TEKIAH GEDOLAH!, Bill's Project : Movies : Amazon Studios

TEKIAH GEDOLAH!

Based on a true story, TEKIAH GEDOLAH! is about the unsolved June 1946 murder of Hans Mielczynski in Germany. The Cold War begins with millions in refugee camps,Black Markets, hunger & disease grip Europe as Hans aids a Jewish girl's escape to a nation in the making, Israel.

Synopsis: THIS IS BASED ON A TRUE STORY.

In May 1946, in Europe the Cold War was just beginning. New international boundaries and new nations were being created. Nazis were being hunted and brought to justice. In post war Germany, former Wehrmacht soldiers and Nazi holdouts were working to subvert Allied control. They attacked transportation infrastructures, communications, and even murdered Allied soldiers. One popular method was poisoning the wine and beer at cafes and bars frequented by Allies. These were die hard Nazis called “Werewolves” who still roamed East and West Germany murdering Allied troops long after the war ended. This is not written about in most American history books.

Refugee camps were created to accommodate people and limit a humanitarian crisis like no other in the history of the world. Millions of refugees, labeled by the newly created UN as “Displaced Persons, or “DP’s”, were living in large DP camps in Germany, Austria and Italy. The nascent UN worked hard but struggled to find order and efficiency to aid refugees. Horrible mistakes were made. These camps housed entire ethnic communities including Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarians and others. Small governments, economies, church communities and the Black Market naturally grew within the camps.

For tens of thousands of Jewish people, it felt like going from one concentration camp to another.
After visiting one camp, Earl G. Harrison, President Truman's envoy noted the following: "We appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazis treated them, except that we don't exterminate them."

UN Repatriation Policy was by nationality, a problem for tens of thousands of Jews from Poland, Hungary, and Russia. Most Jews feared returning to the places where their family had been murdered and property stolen and destroyed. Repatriation was also forced upon tens of thousands DP’s, especially Polish and Ukrainians. These people, who were forced into slave labor camps by the Nazis, were now being forced to go home to the new oppressor in Eastern Europe, Stalin’s Soviet Union.

This is the world of Hans Mielczynski in 1946. Mielczynski was a simple Sapper in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army. The Jewish Brigade was a little known portion of the British Army comprised of Jewish soldiers from the British Mandate Palestine. While stationed in The Netherlands with the Jewish Brigade, Mielczynski helped Jewish refugees escape hatred and suffering inside Europe’s Displaced Persons Camps.

Across the Mediterranean, the British occupied Palestine and power struggles began among Jewish leaders and groups to control the future nation of Israel. Haganah, Etzel, Lehi and the Palmach groups were all involved in an enormous power struggle. At times they cooperated with one another, and at times they attacked one another.

Jewish Fighters attacked the British, targeting roads, rail, airports, bridges and communications. Famous and daring attacks like the bombing of 14 British military aircraft at 5 separate airbases in February 1946, and the infamous King David Hotel Bombing in July 1946 were among the exploits.

Agents for the Haganah, Etzel, Lehi and Palmach were all operating in Europe as well, smuggling people, weapons, money and materials to British occupied Palestine. British Intelligence groups were hard at work trying to hunt these men down to stem the flow of arms, violence, money and refugees to Mandate Palestine.

In this twisted political environment and black marketeering we find Hans Mielczynski. Hans was murdered under mysterious circumstances in June 1946. No one knows why he was murdered. No one ever conducted any criminal investigation into his murder.

The story is not just about Hans, it is about the how life went on after World War II, something rarely discussed outside of academia. It illustrates how languages, cultures, politics and traditions seem to rip Eastern Europe apart still to this very day. The story describes the seemingly perpetual anti climatic sorrows of Polish and Ukrainian people in the 20th Century. The story focuses on the all consuming racism and hatred that still haunts Eastern Europe to this day.

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Creative Notes:

My first attempt at any sort of creative writing. Please accept my apologies in advance for any technical errors in format, grammar etc. Thank you to anyone who reads this without laughing at it. It is a sincere, earnest attempt to remember the forgotten. Most of the other characters are inspired by true history. It’s fact and fiction, mostly fact for Hans, fictional history for the rest.