From London to Poland and Treblinka - in the film Song of Names and What You See

Flag of Poland.

Flag of Yemen.

I saw two great films on Singapore Airlines -  Ten Days Before the Wedding; The Song of Names

In The Song of Names, the hero, some would say anti-hero, is the Jewish musical, violin-playing prodigy.

Plot Spoiler For Song of Names
He comes to London before WWII, loses his family in Treblinka in WWII, fails to turn up to his debut concert in London and goes to live in New York as an Orthodox Jew.

I was brought up in London post-war and am writing from there now.

This post is about how the film inspired my research into Poland and Treblinka. I have not been to Treblinka. I have been to Dachau near Munich in Germany and Auschwitz in Poland.

London
In the old days. Boys freewheeling on bikes. Milk in bottles.

Poland

Treblinka
Just large stones and small museum.
Good if you have ancestors/family who died there or are travelling through Poland north of Warsaw.
A double camp. One area was for workers, the other for instant death on arrival, with the area for those who could walk to their death point, and the area where the invalids were carried to be killed.
Shown in the film Song of Names. Second largest numbers of murdered civilians died in this area.

Auschwitz
Near Krakow
(See later post.

Warsaw
Current Capital.
Jewish Museum.
Lots of Holocaust stories, such as the head of the orphanage who was offered safe passage out when the children were being transported, but chose to accompany them on their final journey and died with them.
(See next post.)

Handy Websites
Wikivoyage has a Holocaust section with a useful summary of major camps and holocaust museums in each country, brief account of what to see and how tourists might feel after visiting, Croatia, Poland, Germany, Ukraine, USA. (Does not mention the places to visit in the UK, including Jewish Museums in London and elsewhere. Incidentally, Anne Frank's father after WWII went to live in Edgware, NW London, where I walked up and down the high street never knowing he lived around the corner.)
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Holocaust_remembrance

https://www.britannica.com/place/Treblinka

Read the reviews on Tripadvisor to gain insights into the place and other people's views of history.
totally different from Auschwitz. Just huge stones. Eerie. Chilling. You see it in the film.

One comment reveals that the entrance to the killing hall at Treblinka was designed not to look like a bathhouse but like a synagogue. As the commentator says, evil.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and Photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Two great films on Singapore Airlines: Yemen's 10 Days To the Wedding; Poland's The Song of Names

10 Days To The Wedding

Ten Days To The Wedding suggests some kind of tension or drama and the film produces what it promises. The young couple are short of money and argue with each other backed by huge bickering families, all intent on saving money or obtaining it from others. The whole economy depends on bargaining.

Yes, they even cheat their own families. You might recall a trip when you argued with a taxi driver over the price you thought you had agreed. Maybe you assumed it was because the taxi thought you were a  rich foreigner.  This film may reassure you. Some people are not just picking on you - they are out to cheat everybody. They regard cheating customers, and bargaining with customers to get the best price, as normal behaviour. A sign of being a real, tough person. Not a weakling. That is their system. No malice or ill-will intended.

Another fascinating revelation is that some of the women in an Arab country are feisty and free to meet their husband to be, and wear make-up on their faces in pupblic places, although conservative relatives including brothers may disapprove.

Another thing which become clear is the system of friends or relatives jumping into a car or a cab. When money is short, several members of a family will share the ride and the costs. The shared taxi is an extension of the idea of the shared car.

By the end of the film we are totally won over by the couple, at least by the dtermined bride to be, and can share in the joy of the wedding finale.


The Song of Names
The story is about a Jewish boy from Poland who is a telented violinist. He lives with an English family of musicians in London before WWII and forms a friendship with the son his own age. His family in Poland are murdered in Treblinka during WWII. The song of names is a record of all the poeple who died in the camp, committed to memory by rabbis who using the chanting rhythm and rhyme of a long song (which takes five days to sing).

When the young adult boy goes trying to trace whether his family are alive or dead, he find the Polish congregation including a rabbi who has memorised the song. Rather like those waiters who have a set pitch, they have to start at the beginning and keep going in order to get it all right.

So the rabbi sings all the names, many with the same surname, until he gets to the names of the parents and siblings of the enquirer. The listener, hearing his families names repeated, confirming that nobody survived, beginning to cry, is one of the most emotional moments of the film.

The whole film is told in a series of flashback. The final revelation, reveals why the violinist fails to turn up for his debut concert - which instead takes places many years later.
This is a twist ending involving three people when they were children.

Spoiler: Both film have a twist ending, where the sexual motivation of one of the characters is revealed, whether or not their attraction is reciprocated.

Useful Websites
You tube trailer for Song of Names


https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-12-23/song-of-names-clive-own-tim-roth-

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer.