JBC spoke with Clila Bau-Cohen and Hadasa Bau about their par­ents, Joseph and Rebec­ca Bau, in light of the repub­li­ca­tion of their father’s mem­oir, Bau: Artist at War, and the release of the film adap­ta­tion of this cou­ple’s pow­er­ful sto­ry of sur­vival and love dur­ing the Holocaust. 

Bau, Artist at War comes to the­aters for a lim­it­ed run this Sep­tem­ber. Spe­cial show­ings begin Sep­tem­ber 25th, with the nation­wide release on Sep­tem­ber 26th. Tick­ets go on sale Sep­tem­ber 17th. Don’t miss this pow­er­ful sto­ry of courage, love, and resilience. Vis­it bau​movie​.com to watch the trail­ers, learn more, and secure your tick­ets start­ing Sep­tem­ber 17.

Simona Zaret­sky: Clila and Hadasa, it seems like you had an incred­i­ble con­nec­tion with both of your kind, lov­ing, and coura­geous par­ents. What was it like see­ing the sto­ries you’d heard about — or read — all your lives, trans­lat­ed into film?

Clila Bau-Cohen and Hadasa Bau: Watch­ing the fea­ture film Bau, Artist at War, which tells the incred­i­ble love sto­ry of our par­ents dur­ing the Holo­caust, was an amaz­ing expe­ri­ence for us. This is a must-see movie! 

We grew up hear­ing these sto­ries from our par­ents. To see them brought to life on screen — our father’s hero­ism as Schindler’s forg­er, our mother’s courage, and even their wed­ding in the Płaszów con­cen­tra­tion camp — was over­whelm­ing. For us, it was like watch­ing our fam­i­ly his­to­ry illu­mi­nat­ed for the world. It was emo­tion­al, but also a gift, because now future gen­er­a­tions can expe­ri­ence their sto­ry with the same depth and human­i­ty we did.

Our par­ents always told us that ​“there must be a movie about us so all the world should learn from us to love, to laugh, and be hap­py like us.” Our father actu­al­ly paint­ed a movie poster for his mem­oir, cap­tioned ​“Love in the camp: An unfor­get­table sto­ry and win­ner of 10 Oscars.” 

SZ: Your father was such a tal­ent­ed and pro­lif­ic artist. His work is pow­er­ful­ly fea­tured in the mem­oir Bau: Artist at War. How was his visu­al work incor­po­rat­ed into the movie?

CV and HB: Our father’s art is woven through­out the film. The movie doesn’t just tell his sto­ry — it also shows the way he saw the world. His draw­ings and a repli­ca­tion of his art stu­dio with the Hebrew fonts he designed appear in the film. The film­mak­ers used his artis­tic vision as a bridge between past and present, dark­ness and light. In a way, his art became anoth­er char­ac­ter in the film, remind­ing view­ers that cre­ativ­i­ty can be an act of resis­tance and survival.

For exam­ple, our father cre­at­ed a paint­ing titled ​“Bread is the Idol” show­ing eight peo­ple look­ing with hun­gry eyes at a loaf of bread, try­ing to reach it, but unable to. The film uses an ani­mat­ed ver­sion of this paint­ing to intro­duce the next scene where you see eight camp pris­on­ers (actors) try­ing to reach the bread.

We loved that the film also includ­ed the spe­cial humor­ous play­ing cards that our father drew while in the camp which he used to cheer peo­ple up and encour­age them, sav­ing their lives. 

SZ: What was your role in the film?

CV and HB: We first met Deb­o­rah Smerec­nik, the writer and pro­duc­er of the film over fif­teen years ago when she vis­it­ed us at the Joseph Bau Muse­um in Tel Aviv. She was mes­mer­ized by our par­ents’ love sto­ry and invit­ed us to her home to learn more about their lives. For days we shared numer­ous sto­ries about our par­ents. Many scripts were writ­ten but we didn’t like them because there was no humour. Our father was full of humour and we know how impor­tant this was for him. He always said when some­one talks about me, it must be with humour. All his life his biggest love was peo­ple and to help them and save them. All his life he paint­ed peo­ple. You can’t por­tray him with­out humour. Then Deb­o­rah wrote the script her­self and this one we felt cap­tured our father’s spirit.

We were not on set, but we were deeply involved behind the scenes as con­sul­tants. We worked close­ly with the film­mak­ers to ensure the sto­ry stayed true to who our par­ents were. We shared mem­o­ries, details of their per­son­al­i­ties, and fam­i­ly his­to­ry, and we pro­vid­ed access to our father’s writ­ings, mem­oir, art­work, and archives. Our role was to help pro­tect the authen­tic­i­ty of the sto­ry and to ensure that the love, intel­li­gence, humor, and resilience of our par­ents were represented.

SZ: Did you have any lit­er­ary inspi­ra­tion or oth­er films that influ­enced your approach or involve­ment in the adaptation?

CV and HB: Our father’s mem­oir, orig­i­nal­ly titled Dear God, Have You Ever Gone Hun­gry?, and our mother’s mem­oir In the Name of God! were the basis for the movie. We found our mother’s diaries after she passed away. There she wrote how she saved Jews and how she saved our father in the Holo­caust. Our father’s mem­oir con­tains not only his har­row­ing expe­ri­ences but also his unique humor, poet­ry, and artistry. He didn’t write even one word about sav­ing peo­ple. We learned about it lat­er in life. We want­ed the film to cap­ture the same spir­it. Of course, Schindler’s List was also an impor­tant touch­stone, but we hoped this film would add a new dimen­sion — show­ing how love, cre­ativ­i­ty, and humour endured even in the dark­est times. Our father’s book was repub­lished by Black­stone Pub­lish­ing this year with the name Bau: Artist at War.

SZ: Direc­tor Sean McNa­ma­ra wrote mov­ing­ly of his encounter with your father’s work in the intro­duc­tion to the book Bau: Artist at War. He notes that it is the role of artists to stand up to injus­tice. Your par­ents’ ded­i­ca­tion to shar­ing their own sto­ries seems a tes­ta­ment to this. Could you speak a bit about their (and your own) advocacy?

CV and HB: Most peo­ple did­n’t talk or write about what they went through, but our par­ents spoke about the Holo­caust every day. To talk about what they went through and to return to that peri­od, only super­heroes could do that and still live nor­mal lives.

After sur­viv­ing the Holo­caust, they chose not to stay silent. Instead, they opened their tiny stu­dio in Tel Aviv to teach, to inspire, and to remind peo­ple of the pow­er of resilience. We con­tin­ue this mis­sion through the Joseph Bau Muse­um. For us, advo­ca­cy means keep­ing their voic­es alive — not only to hon­or them, but also to fight anti­semitism and injus­tice in today’s world. Direc­tor Sean McNa­ma­ra says: ​“Joseph Bau’s sto­ry reminds us that love, cre­ativ­i­ty and courage can over­come even the worst dark­ness. It’s a mes­sage we all need — now more than ever. We must nev­er for­get.” We believe, as our par­ents did, that mem­o­ry and art are pow­er­ful tools for build­ing a bet­ter future.

SZ: Humor, love, and resilience comes up again and again when ref­er­enc­ing your par­ents. How do love and humor work to coun­ter­act the often-over­whelm­ing dark­ness of the Holocaust? 

CV and HB: First of all not many had humor and not many fell in love in the camps. Our par­ents were the only cou­ple that dared to get mar­ried inside a con­cen­tra­tion camp. They risked their lives. The fact that they mar­ried in a con­cen­tra­tion camp shows how pow­er­ful love can be — it gave them and the peo­ple around them hope for tomor­row when there seemed to be no tomor­row. Humor and love togeth­er cre­at­ed a shield against the darkness. 

Humor was their sur­vival mech­a­nism. In the dark­est places, laugh­ter gave them back a sense of human­i­ty, if only for a moment. Our father used jokes, draw­ings, and word­play as a way to push back against despair. Love was equal­ly important. 

SZ: Could you speak a bit about The Joseph Bau Muse­um in Israel?

CV and HB: Joseph Bau was a Holo­caust sur­vivor, Oskar Schindler’s forg­er, and a hero of the Kraków Ghet­to, Płaszów con­cen­tra­tion camp, and Brünnlitz labor camp (Schindler’s camp). After the war, he became Israel’s first ani­ma­tor and a beloved cul­tur­al fig­ure. He was the first ani­ma­tor in Israel who also built all his equip­ment by him­self, includ­ing the small­est movie the­atre. He designed many fonts for Israeli movies. He researched the Hebrew lan­guage, and he is the only artist in the world who paint­ed the Hebrew lan­guage in humor. Our father estab­lished his Tel Aviv art stu­dio in 1960 and actu­al­ly trans­formed the stu­dio into a mini-muse­um before he passed in 2002. For over twen­ty years, we have brought his lega­cy to life through sto­ry­telling, song, and edu­ca­tion. The muse­um has become a sanc­tu­ary of light, humor, and strength. For years, it has been ranked as the num­ber one attrac­tion in Tel Aviv and among the top 1% of glob­al attrac­tions on Tri­pAd­vi­sor. Sad­ly, the build­ing has been sold and faces demo­li­tion. We are now fight­ing to save the muse­um and relo­cate it so that our father’s lega­cy and our par­ents’ love sto­ry will con­tin­ue to inspire the world.

SZ: Have you had any reac­tions from the film yet?

CV and HB: Yes, the reac­tions have been incred­i­ble. Through­out the movie you hear peo­ple laugh, cry, and clap their hands. When the movie end­ed, peo­ple stayed sit­ting and want­ed to hear more. Many are amazed to dis­cov­er the love sto­ry behind our par­ents’ sur­vival, and how art and humor could flour­ish even in the shad­ow of death. Younger audi­ences, espe­cial­ly, have said the film made his­to­ry feel alive and rel­e­vant in a way books alone some­times can­not. For us, the most mean­ing­ful reac­tions are when peo­ple say: ​“Your par­ents’ sto­ry changed the way I see the world.” That is exact­ly what we hoped for.

SZ: Is there any­thing else you would like to share with Jew­ish Book Coun­cil readers?

CV and HB: We hope that the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil read­ers will join us in our efforts to help save The Joseph Bau Muse­um and pre­serve our par­ents’ lega­cy of courage, humor, and hope. The muse­um is a tes­ta­ment to resilience, art, and the tri­umph of the human spir­it. You can vis­it our Cause­Match cam­paign to learn more and sup­port this effort. You can also explore our father’s art, expe­ri­ence a vir­tu­al tour of the muse­um, and sign up for our newslet­ter via our Link­tree. Togeth­er, we can ensure that Joseph and Rebec­ca Bau’s sto­ry con­tin­ues to inspire future generations.