Hundreds attended the moving film screening and discussion of “Bau, Artist at War,” at the Center for Jewish History in New York City on March 2. B’nai B’rith International and the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme hosted the event in partnership with the Center.

Joseph Bau was among the 1,100 Jews saved by Nazi industrialist Oskar Schindler. His secret marriage to Rebecca Tannenbaum in a concentration camp in Poland was immortalized in the film “Schindler’s List.” But there is much more to Bau’s legacy as the man who would later become “Israel’s Walt Disney” and serve the Mossad intelligence agency to help enable the activities of legendary spy Eli Cohen and the capture of Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann. Now, with the new biographical film, “Bau, Artist at War,” more of his remarkable life has been revealed.

After the screening, B’nai B’rith CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin led a discussion, along with Deborah Smerecnik, the movie’s writer and producer; Sean McNamara, the film’s director; and Clila and Hadasa Bau, the daughters of Joseph and Rebecca Bau.

Mariaschin noted, “As the Holocaust fades from living memory with the passing of the survivors, we are going to have to find different ways to remember the Shoah, and this event, commemorating the lives of those that were lost and those that survived through art and through the voice of succeeding generations, is the past, present and future of our efforts.”

Watch the full conversation at the Center for Jewish History here.

Background:

• The B’nai B’rith Podcast, Conversations with B’nai B’rith, previously featured the story of Joseph and Rebecca Bau. Watch here.
• The B’nai B’rith World Center-Jerusalem and the Committee to Recognize the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust acknowledged the heroism of Joseph and Rebecca Bau in an April 2020 ceremony. The Jewish Rescuers Citation, a joint project of the World Center and the Committee, identifies and honors Jews who endangered themselves during the Holocaust to rescue fellow Jews.