Benigni accidentally made a film based on real events (7 photos)

Many have seen one of the best works of director Roberto Benigni "Life is Beautiful". He won three Oscars for this heartbreaking film. and became known throughout the world. He believed that his story was nothing more than fiction, but later it turned out that this story really happened.





Let me briefly remind you of the plot: a father imprisoned in the ghetto in order to save his child, explains that everything that happens is just a game, which has strict rules. The main thing is not to get noticed SS men, and yet you cannot contact them with questions and complaints. Bye the game is on, the son gets bonus points and when he finally gets them the required amount, you will receive a tank as a gift.



Janek, Esther and Israel Schleifstein

Now to the real story.

In March 1941, in a ghetto in south-eastern Poland, the world was born. Janek Schleifstan appeared. All babies and toddlers were considered unnecessary cargo and they were simply torn from the hands of their parents and sent to Auschwitz. Parents were able to hide their one-year-old son when prisoners were transferred to the HASAG weapons factory. Janek's mother hid him in the basement, where he spent a year and a half in absolute darkness. He only saw a little light in the moment when dad and mom came down to him, holding a candle in their hands. The parents were able to teach their son not to make a sound and were even able to catch and put a cat in my son’s basement so that it can hunt hungry mice and rats





In September 1943, all Jews from the factory were replaced by Poles. And the Jews were redirected to the notorious Buchenwald. Janek was already two and a half years old when his dad Israel sat him down in front of himself and said: “Now we will play an interesting game. I promise you in the evening three lumps of sugar. The conditions are like this - you won’t cry, no matter what. no matter what happened." Sugar was more expensive than all the most exquisite delicacies, therefore Janek unquestioningly obeyed the pope, who took in advance prepared a bag with holes made, placed my son there, throwing clothes over him. Israel shouldered the sack and they hit the road.

Upon arrival in Buchenwald, the family was separated. Mom was taken to Bergen-Belsen. Children and old people were killed immediately near the train when The camp commandant casually said: “We need workers, not parasites.”



Israel Schleifstein accomplished the impossible - he carried his son to barracks Two communist Germans helped hide the child, prisoners, tearing off pieces from their starvation rations, they fed him. One even I was able to make Janek a toy - a tiny wooden horse. Janek is not cried. Never. He always spoke in a barely audible whisper. After all, then the evil ones his uncles will not find him and take him to the cruel witch.



It’s difficult to call what happened next good, but in those conditions it became a real miracle. During a routine search of a barracks Rottenführer found that same wooden horse. He ransacked the entire barracks, I searched every corner and found Janek. The SS man's son was waiting at home, the same age and something in him trembled. He liked the serious kid and he... did not report him to the camp authorities. He even called him “the mascot of Buchenwald” and ordered Janek to have a robe sewn. Now he always appeared at morning roll call and at the end he always said "All prisoners have been counted!" When did the tall one come to the camp? superiors, Janek was immediately hidden, because in Buchenwald there was no maybe children - they were destroyed.



Everything continued like this until 1945, but one day Janek I was left alone and left the barracks. The deputy head of the camp saw him and he, enraged, ordered the “little Jew” to be sent to the gas chamber.

Israel, no one knows how, but was able to beg for two days to say goodbye to Janek. And for one of the SS men, a big fan horses, promised to make a beautiful and comfortable saddle. And just in two day this man was sent to the front and about the baby just somehow forgotten. Father, once again, saying thanks to God’s providence, was able to hide his son, now in the Buchenwald hospital, where he stayed until April 11, 1945, when camp prisoners organized an uprising.



At the end of the war it became clear thatsomething else: Esther Schleifstein, Janek’s mother, also survived. She was in Dachau.

Already in 1948, the whole family moved to the USA and in 1950 Another child was born to the family. Janek, who in the American style began to be called Joseph, worked on television for almost 30 years, got married, raised children and no one knew about what he experienced as a child. History Janek was recognized only after the release of the film “Life is Beautiful” and in The history of the Schleifsteins was found in the American State Archives. After this Janek gave one single interview and never spoke with journalists again. He didn't want to relive it. And he can be understood. After leaving concentration camps, he had to testify at the trial. Janek in At that time he was only six years old and he was the youngest witness. To him I had to look into the eyes of the SS men again to identify them and indicate on those who treated the prisoners most horribly.

Janek still lives in New York and he never sleeps with the lights off.