To Auschwitz and Back

Born in Zakroczym, Poland in 1927, Holocaust survivor Joe Engel was taken by the Nazis at fourteen and never saw his parents again. Now ninety years old, Joe is the embodiment of living history and spends his retirement years ensuring the Holocaust is never forgotten. With the assistance of The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s film and photographic archives, filmmaker Ron Small has successfully weaved Joe’s incredible storytelling into a riveting presentation that is both historic and contemporary. From the overwhelming despair of the Warsaw Ghetto to the shroud of unceasing death and suffering that was Birkenau and Auschwitz, his escape from a Death Train at seventeen, and his covert work as a freedom fighter, Joe goes on a vivid journey to hell and back. With an unwavering will to live, he overcame unimaginable horrors to become a treasured citizen, community leader, teacher, and philanthropist.