Darlow Smithson to Produce Rutka’s Diary for BBC One

LONDON, March 17: IMG Media’s Darlow Smithson Productions
has been commissioned by BBC One to produce Rutka’s Diary, a 40-minute documentary about a young Polish girl
who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1943.

In 2005, the school notebook of Rutka Laskier, who was
murdered at the age of 14, was made public, six decades after she hid it under
the floorboards of her home. In the diary, Laskier tells of her life in the
ghetto in 1943, and how she made a daring escape from one of the early
‘aktions’—Nazi roundups of Jews for transportation. The documentary will
unveil Laskier’s story through the eyes of her half-sister, Zahava Scherz, on a
journey to discover the life Rutka led in Bedzin before the Holocaust.

Ali Turner, the executive producer for Darlow Smithson
Productions, said: “Rutka’s Diary is the
lesser-known true story of a young girl living in times of great fear and
hardship. Like our soon-to-be-aired BBC One drama series The Diary of
Anne Frank, this documentary explores
Rutka’s life as she heroically struggles to survive in war-torn Poland.”

—By Kristin Brzoznowski