Join us for the UK premiere of the screening of the documentary film "The Jews of Lackenbach" by Austrian film maker Norbert Blecha. The screening will take place in English, followed by a Q&A with Norbert Blecha and the author of the book "Burgenland, Village Secrets", David Joseph.
This event sheds light onto a chapter of Austrian history that has long been overlooked.
Until the middle of the 19th century, Lackenbach (Hungarian: Lakompak, Croatian: Lakimpuh) in the district of Oberpullendorf was one of the seven communities with the largest Jewish population under Esterházy rule in the present-day Burgenland, which had been under sovereign protection as Jewish settlements since the 18th century. These seven communities fell victim to National Socialist rule - the Burgenland was declared “free of Jews” as early as April 1938.
About the film "The Jews of Lackenbach"
The gripping and intensely moving documentary film examines the experience of those who managed to escape Austria and those that perished in the Holocaust. It centres around the question of collective memory of what was once the largest Jewish community in the Burgenland: How do the descendants of the Jewish residents remember Lackenbach? And how have the residents of Lackenbach today reacted to this history?
Born in Vienna, Norbert Blecha started out as a stuntman and actor in Hollywood at age 24. For the next 10 years he worked with many international stars and formed valuable business relationships with important film production companies in Los Angeles, which he has maintained to this day.
Norbert Blecha received "Das Goldene Ehrenzeichen für die Verdienste um die Republik Österreich" 2013. He is President of the Jury of the "International Catholic Film Festival" in Vatican since 2014. Last year he won an Emmy for the documentary "PEZ Outlaw".
About the book "Burgenland, Village Secrets"
David Joseph’s "Burgenland, Village Secrets" (Amberley) is a remarkable and meticulously researched book relating what happened to his mother’s family that had lived in Lackenbach before the Second World War. His family were part of an orthodox Jewish community living in the Burgenland for many generations under the protection of the Esterházy Princes. That protection came to a sudden end with the Anschluss. All Jewish life in the region was eradicated in April 1938 as a “birthday present” to Hitler. This was the first ethnic cleansing of Jews in the Reich and took place in Austria. After the Burgenland was declared to be judenrein, attention focussed on the Roma population who suffered greatly at the hands of the local Nazis.
David Joseph KC is a practising barrister and King’s Counsel, specialising in commercial law and international arbitration. He took seven years to research and write the book, making use of numerous primary and original sources. He lives in London with his family. He is a Visiting Professor in Law and Associate Law Faculty Member at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also the founder and President of the Chamonix Vallee Classics Music Festival and is researching a second book which he hopes to write, when time permits.
