My new project brings the weird out...

Much to my surprise, I'm heading back into film. Believe me, I'm not really that happy about it but sometimes you hear a story and you just know that if you don't try to get it made you're a chump and two weeks I heard just such a story. The fact its a true story makes it all the more unbelievable but its pedigree is sound and the paper trail of the background surrounding the events are right.

It's also a Holocaust story but unlike any you have ever heard before and considering the times we are currently living in, I think it's the kind of tale that needs to be told because it offers hope and maybe just a little understanding.

The thing is, certain subjects tend to bring the weird out of the woodwork. Things like, "Did we really go to the Moon?" and, "Who really shot Kennedy?" spring to mind. The trouble with any Holocaust story is you get the deniers who seem to pop up out of the ground in front of you. This week while giving somebody a breakdown on the story, they came back at me with, "I don't think the numbers are right." Meaning they felt that the generally accepted number of Holocaust victims at six million was inflated. I've been coming across this argument a lot lately, even before I took this project on and I'll be honest, I don't understand it for a couple of reasons but before I get into that, I'd like to cover my response. The first thing I did was point out that the main group of people who did not dispute the Holocaust were the German High Command themselves. Not one of them got up on the stand at Nuremberg and said, "It never happened." What they did say was, "I was only following orders." And at least one said, "I only wish we could have killed more."

Secondly, I pointed out that in the Battle of the Somme in WW1, one hundred thousand men were killed in the first hour of the battle. Considering this was only thrity years prior to WW2, it makes the point that if you put your mind to something, any number of deaths are achievable.

But what really bothered me on a deep down level was the idea that by making the number of Holocaust dead smaller, somehow the heinous crime was less. Even if you half the number, it doesn't lessen the horror. In fact you could keep halving it until you're just talking about two people and it's still horrible because you are talking about the act of premeditated murder. A decision has been made to kill individuals because in that killer's mind they fit a set of criteria that means they have to die. Adding greater and greater numbers to this adds (as it should) horror an revulsion in levels of magnitude.

This story, this project is going to be difficult to bring to screen as is every film but it's worth the effort because it's a story that needs telling. Because time adds distance and distance fogs memory and some things should not ever, ever be forgotten.

Don't worry, I'll still be writing on here about self publishing and the trials of being an independent writer but now you'll also get a screenwriter / producer perspective as well. So bonus right?

I'll also endeavour to post more often on this author blog. Life has been a little crazy as of late.

As always you can find my books on Amazon in Kindle and paperback format. Just go to the My Books section of my webpage.