Welcome to our first edition of Berlin Calling Behind the Scenes. Throughout filming of the documentary, Kastle Waserman took photos for her personal scrapbook of the places seen while researching her father’s story as a Holocaust survivor. Now she’s opening up the book to share the sights and emotions behind the photos.

Theresienstadt. Photo by Kastle Waserman 2009. All rights reserved.

This is #14 Hauptstrasse, the building in Theresienstadt concentration camp where Ben Waserman was imprisoned for two years. It’s now an apartment building.

“As we saw people taking liesurely walks in the park and pushing baby strollers, we couldn’t help but think how people could live there knowing what happened,” says Kastle of seeing the place.

Also known as Terezin, the camp was a military garrison town in Czechoslovakia that was designed for 8K soldiers. When the Wasermans arrived in June of 1943, they were squeezed in with 50K prisoners living in filthy, disease-ridden conditions.

The first thing Ben sees as he enters the camp is 7 people just hanged in the gallows.