When Cartoonist and Animator Zoom Rockman read Holocaust survivor Ivor Pearl’s testimony, he began a year-long journey that would bring Ivor’s story powerfully to life.
Survivor, a groundbreaking animated drama, screen written by Leeds’ Kate Lennard and directed by her son Zoom Rockman is based on the first-hand testimony of Ivor Perl BEM, and hit our screens on ITVx recently.
The project began in 2023 when Zoom held an art exhibition at JW3 in London. A group of survivors from the Jewish Care Survivor Centre visited and he offered to draw their portraits: “A week later, I went into the survivor centre to present these portraits, and that’s where I met Ivor Pearl for the first time,” says Zoom.
Coincidently, a week before, Zoom had been given a copy of Ivor’s memoir, Chicken Soup Under the Tree, by Publisher Nigel Kanan of Lemon Soul. Zoom had assumed that Ivor had been among the children brought to Britain on the Kindertransport before learning that he had survived Auschwitz, Dachau, and multiple other camps, arriving at Auschwitz at age 12.
“I was born in the year 2000 and I was always told that I’m one of the last generations to be able to meet Holocaust survivors. But I’d also grown up with the internet my whole life, seeing the rise of Holocaust denial online. So, I thought it would be a good opportunity to present a primary source to my generation and the next, mainly aimed at a non-Jewish audience.”
When Zoom approached Nigel with the idea of turning Ivor’s testimony into an animated film using puppets, Ivor stressed the urgency: “The one thing I don’t have is time, so get on with it.” After 96 days of filming on an iPhone in 4K, the film was complete in time for submission to the Cannes Film Festival.
Zoom’s self-invented paper puppetry technique had practical benefits while bringing a unique aesthetic feel to the project. Using flat paper puppets that slot into any scene, he could film in real time: “A two-minute video doesn’t take two days to film. It takes two minutes. This live action style really lent itself to making it efficiently.”
But using this medium was about more than expediency: “Because it’s physical, and actually there are over 400 scenes which all still exist in my studio, having a physical presence fits with being motivated to counter Holocaust denial and antisemitism in tangible ways. The puppetry is kind of childlike, and it invites you in. You think the film won’t be as harrowing as it actually is, and people let their guards down a bit, becoming more receptive.”
Doing justice to Ivor’s story required meticulous research. The production involved two trips to camp sites as Zoom wanted the scenes in the film to be spatially accurate to create an authentic sense of place. Another valuable resource was the Sketchbook from Auschwitz, a collection of sketches by an anonymous prisoner discovered underneath one of the barracks, many decades later. This evocatively illustrated what prisoner life was like and how things looked, contributing to the verisimilitude which Zoom held as a core principle: “I was able to look at these sketches, and you can see in the credits, every single character in the film is based on a photo reference of a real person. They came from all sorts of archives. One interesting one is the Nazis and the identity parade. The reference photographs come directly from Lee Miller, the fashion photographer turned war photographer.”
When Ivor saw the film, his response was profound: “I can’t believe I lived through this.” Later, he gave Rockman’s mother a note reading: “Now I know why I survived.”
“Ivor is a very humble man,” says Zoom. “He likes to hear what other people think about the film and see that it’s making an impact with young people and reaching audiences outside of the Jewish community.”
The film is now available on the Holocaust Educational Trust’s platform, with teaching resources spanning seven lessons. Zoom is already working on his next project: a series of short films about survivors’ lives after the war.
“These survivors, there’ll come a point where they’re not around anymore. This final stage of the survivor centre and all the community – it will actually be part of the history in the future, so I think it’s important to capture it at this moment.”
Survivor is available to view on RCDJX (Holocaust Educational Trust platform) and on ITVx.
