Documentary
Title: Let’s Say Goodbye to the Night
Authors: Piet de Blaauw and Jan Pieter Tuinstra (The Netherlands)
Winner of the First Prize in the Video Category at the Grand Stories: Journalism Awards, Let’s Say Goodbye to the Night is a Dutch documentary by Piet de Blaauw and Jan Pieter Tuinstra.
The film tells a story of memory, resistance, and survival, centred on the history of Sobibor, the extermination camp in Nazi-occupied eastern Poland where approximately 170,000 Jews were murdered between May 1942 and 14 October 1943.
Created as part of Aktion Reinhard, Sobibor was designed to leave no witnesses. Yet on 14 October 1943, prisoners from across Europe organised a revolt and attempted a mass escape. Around 400 people fled the camp, about 150 reached the forest, and only around 50 survived the war.
Drawing on testimonies recorded in the 1980s by Sobibor survivor Jules Schelvis and filmmaker Dunya Breur, Let’s Say Goodbye to the Night revisits these histories through the voices of the next generations. The filmmakers meet the families of survivors in the Netherlands, the United States, Israel, Russia, and Ukraine, creating a dialogue between past and present.
Through these encounters, the documentary explores how memory is carried across generations and how the legacy of trauma, courage, and resistance continues to shape lives today. By focusing on individual stories, the film presents the prisoners of Sobibor not as victims of Nazi terror, but as people who actively sought to reclaim agency in the face of annihilation.
The Jury of the Grand Stories: Journalism Awards recognised the film for its outstanding storytelling and cinematic quality, highlighting its sensitive and powerful portrayal of individuals who chose resistance over submission.