Escape: The True Story of Morris Schnitzer

Riddle Films have been longtime friends and collaborators of Together, and we had already worked with the Azrieli Foundation on several projects connected to its Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program. Escape grew naturally out of those relationships and a shared interest in finding new ways to bring survivor testimony to audiences.

Escape: The True Story of Morris Schnitzer is a 20-minute animated dramatic film based on the memoirs of Holocaust survivor Morris Schnitzer.

Fleeing Germany before the Second World War, Morris arrives in the Netherlands only to watch the country fall under Nazi occupation. Determined never to enter a concentration camp, he assumes false identities, crosses borders, survives imprisonment and forced labour, joins the Belgian resistance, and ultimately fights to reclaim the name and identity the Nazis tried to take from him.

The film premiered at the BUFF Malmö Film Festival and went on to screen at several other festivals.

What drew us to Morris’s story was not only the extraordinary danger he survived, but his refusal to surrender his freedom or humanity. Every false name, every border crossed, and every act of resistance became another step toward reclaiming both.

Ultimately, Escape is a tribute to Morris Schnitzer and to the countless people who resisted not only Nazi persecution, but the attempted erasure of their identity and humanity.

Together produced the film in association with Riddle Films, and it was presented by the Azrieli Foundation. Hector directed and edited the film, which was written by Pazit and Riddle Films’ Jason Charters.