The House on Telegraph Hill
- APPROVED
- Year:
- 1951
- 93 min
- 82 Views
This is San Francisco
as it looks from Telegraph Hill.
And this is the house
on Telegraph Hill...
where I once thought I would find
peace and contentment.
This is how it looks today,
but my story begins 11 years ago...
and 7,000 miles away
in another house near Warsaw...
in my native Poland.
My name is Victoria Kowelska...
and this was my home.
It looked like this in 1939
when my husband came home on leave.
And this is what was left
after the Germans had passed.
In one stroke,
I had lost my husband...
my home,
everything I held dear...
and had become one of the thousands
of miserable strays...
who were herded into prisons
and concentration camps.
- How the will to live survives
in a place like Belsen...
I do not know.
But I wanted to live.
I was determined to...
and I was just as determined that my
friend Karin Dernakova should live too.
I had met Karin, a fellow countrywoman,
in the camp.
But she was sick and frail-
too frail for the life of that camp.
And she had more to live for
than most of us.
Her infant son had been smuggled out
of Poland just before the war...
to an aunt in San Francisco.
And if she ever lived through this,
she would join them.
Just think, Vicki.
He's talking and walking by now.
And if he would see me...
he wouldn't even know me.
Please, Karin,
you must eat.
You must keep up
your strength.
What's the use, Vicki?
We'll never get out of here.
I'll never see
my Christopher again.
Hey! Let go!
You dirty hypocrite! You don't care
about her any more than I do!
You only stick to her like a leech
because she has rich relatives in America.
Oh! Oh!
take care of you when we get out of here.
- Don't listen to her.
- She'll never get out of here alive!
None of us will ever
get out of here alive!
We are going to get out.
We are.
Eat your food.
You will come to America
with me, Vicki, won't you?
Aunt Sophie has
a big house on the hill.
with my Christopher.
She will be glad if I bring you,
because you've helped me so much.
Oh, Karin.
Karin was my friend...
Karin was my friend...
and I fought for her survival
as I fought for my own.
But in the end, I was beaten.
I had done
everything I could for her.
I stole food, medicine...
and I fought off
the others.
I had tried to keep her mind filled only
with thoughts of her son and her aunt.
But with the German army on the run
and liberation only days away...
Karin Dernakova
and our dreams of America...
lay on the cold floor
of Belsen.
All of Karin's identification
was in that bundle.
Her aunt had not seen her
since she was a little girl.
I knew as much about
Karin's life as about my own.
Why not?
Why shouldn't I be Karin Dernakova?
Three days later,
I came before the liberators.
Karin Dernakova.
She's scared to death.
Tell her we're her friends- that we
wanna help her find her home, her family.
Yes, sir.
Get some water.
Here. Drink.
Tell her not to be afraid-
that nobody's gonna hurt her.
There. That's better.
- I'm all right now.
- You speak English.
A little.
I learned it at school.
I am sorry to make you
all this trouble.
You make us
all the trouble you want.
Yell if you'd like to.
You're entitled to it.
Some more of
the same stuff, sir.
- You're from Warsaw?
- Yes.
Well, you'll wanna go back home
as soon as possible, I suppose?
I have no home.
It was destroyed.
No, I meant,
back to your family.
No family left in Poland.
- My-My parents were killed.
My husband also.
- I'm sorry.
In other words,
you don't wanna be repatriated.
Oh, no! Poland does not exist
anymore for me.
- If you force me to go back-
- We're here to help people...
not to force anybody
to do anything.
I feel I should explain,
though, that the alternative
is a camp for displaced persons.
I'm afraid that isn't
Do you have any idea
what you would like to do?
Oh, I-I will take care
of myself somehow.
I guess that's all for now.
Thank you, Major.
You're very kind.
Just a minute.
This must have fallen out
of your bundle.
It belongs to a Victoria Kowelska.
Who is she?
- She's dead.
- How do you happen to have this?
She was my friend.
We kept our things
together.
She will not need this...
anymore.
So now for better or for worse...
I was Karin Dernakova.
I was soon transferred to
The moment I arrived there, I sent
a cable to Aunt Sophie in America...
and signed Karin's name to it.
and signed Karin's name to it.
The answer came
in a few days.
- Karin Dernakova.
- Dernakova?
- Mm-hmm.
- Oh, yes.
Here it is. Just came across
from the message center.
I'll read it for you.
"Your cable address to Mrs. John Albertson
forwarded to us.
- Advise:
addressee deceased."- Please?
Deceased.
It means the person's dead.
"Exhaustive search revealed
all known relatives abroad dead.
"Address all further communications
to our eastern representative...
"Joseph C. Callahan, Attorney,
New York City.
"Signed, Bennett,
Compton and Maxwell...
attorneys for
the Albertson estate."
I'll make a copy for you.
And that was my answer-
a cable from an unknown lawyer
in the unattainable city of New York.
And my hopes gone
with that cable.
In that moment,
I nearly gave up.
But I'd lived with my dream
too long...
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"The House on Telegraph Hill" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_house_on_telegraph_hill_20471>.
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