[Cz-L] a wonderful thing concerning to Traian Popovici

Dear Mr. Halmay,
It's wonderful! Your proposal is very exciting. I'm sorry that my
English isnot very good I can't tell you what I'm feeling now. I
think that nothing is accidental on this earth! Your initiative is
more than I wish. Is it it really possible? I thought at this
possibility some months ago, but Irenounced at this thought on
account of lack of interest with regard to TraianPopovici. However,
he does't deserves this attitude! Although I am not jews, I think
that God love us all together and wants this man to became what he is
worth: a hero!!!!! We own it to him.

Traian Popovici's autobiography might be read here:
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Bukowinabook/buk2_062.html

Of course, I have got more information about him, but the majority is
in Romanian. Also, I'm researching his life but this suppose a
difficult and intense work. I have information about his childhood,
but these are intermittents. I think we could find more in
Czernowitz archives. We must work together for our common goal and
events, both Czernowitz and Cimpulung could be done at the same time.
This if we want a strongly publicity!

I appreciate your implication!!!! Thank you very much for hope!

Best wishes,
Florentin




> Date: Sun, 4 May 2008 09:17:53 -0400
> To: Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu
> From: venivici_at_rogers.com
> Subject: [Cz-L] Re: czernowitz-l digest: May 03, 2008
>
> Dear Compatriots:
>
>
>
> Regarding Traian Popovici and the plaque, let us put it in perspective.
>
> 1. Plaques, regardless of the importance of the message they
> carry, often go unnoticed, particularly by the young. The whole
> effort is not that big a deal.
>
>
>
> 2. When it comes to languages to be used, the following must be
> taken into consideration.
>
>
>
> a. We must include Romanian since the man we honor is Romanian.
>
> b. We must include German since that was the official language
> spoken in Czernowitz for a longer period in history than any other.
>
> c. We must have English because that is today's Lingua Franca, and
> even in Romania it has replaced French.
>
> d. And we have to have Ukrainian since the plaque's host
> country is the Ukraine.
>
> e. It would be nice to include Yiddish. I suspect, however,
> that more people in the world can understand spoken Yiddish but get
> lost when trying to read it. It would be nice to add Hebrew out of
> respect but the relevance of Hebrew to Popovici is a bit thin and
> thus less important.
>
> f. The content of the text should provide some perspective on the
> numbers who died and the numbers Popovici saved.
>
>
>
> 3. Some time back, Miriam Taylor, perhaps the greatest
> Czernowitz champion, suggested to me that I make a film about
> Czernowitz. I explained that films need strong stories that will
> persuade funding sources that they will attract audiences so that the
> investment doesn't go down the drain. I knew of no such stories
> about Czernowitz.
>
>
>
> Now, having been introduced to Popovici and having done additional
> research, I feel we have a powerful story for a film. Compared to
> Schindler, Popovici is huge. Schindler saved 1,200 Jews off whom he
> made good profits, and his original motivation leading to contact
> with these victims was greed. Popovici saved 20,000 and he had
> nothing material to gain in saving them. At worst, he may have risked
> his own life. He was a man of great character, a super-mensch.
>
>
>
> While deeply moved by Spielberg's film on Schindler, from a story
> perspective I felt the script left much to be desired. He
> concentrated on the victims instead of on the man who was supposed to
> be the hero. I would have liked to have been given more perspective
> on the man and his character and the mental process that took him
> from exploiter to benefactor and savior.
>
>
>
> With Popovici, a similar and yet very different story, I would like
> to give audiences far greater perspective on the man while providing
> an historical progression that led to the Holocaust. Depending on
> what details I can find on the man, his childhood, his family and all
> the elements that formed his character, I want to start the story
> early, before WW I.
>
>
>
> Concurrently, there will be a parallel story of a Jewish family in
> Czernowitz who become the focal point representative of all Jews in
> Czernowitz. It is more effective to give audiences individuals with
> whom they can identify and who represent larger numbers than giving
> them crowds and statistics that are impersonal.
>
>
>
> At the same time, and to me this is one of the most important parts
> of the film, we show progressive historical events in Europe that led
> to the war; Hitler's progress, the apathy and ignorance of leaders of
> the other powers, the obsequiousness of Chamberlain, etc., etc.
>
>
>
> At this point the details of the story are still vague in my mind but
> I have decided on its structure which will include a relevant
> narrator which gives us economical leeway in covering events
> graphically. And I know exactly how the film will start - in the
> present - with the unveiling of a statue of Popovici at which we also
> find a small crowd of young students and their history teacher. He
> begins to tell them the story and then we dissolve to action, but
> whenever appropriate, we can use his voice-over narration to cover
> certain events or aspects with a sentence that would have incurred
> great costs with crews on location, etc.
>
>
>
> I have felt all along, while discussions continued on the plaque,
> that a statue would be far more appropriate. If we can get the film
> off the ground, we'll have a statue and the unveiling will be visible
> to the entire world through the film and with clips on the web.
>
>
>
> I started yesterday to gather relevant data for the screenplay. I
> call this the gathering of pollen period. Pollen from different
> plants and flowers gets churned up in the mind and hopefully turns to
> sweet honey in the screenplay.
>
>
>
> I have written to Mr. Lehaci asking for any detailed background he
> may have on Popovici and/or some direction where additional data may
> be found. Google is the greatest blessing in such efforts. In about
> seven hours yesterday, I gathered pages and pages of data, many
> stories from survivors, but so far nothing directly related to
> Popovici. I will contact the executive director of Shoa at USC who
> have some 52 thousand interviews with Holocaust survivors. Hopefully
> they will have some stories that relate to our situation. But
> ultimately, with that part of the story, we can take literary license
> and make the Jewish family an amalgam of stories with fictional bits
> to provide fully fleshed out characters who are relevant and credible.
>
>
>
> I hope that among you, the members of the Cz Group, there will be
> stories you can share of people who survived thanks to Traian
> Popovici and I thank you in advance for any information you may be
> able to supply.
>
>
>
> Alles gutes - cu noroc.
>
> Andy Halmay.
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Received on 2008-05-05 01:11:06