Steal a Pencil Synopsis

Simple human story of dignity,
levity and romance

~ Andrew O'Hehir, salon.com

Steal a Pencil For Me is a compelling documentary feature film by Academy Award® nominee Michèle Ohayon about the power of love and the ability of humankind to rise above unimaginable suffering.

A terrific documentary about forbidden love in the most heinous of places.

~ Leba Hertz, San Francisco Chronicle

1943: Holland is under total Nazi occupation. In Amsterdam, Jack, an unassuming accountant, first meets Ina at a birthday party - a 20-year-old beauty from a wealthy diamond manufacturing family who instantly steals his heart. But Jack's pursuit of love will be complicated; he is poor and married to Manja, a flirtatious and mercurial spouse. Whenthe Jews are being deported, the husband, the wife and the lover find themselves at the same concentration camp; actually living in the same barracks.

When Jack's wife objects to the "girlfriend" in spite of their unhappy

marriage, Jack and Ina resort to writing secret love letters, which sustain them throughout the horrible circumstances of the war. Jack: "I'm a very special Holocaust survivor. I was in the camps with my wife and my girlfriend; and

believe me, it wasn't easy."