The cameraman Honon Katz was Dita's uncle (her father's brother). He traveled from Berlin to visit his parents Zemach and Basia Katz in 1929 and shot this film. In 1932, Honon left Berlin for France. At the beginning of the war, he left his belongings, including this film, in his apartment in Paris and traveled south. Dita took the film from Honon in Paris in 1973. Yehudit (Dita) Katz Zupovitz (now Dita Sperling) is the daughter of Itzhak and Liola Katz. She was born in Kovno on April 15, 1922, where her father worked as an economist and her mother as a dentist. Dita has one younger brother, Grisha (also known as Hersch or Zvi). She married Yehuda Zupovitz during her last year of high school, five months before the start of the war. In the Kovno ghetto she and Yehuda lived with her mother, grandfather, brother and aunt. Dita smuggled food while on work details outside of the ghetto in order to keep the family fed. She also smuggled her niece Rina Zupovitz out of the ghetto. Yehuda, deputy chief of the ghetto Jewish police, kept much of his underground activity a secret from Dita, but he did teach her how to shoot a rifle. Shortly after Yehuda's arrest in March 1944 and subsequent murder at Fort IX, Dita was sent to the Sanciai labor camp. From there, she was deported to Stutthof in July. Dita survived along with her mother and brother. Her father was killed in the June 1941 pogroms in Kovno; and her grandmother, Basia, was killed during the March 1944 action that targeted the children and the elderly. Her cousin (the baby) died on a death march to Stutthof. The cameraman Honon Katz was Dita's uncle (her father's brother). He traveled from Berlin to visit his parents Zemach and Basia Katz in 1929 and shot this film. In 1932, Honon left Berlin for France. At the beginning of the war, he left his belongings, including this film, in his apartment in Paris and traveled south. Dita took the film from Honon in Paris in 1973.
Some material was used in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's special exhibition"Hidden History of the Kovno Ghett" on display from November 21, 1997 to October 3, 1999.
Prewar footage (home movies) of the Katz family in 1929. Kovno street scenes. VAR CUs of Katz family strolling along Laisves al., showing Dita's mother Liola, grandfather, brother, uncle, and grandmother. 01:00:34 MS EXT of the grandfather's wholesale trade store - C. KACAS - on Presidento gatve. Here, the family sold typewriters, sewing machines, and bicycles. VAR shots of store and family at door of store. Dita's cousin Raya (Honon's sister) in a baby carriage. CUs, Dita's grandmother Basia Katz; cameraman Honon Katz and his friend; Dita's aunt Rachel Katz and Dita's mother Liola Katz. Pedestrians. Pan, man working on cobblestone sidewalk, city center, horse and cart passing in FG. Children. Cobblestone streets. Dr. Kantarovich and his wife walking towards camera. CUs, Katz family members and friends posing in front of the family store. Sign:"24 Laivas 2" with large domed church in BG. 01:02:01 CUs, Dita's brother Grisha. More street scenes, officer with white gloves greets friend and salutes, pedestrians, Jew, queue of empty horse carts. 01:02:23 Policeman directing traffic, trams pass,"Otto Schwar" sign on building. Yasha Katz (brother of Honon) traveling in his automobile in Riga, walking through park, lakeside. Street scenes in Riga. 01:03:54 Ice hockey. Children on sled, snow. Street scenes, pan up of large administrative building. 01:04:31 Yasha Katz walks towards camera, possibly in front of a synagogue. Man with bundle on his back purchases newspaper from a stand. 01:04:38 In Lvov, street scene, automobiles, shops, pedestrians [Honon Katz was in Lvov to take care of his father's bicycle business]. Yasha Katz walks towards camera. 01:05:12:10 Kiosk with poster and very large letters:"MILOSC KOZAKA" Polish soldiers, open-air market (occurring weekly), clothing. Yasha pretending to purchase chickens from an old man sitting on the sidewalk. CUs, villagers/market vendors. Posters. 01:06:46 Children playing on sidewalk near fence. Slow pan of village, sweeping the street, horse and cart, bicycles."Fryzie" on side of building, pan up to tower. Man walking with basket. Child begging. CUs of Jews, walking through streets and park, some gather on stairwell (Agudas Yisroel?). Crowded sidewalks, women with baskets, bundles and shawls. CUs, feet walking. Horse-drawn cart, shops in BG. Shop sign,"N. Weinre". Muddy streets. CUs, Katz family members pose in front of marketplace selling wares such as sewing machines, gramophones, and bicycles. Man with ties, market scenes with Katz family, fruit, vendors, Jews. 01:11:04 Train, villagers on horse and cart, construction. 01:11:23 Yasha posing in front of train in Kovno, near the shore of the Neiman River. Cobblestones. VAR shots of village (Lvov?), construction, trains, woman with buckets.
Jewish life in prewar Kovno, Riga, and Lvov