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FitnessProsBooks.com - Watermarks - The Jewish swimming champions who defied Hitler
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List Price: $29.95
Our Price: $17.99
Your Save: $ 11.96 ( 40% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Kino Video
Starring: Elisheva Susz, Ann Marie Pisker, Hanni Lux, Judith Deutsch, Greta Stanton
Directed By: Yaron Zilberman
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0738329043926
Format: Closed-captioned
Label: Kino Video
Manufacturer: Kino Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Kino Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2005-12-06
Running Time: 77
Studio: Kino Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Strength
Comment: The Jewish sports club HaKoach (the strength) was formed in 1907, when Viennese sport clubs began to form, but alas, barred Jews.
At its peak, a former HaKoach officer reports, the club had more than 3,000 active youthful participants, who represented Austria in sports from soccer and fencing to swimming.
The film documents the reunion of seven champion Jewish swimmers who fled Vienna in August 1939, more than a year after the Anschluss, Hilter's annexation of Austria to Germany, and a month prior to the Hitler's attack on Poland beginning World War II.
It's a wonderfully touching documentary, and a testament to the human spirit.
---Alyssa A. Lappen
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent sports documentary . . .
Comment: This documentary takes a footnote in sports history and wonderfully illuminates the human drama behind it. It's difficult to add to the glowing comments already made here about this film. Probably it's most remarkable achievement is the evocation of a time and place we already think we know well - the 1930s in Austria - where Jews have been traditionally banned from membership in sports clubs, and the anti-semitic rantings of Hitler are being embraced by a ready and willing public.
The existence of the Jewish sports organization, Hakoah, meant several things to the young women who became members of its Olympic-class swimming team at this critical point in European history. Watching the film, you marvel at how circumstance can dramatically shape the lives of individuals. In this case, it seizes them first out of anonymity and gives them identities as athletes; it introduces them to the growing Jewish community in Palestine that was to become Israel; then it saves them from the death camps by sending them in a last-minute diaspora to countries around the world where they live the rest of their lives - far from the middle-class Vienna that they had known and loved as young girls.
Now almost 70 years later, a handful of them gather in Vienna to meet again and relive the best memories of the past. Meanwhile, the ghost of that past also lives on, and the filmmakers do not shrink from including the most chilling of the memories as well. Worse still, the driver of a car service makes no secret of his own ambivalent opinion of Jews by referring to them unapologetically as "nonnatives." It's a fascinating film for its willingness to range across such a complex and difficult range of emotions. The DVD includes many extras including additional interview footage and deleted scenes.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a must see documentary
Comment: This is a wonderful film that encompasses topics such as women in sport, antisemitism in Austria in the 30s, and aging.
The filmmaker, Yaron Zilberman, has carefully crafted this work of art, by researching the subject of a Jewish swim club in Vienna in the 30s, "Hakoah" ("the strength"). This club had a number of world class swimmers, who decided to ban the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Mr. Zilberman gently interviews the women, all in their 80s now, about their feelings vis-a-vis their return to Vienna for another swim in the pool they had swam in 60 years ago. The film climaxes in their reunion in Vienna, and the swim at the gorgeous art deco pool.
The film has moments of laughter, sadness, anger, awe, and irony. The choice of music adds another layer to the film a great deal.
I saw the film a number of times, and each time I discovered new layers in it. I highly recommend this film.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Once Were Waterbabies
Comment: "Watermarks" is a remarkable documentary, as remarkable as the women whose stories it tells. It harkens back to early 20th century Vienna, Austria, a time when the Jewish community was well-settled, prosperous, and largely assimilated, and tells the true story of Hakoah, a Jewish sports club, the largest membership sports club in the world. We mainly learn about the women's swim team: they are charming, intelligent, high-spirited, and as independent as the times allow them to be. These women were athletes, and in the old footage, you can see that they just loved to swim: there's even a lot of footage of their happily diving into the Danube River, which, at that time, must have been as unpleasant an open sewer as most of the world's other major urban rivers.
During the 1930's,three of these women were ranked the numbers 1-2-3- Austrian swimmers. They had to make a choice about participation in the 1936 Olympics, in Hitler's Germany, and chose not to attend. The Austrian Sports Board thereupon stripped them of their titles. Of course, there was worse to come, but these Viennese women were quite sophisticated enough to recognize that: they,and their families all got out of Austria in time. They follow their motto "Say yes to life," in exile, and prove every bit as remarkable as they were at home. Finally, as part of the making of this documentary, the remaining women who were able to travel reassemble in Vienna, and take one more swim in the great and beautiful sports hall of their youthful triumphs. There's sheer joy as they slip into the water again; and not a dry eye in the house.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent, moving, well-made documentary film
Comment: For those who have an interest in Jewish life in pre-World War II Vienna, this film is the best source for a glimpse into that world: a burgeoning world where Jews thrived and above all were happy, well-adjusted Viennese.
The women who tell their stories describe their childhoods and parents in early 20th century Vienna and participation in the great Jewish swim team, Hakoah - and the changes in Vienna that took place in the 1930s leading to their emigration to countries all over the world and the rude ending of their competitive swimming careers. The women's courage - and wit - come across beautifully. One sees the side of these women that is still Viennese (reciting Austrian verse by heart in a Mushav in Israel, singing along to songs by Leopoldi) while also seeing them in their homes of 50 years in the United States or Israel - where it becomes apparent that the women have since managed also to become American, Israeli, etc - whereever they ended up after the war. At the end of the film they return to Vienna to swim one more lap in the pool where they once competed.
You will cherish this film as a magnificently made documentary about an extraordinary group of women whose youth was spent in a place (thriving, burgeoning Jewish Vienna) that sadly no longer exists - but should never be forgotten.
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