The Liegnitz Plot began with a deathbed confession by a former Nazi officer to his children. The man admitted that while he had been charged with sorting through valuable stamp collections for the Nazis, he decided to keep them for himself. He buried them in a the basement of his family home in Poland, but was never able to return after the war to dig them up. The story eventually made its way to Windsor Square resident and television writer Gary Gilbert, via a friend of a neighbor. The story stuck with Gilbert for more than a decade. Then, in 2015, he hatched a plan, using a deception about making a movie to return to Legnica, Poland to search for the stamps. And that’s only the beginning of this “only in LA where all your friends and neighbors are filmmakers” kind of story.
We sat down with Gilbert before the holidays, to get an update on the treasure hunt that will now be told in a very real documentary film. (When we first heard the idea, it was still top secret…until Gilbert could determine the best approach to the complex issue of recovering Jewish property stolen during the Holocaust.)
Gilbert and his director/producer partner Dan Sturman, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, shared what they have learned since their trip to Poland in 2015, when they and a small crew of actors, including Laura Putney, set photographer Megan Derry, and others staged a movie set as cover to get inside the building where they hoped the stamps were still buried. While they did not dig up the stamps on that trip, they found more clues that led them to identity the Nazi officer and eventually his children and grandchildren. The story is still unfolding, and Sturman is documenting it as they go. In fact, Sturman and Gilbert are planning to return to Poland later this month.
Initially financed with their own funds, Sturman and Gilbert have now set up a Kickstarter campaign, where they have already exceeded their fund raising goal, thanks in large part to a local philanthropist who provided a substantial contribution. Donors are giving, they say, because it promises to be a great movie, but also because it’s an important story to tell.
“Why we must never forget,” wrote Sturman on the Kickstarter page. “6,000,000 Jews died in The Holocaust. And yet today – nearly one in four U.S. millennials have never heard of the Holocaust! And 46% of all people worldwide haven’t heard of it, either. How can that be?”
The campaign page will be up indefinitely for those who are interested in learning more…and Sturman promises to keep us posted on developments after their return trip to Poland. Stay tuned.
