Elke—An Inspiring True Story

In a world where stories of resilience and healing matter more than ever, Elke’s journey deserves to be heard. This inspiring true story begins with her father’s survival of the Holocaust and unfolds into an award-winning memoir. Today, the story moves forward as it becomes a movie. From psychotherapist to showrunner, Elke demonstrates the power of memory, identity, and personal transformation.

About Elke

In the year 2016, having been in office for more than 30 years as a registered psychotherapist and with retirement around the corner, I thought, “It’s now or never.” I’ve got to write the story of my family and my memoir. I quickly took a course on memoir writing and had a manuscript ready at the end of the year. In record time, by 2017, this new book was published in Germany with great success.

I translated the book into English and published it here as well. By 2021, I had received several awards for the English version.

Elke’s Holocaust Family Story

My father, Alexander Michalowicz, grew up in a highly respected and educated Jewish family of Talmudic scholars in Wielun, Poland.

Two of his oldest brothers had become rabbis, following in the footsteps of his extended family of esteemed rabbis, chazanim, and shochets. Alexander and his five siblings grew up surrounded by their farmlands of orchards full of apples, peaches, and cherries.

At just fourteen, Alexander could already envision himself, with his beautiful singing voice, leading the congregation in old harmonies of liturgical prayers. But just one year later, war shattered that vision.

He and his family were deported to different concentration camps. After five horrendous years, my father had survived—a testament to the will that remains. He was then barely 20 years old, trying desperately to find his family, but with no success.

Alexander was stationed in Germany and met some formidable, good-hearted German people who saved his life. Among them was my mother’s family. My mother, Ottilie, born into a Catholic Bavarian family (she later converted to Judaism), endured great hardship during the war as her father, Johann, was sent to Dachau for opposing Hitler.

Johann, authentic and mindful, saw a similar spirit in Alexander. My father was an intelligent, hard-working businessman who had to rebuild his life without the help of his family. He had been deprived of his identity, including his wealth and education, and was suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. The transports on the trains left him severely claustrophobic and incapacitated when it came to train rides, let alone planes.

Even as a young child, I knew that I had a mission. My mission was to help prevent those atrocities from ever happening again. It was little wonder that I became a clinician myself, helping those who had undergone various forms of trauma.

Writing Her Memoir: Identity from Holocaust to Home

When I wrote the memoir, Identity from Holocaust to Home, I was well on my way to making a larger difference in the world. The book received various awards and is now in the process of being turned into a movie.

From Memoir to Movie: The Film ‘Elke’

In June 2024, I was approached by a film producer who was listening to my audiobook. He thought it was very unusual that my Holocaust survivor father married a German Catholic mother and wanted to make a movie of it.

The makeup of our film team is unconventional, which is part of its strength. The film’s director and award-winning producer, Mostafa Keshvari, embodies that global reach and moral clarity. Coming from a country where Holocaust denial is widespread, he is spurred on, rather than deterred, by this troubling reality.

He suggested he did not want it to be just another Holocaust movie, but a movie more about my experience as a second-generation woman who became a therapist and went back to Germany to heal her closest kin: her father, who suffered incredible traumas during the Holocaust. For this reason, he also wanted the movie to be called Elke.

After several months of writing the screenplay, we could apply to the Berlin Film Festival market. This is like a stock market for films, and you need to be invited to it; you can’t just buy a ticket.

We were invited and represented Canada in our own little booth in February 2025.

During the three weeks in Berlin, we managed to arrange for a German co-production, and we have a German director as well, who would like a rewrite of the script to suit the German audience.

And in the middle of all this is me, the ‘showrunner’; that’s what it’s called when you are the one who is providing the content and whose life it is they are talking about. That’s a long way from where I expected to be at retirement.

Elke, the Showrunner

Showrunner has its pros and cons. There’s a lot of excitement coming with that role, but also a lot of responsibility. I have to be actively involved in creating the script. The movie needs a budget; people have to get paid.

We do have a team for that. We have a person who creates all the computer graphics, fundraisers, screenwriters, and producers who are at work around the clock.

That’s all before the filming. Filming may begin next year if everything falls into place.

We do have the location already for the German side of things. About 70% of the movie will be filmed in Germany, in my hometown. The mayor is all for it and gave us a letter saying that he’ll provide locations.

As much as I wish to go shopping for the dress for the red carpet and talk about the famous actors who’ll be in the movie, I am as much held back by current hurdles to still be surmounted to achieve the final result.

I’ve now retired my office and am no longer seeing clients. However, please stay posted, as there will be intermittent highs and lows in the career of the newly minted ‘showrunner.’

Watch Elke share her story on YouTube and visit her websites: Elke Babicki and Elke Movie