Ella Blumenthal

Ella Blumenthal (born 15 August 1921) is a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor. In 1940, she was moved to the Warsaw Ghetto, where she participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. She and her niece Roma Rothstein were the only members of their immediate family to survive the Holocaust. She is the subject of the 2021 documentary I am Here.

Early life Ella Blumenthal was born on 25 July 1921, in Warsaw, Poland. She was the youngest of seven children. Her father was a textile merchant. She had a happy childhood and was a happy teenager until the Nazi Invasion of Poland in 1939. In October 1940, she was forcibly put into the Warsaw Ghetto along with her family. In the Warsaw Ghetto, Blumenthal helped an underground Jewish organization publish and distribute leaflets. As one of the leaflets said,

Citizens, Jews awaken from your lethargy, stand up to fight. Do not believe that they are sending us to labour camps. It is a vicious lie. Our brothers and sisters are being brutally murdered in the death camp Treblinka. Brothers, prepare to defend yourselves. Those who are not fit for fighting should go underground and hide in cellars and bunkers. Turn every building into a fortress. We have no right to occupy the surface of the earth, because we are condemned to death. From 19 April to 16 May 1943, Blumenthal helped to participate in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. After the uprising failed, she and the remaining Jews were transported to the Majdanek and Treblinka death camps.

Life in concentration camps From 1943 to 1945, Blumenthal stayed in three concentration camps: Majdanek, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen. In Majdanek, her father, along with most of the other older prisoners, was sent to the gas chambers. Blumenthal and Rothstein were also sent to the gas chambers, but by chance there were 700 women in the gas chamber when the "quota" was 500. Because of this, 200 women were removed from the gas chamber.

After the war After the war, Blumenthal went to Warsaw with the hope of finding her remaining family members who had not been in the Warsaw Ghetto. Blumenthal was able to make contact with Rothstein's father. He had survived by leaving the Warsaw Ghetto and moving to Tel Aviv. He managed to get Blumenthal sent to Paris, where she lived until 1947, when the Rothsteins got a visa for her to join them in Tel Aviv. In Tel Aviv, Blumenthal met her future husband, whom she married 13 days after meeting him. She turned 100 on 25 July that year.

Awards won by I am Here:

Audience Choice Award, Durban International Film Festival, 2021 Jury Award for Best SA Documentary (Oscar Qualifying), Durban International Film Festival, 2021 Best Director, Jozi Film Festival, 2021 Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary, Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, 2021 Best Director, Africa Human Rights Film Festival, 2021 Audience Choice Award, Africa Human Rights Film Festival, 2021