Letters to Gary Lester, Producer of Safe Haven: The Warsaw Zoo

Dear Gary Lester,
My classmates and I have just finished watching your movie, Safe Haven The Warsaw Zoo. If I were to rate your movie I would give you a 4½ out of 5 stars. My favorite part was when every person and every animal was safe from harm. My least favorite part was when the Jews were burning in the ghetto.
I guess over all I enjoyed the movie but it made me sad. And I know it’s part of life but why does life have to be so harsh. But your movie has opened my eyes for the past, the present, and the future.
Sincerely,
Cassie


Dear Gary Lester,
        My classmates and I just finished the movie “Safer Haven: The Warsaw Zoo”. I give it five stars. I think that the movie was very good. It was very informative and I liked it. My favorite part was the beginning where you showed pictures of Warsaw. Another part I liked was when the woman told the child that burning Jews was not a laughing matter and that they were people too.

         Your Movie made me feel sad for the Jews of Warsaw. I also think that the Zabinskis were very nice and brave to risk their lives for the three hundred Jews they saved (even though two did not make it). It also made me feel that the Germans and their allies were so mean.

         The movie makes me feel very emotional because I am a Jew. If I were alive and in Warsaw at the time I would most likely have been put in the ghetto and maybe, just maybe, I could have been one of the three hundred Jews the Zabinskis saved.

        

                  Hannah T. (Lincoln Elementary School)


Dear Gary Lester,
     I watched the movie you made called Safe Haven: The Warsaw Zoo. It was really good. I gave it 5 stars. 
My favorite part was when the Zabinski family saved all the Jewish people. It was really clever of them to hide the people in the animal cages. I didn't like that all those innocent people had to die. It was really sad.                                


    Your movie was really informative, it was a great thing to watch. Something that I learned was that the Zabinski family hid people in animal cages I didn't know a lot of the things that you said in it.  A good part about your movie is that it wasn’t too scary but it wasn’t too simple and babyish. It was a great movie that I really enjoyed.
        The Holocaust was a horrible thing, because so many people died that didn't deserve to die. Your movie explains about a part of the Holocaust, and other things too. It had details and it really explained it well. Another good thing is that it wasn't too long and boring.
  My reaction to the movie makes me wish that there was some way that I could have helped. So many people were killed and I think that is really unfair. Jewish people are human beings too. I know that the Holocaust is over, but when I learn about it, it still makes me angry at the people who killed Jews and sad for the people who died in order to save themselves or others. Thank you for making this movie, it was great.
 From,
Eva C.
Lincoln  Elementary School  

Dear Gary Lester,

  My name is Molly McGuire I am in Fifth grade.  Yesterday I watched the movie Safe Haven:The Warsaw Zoo; we have been doing a Holocaust Unit. It was very good. I would give it 4 and half stars out of 5.

 I like the part when the little kids would steal food but they didn’t care about getting killed. When they got killed their friends would take their part.  I didn’t like people dying and I HATE HITLER! 

  I can’t believe that if you were 6 months you were considered an adult and you didn’t get milk. I also can’t believe that little kid was laughing when he saw the boy burning, Germans shoot little kids, if you were a Jew and not in the Ghetto you got shot.  I liked that the picture above meant a safe place.  I like how people put animals fur on to blend in.

I really liked the movie it was very good and very educational.

                           -Molly

Dear Mr. Gary Lester,

 I really loved the movie. (Safe Haven:The Warsaw Zoo) I give it four stars! My favorite part was the children smugglers. It’s sad that they’re killed but brave that more took their place anyway. What I hated was the unfair killings the Nazis did and the kid laughing at a Jew burning. What’s so horrible about Jew’s anyway? What did they do to the Germans, huh!

 The Germans had some stupid rules like no milk after 6 months old. The movie portrayed the real thing without the blood and gore. Great filming and even better producing.

Sincerely: Cian


Letter to an ah-mazing director of an ah-mazinig movie called Safe Haven: The Warsaw Zoo! It was really really good! AWESOME.

 

Dear Gary Lester,

My name is Anika. I am in 5^th grade. Yesterday we watched your movie Safe Haven: The Warsaw Zoo in Mr. Kuntz’s class. We had been doing a unit on the Holocaust. I thought I knew pretty much everything to know about the Holocaust, but seeing the movie proved me wrong! I really enjoyed it. It gave information and taught people about the Holocaust, but at the same time making it not too terrifying, even though in truth the Holocaust was much more than terrifying!

Although the burning animals and Jews was FREAKY!
Seriously, what did the Jews ever do to anybody to deserve that??? As far as I know, NOTHING! I don’t know all the facts of the world, but I definitely know that. Anyway….the  movie was really interesting and educational, but not boring. Which is good! Yay. I really liked the part about how little kids would sneak food into the ghetto, and even though they got caught and killed other kids came to take their place! That is some serious bravery. I also that it was sweet that when the boy was laughing, saying “Look at all those burning Jews!” (that wasn’t sweet. Here comes the sweet part) and then his mom (grandma?) told him that it was no laughing matter and Jews are human beings.

         As I said before, I really liked the movie…except for all the gruesome parts….but gruesome WAS the Holocaust, and you got to put some of that in to make it realistic enough. I learned a lot from your movie and really enjoyed it. Oh yeah, and since Mr. Kuntz does happen to know you, and you do happen to be an award winning director, he can tell you how wonderful I would be in a movie.

From,

Anika

Dear, Gary Lester

The other day we saw your movie,  “Safe Haven:The Warsaw Zoo,” and all I could think was that is was one of the best movies I had ever seen.  It was educational, interesting, terrifying but it was also exciting.   My favorite part was when the person you interviewed talked about the little kid that was laughing at the little kid burning and the person said to the kid, “That it was no laughing matter.” I liked that part because I think that it has a very strong meaning and that those were very important words. I really liked all of it and didn’t have a least favorite part ‘cause it was all just so GOOD! I really like how (though it was a little gruesome) it wasn’t all that bad and many grades could watch it without freaking out and screaming. (And you really can’t make a movie about the Holocaust not gruesome at all, I mean the Holocaust was gruesome after all.) All I’m getting to is that if I could rate this movie I would definitely rate it five stars- because that is just how great it is!  

Sincerely, Esmé

P.S.  Anika is a great actress and I recommend her.