DALIA SABLE

DOCUMENTARY The Sleeping Book, about the translation of a book first published by a Holocaust survivor in 1948, will be re-screened on ABC-TV’s Compass this week.

It tells of Melbourne ophthalmologist Henry Lew’s mission to revive a story written by Rafael Rajzner that meticulously described Bialystok, its 60,000 Jewish residents and their destruction by the Nazis.

The Sleeping Book follows Lew’s quest to have Rajzner’s work translated from its original Yiddish into English -– with the title The Stories our Parents Found too Painful to Tell -– in no conventional manner.

Lew appealed to the international Yiddish speaking community, sending 10 pages to people in countries all over the world.

What resulted was the translation of a true story that began in Poland almost 70 years ago, quietly landed in Melbourne for 60 years before taking off around the world from New York to Canada.

The Sleeping Book will be screened on Compass, ABC1 on Sunday, December 27 at 10pm.