Westerbork Girl

In World War II, Hannelore Cahn is one of the dancing girls in the revue at Westerbork Camp. She is beautiful and has a girlish charm, which turns heads, like that of the Viennese, jewish camp policeman Hans Eisinger. Hannelore finds his Austrian accent charming, but her great love is the Jewish actor Rob de Vries, whom she met during the early days of the war. One day, Rob helps her escape. He disguises as a train stoker and takes her to Amsterdam, where she goes into hiding. But Eisinger manages to track her down and one week after her escape Hannelore voluntarily accompanies him back to the camp. Shortly thereafter, they get married in Westerbork. Hannelore survives the war. Today she is eighty-three years old and lives in New York, where she tells her story with remarkable vivacity in front of the camera, complemented with interviews with people involved. She tries to explain why she returned to the camp, knowing that people who tried to escape were immediately dispatched to Auschwitz. A story about love and impossible choices in wartime.