They were arrested, deported and exiled from Warsaw after the uprising – women of all ages, with various experiences, who suddenly found themselves in hell.

WE MUST NOT CRY

Directed by Michał Miziołek, Małgorzata Grygiel & Wojciech Saramonowicz
Written by Małgorzata Grygiel & Michał Miziołek

“We Must Not Cry” is a documentary about Polish women deported to German concentration camps. They were arrested for underground resistance activities – often carried out by their entire families – displaced from their homes without a warning, and exiled from Warsaw after the uprising. Women who were deprived of their youth, girls whose childhood had been stolen.

The women interviewed in the film were deported to KL Auschwitz-Birkenau, KL Bergen-Belsen and KL Ravensbrück. The former prisoners talk about the horrors of the camps from a woman’s perspective. A girl detained at the same camp, but separated from her mother; the mother fearing for her daughter’s safety, well aware that she has no power to help her. Polish women subjected to pseudo-medical experiments. Women who gave birth at concentration camps.

The former prisoners interviewed in the film experienced boundary situations. They saw their friends being executed. Their survival was determined by random incidents. Even the most creative playwrights could never come up with the stories that these women experienced in person.

“You’re not allowed to cry at the camp. If you start crying, it's over for you,” said one of our interviewees – Alicja Kubecka, a former prisoner of KL Ravensbrück. The women could finally cry only after the liberation of the camps by the Allies. Before that, however, they had to go through another traumatic experience: death marches.
“We Must Not Cry” shows the strength of women who were sent to hell and survived it.