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The Hakoah ("The Strength" in Hebrew) Vienna Sports Club was formed in 1909 in response to the infamous "Aryan Paragraph" banning Jewish athletes, which was adopted by most Austrian sports clubs. Its founders were eager both to create a place where Jewish children could practice sports, and to popularize athletic competition in a community that was known for such great minds as Freud, Mahler and Zweig, but had little reputation for physical excellence. The Hakoah quickly became a formidable club, with the women's swim team dominating many national Austrian competitions.
Combining recent interviews and archival footage, WATERMARKS follows eight swim-team veterans of the Hakoah Vienna Sports Club as they return to Vienna more than 60 years after they fled. Now living in London, Ann-Marie (Pick) Pisker remembers how she was determined to participate in the club as a teenager, despite her father's disapproval. Sisters Judith (Deutsch) Haspel and Hanni (Deutsch) Lux reminisce about the numerous championships that the team won.
One competition brought the team to Palestine for the 2nd Maccabiah ("Jewish Olympics"). Elisheva (Schmidt) Susz, who has since settled in Israel, remembers how she felt so welcomed and accepted, and knew even then that she would emigrate. "I don't know how to describe it," she says. "I simply fell in love with the country, the freedom, the welcome, the way Jews treated me...I wasn't used to things like that. I was told what it meant to be Jewish. Suddenly, I felt that maybe I do belong. Maybe it's wrong that I felt so alienated."
As the women recall the discrimination they suffered under the Nazis, their memories are marked by fear and anger. Hanni remembers the humiliation of seeing signs in all swimming pools in Germany stating, "Dogs and Jews are forbidden." Judith, who was set to represent Austria at the 1936 Olympics, decided not to participate rather than compete in Nazi Berlin. As punishment, she was permanently banned from competing and stripped of her awards, her records erased from the books.
Elisheva emotionally explains how she is unable to forgive or forget. After all these years, she still has trouble looking a fellow Austrian of her generation in the eye, saying, "I can never meet people...I automatically start to calculate: How old were they in 1938? If they are around my age, I can't even look at them."
In 1938, the Hakoah Sports Club was shut down by the Austrian government. Its leaders fled, but not before helping other members emigrate. With its athletes scattered across the world, the spirit and memory of the club were kept alive by "The Hakoah Immigration Newsletter," which gave updates on former members, and helped maintain a feeling of togetherness.
Some of them had not been back to Austria in the 60 years since they fled. The prospect of reliving bad memories made some reluctant to return. Elisheva explains, "It's not easy to go back there. There are too many painful memories." Yet after reuniting, the women giggle as they look through old photo albums, swapping stories of boys they liked and marveling at their once youthful appearances.
Despite the terror of those years -- Hanni recalls a horrific walk the team took during the torch-bearing parade prior to the 1936 Olympics, when the crowd was completely silent -- the stories each woman tells are an inspiration for subsequent generations. Their journeys prove that time, distance and even overwhelming adversity cannot erase the bond they will always share.
WATERMARKS received the Audience Award at the Palm Springs Film International Festival, and was screened at the Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Diego Jewish Film Festivals. It was also an official selection for the 2004 Jerusalem Film Festival, where it won an award for cinematography, and the 2005 New York Jewish Film Festival. The film also received an honorable mention at the 2004 Viennale International Film Festival.
WATERMARKS was written and directed by Yaron Zilberman; produced by Yonatan Israel and Yaron Zilberman; co-producer, Philippa Kowarsky; director of photography, Tom Hurwitz; sound recordist, Tully Chen; editors, Yuval Shar and Ruben Korenfeld; executive producers, Paul Rozenberg, Amir Ben-Zion, Mojdeh Danial and Shlomo Israel.
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