Another Road Home

‘Watermarks’ will open the sixth annual Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival.

By: Jim Boyle
   It’s impossible to know every story of triumph and tragedy from the Holocaust. Many more than the millions who lost lives were affected personally by the actions of the Third Reich, each compelling in its own way. The story of a female swimming team is no exception.
   Originally planned as a documentary on soccer, Watermarks chronicles the reunion of seven women from an Austrian champion swim team and tells their tale of survival through tumultuous times. Directed by Yaron Zilberman, the 84-minute film kicks off the sixth annual Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 13 at 1:30 p.m. at Regal Cinemas in North Brunswick. Greta Stanton, a diver featured in Watermarks and professor emeritus at Rutgers, will speak at both screenings.
   "It’s a very cute story," says Ms. Stanton from her home in Skillman. "The director is a soccer aficionado and wanted to do a movie about soccer, but someone gave him the idea about us. He called around to see if we were still alive, and we were, living all around the world."
   Ms. Stanton and her teammates, Elisha Susz, Ann Marie Pisker, Hanni Lux, Anni Lampl, Nanne Selinger and Trude Hirshcler, were members of the legendary Jewish sports club, Hakoah Vienna. Formed in 1909 in response to the Aryan Paragraph that forbade Austrian sports clubs from accepting Jews, it went on to produce world-class athletes and is still operating today. The 1930s swim team is one of its biggest success stories, dominating European pools before the 1938 Anschluss, which unified Germany and Austria, closed the club.
   Ms. Stanton stayed in Vienna another year, supporting her family by teaching English, then emigrated to America. She helped her parents escape by arranging a visa to Cuba. She has lived in New Jersey since 1971, when she began teaching in the social work department of Rutgers University. "Even though I didn’t go to a concentration camp," says Ms. Stanton, "I consider myself a survivor. Anybody who lived during those times is a survivor. I lost a few family members to horrible deaths."
   The Holocaust is the subject for several other films in the Jewish Film Festival. Rosenstrasse (Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m.) is a drama about Aryan women protesting the imprisonment of their Jewish spouses. Two films screening Nov. 15 at 1 p.m., Unzere Kinder and My 100 Children, focus on young survivors. Meanwhile, Paperclips (Nov. 15 and 17, 4:30 p.m.) is about a Tennessee rural town that undergoes a Holocaust awareness school project.
   "The Holocaust has a lot of historical background," says Ms. Stanton. "It’s not just my story. It happened to many other families. I’m just happy to talk about my experiences."
   Other movies included are Ushpizin (Nov. 12, 8 p.m., Nov. 13, 4:45 p.m.), about a childless couple penniless on the eve of Sukkot and Another Road Home (Nov. 20, 1 p.m.), about an Israeli filmmaker’s search for the Palestinian man who helped raise her. The festival closes Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. with a dinner and screening of Alles Auf Zucker, a comedy about two brothers who must mend their estranged relationship in order to collect their mother’s inheritance.
The Sixth Annual Rutgers Jewish Film Festival will take place at Regal Cinemas, 2399 Route 1 South, North Brunswick, Nov. 10-20. Tickets cost $9, $6 seniors/students. Gala opening reception Nov. 10, 6 p.m.; closing reception Nov. 20, 7 p.m.; reception tickets cost $18. For information, call (732) 932-4166. On the Web: jewishstudies.rutgers.edu. Watermarks on the Web: www.kino.com/watermarks