's idea, in case anything happened, and they would exchange them back once they were reunited. When the camps are liberated in April of 1945, the camp survivors were put on transit trains. Jack's train went East. Ina's train went to the West. They did not know where they were headed or if they would ever see each other again.

I was literally holding my breath the entire last few minutes of this documentary. It was obvious that both Ina and Jack survived, but I was dying to know how they'd found each other (of course, I will not spoil this ending for anyone who wishes to see the whole thing!).

Jack and Manja divorced, and then Jack married Ina. As of 2006, they have been married for 60 years. Together they have 3 children, 5 grandchilden and 2 great-grandchildren. In 2000, Jack and Ina's daughter Margrit published her parents' letters. Personally, I can't wait to track down the book - which is also titled Steal a Pencil For Me.

I really adored this documentary. Jack and Ina are the embodiment of Holocaust survival. Their love for one another them through one of the worst times in history. They had hope, they had faith, and they had each other. They persevered. Though at times their relationship was a bit hard to swallow, it being an affair, it's just too sweet to resist.