During World War II and the Holocaust, SNCF, the French national rail company, transported countless Jews to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps. Leo Bretholz would have been one of those Jews if he hadn’t jumped through a window to the rest of his life.
That’s the premise of Philadelphia resident and Society Hill Synagogue member Matthew Slutsky’s narrative podcast “Covering Their Tracks.”
Well, that’s actually only half the story. The other half comes later…when the older Bretholz decides to take SNCF to account through the American political system.
The rail company was aiming for contracts in the U.S. It had long since stated that it was powerless to stop the Nazis in their attempt to achieve their Final Solution to eliminate the Jews. France, after all, was under Nazi control.
Bretholz would hear none of it. He testified before Congress and in the Maryland statehouse to try to prevent SNCF from getting American contracts unless it provided restitution and an apology to Holocaust survivors.
Slutsky first learned of this story from his friend, Washington, D.C., lawyer Raphael Prober, one of Bretholz’s pro bono attorneys. During the pandemic, the documentarian turned it into a narrative podcast. It’s available from Tablet Studios and on Spotify, Apple and, as the podcasters say, wherever you get your podcasts.
As a documentarian, he was taken with the story from the minute he heard it. And during the pandemic, “I was thinking about what I wanted to do next,” Slutsky said.
The filmmaker, who has created documentaries with USA Today and the Food Network, among others, decided to turn this story into a podcast because he wanted it to feel more alive.
“The thing I love about podcasts is you can create such a rich imagination for people. People are so accustomed to seeing the typical images from the Holocaust: black-and-white images that are powerful but feel like they’re from the distant past,” he explained. “What I wanted to do was create a soundscape that allowed you to picture yourself as Leo and as part of the story.”
Slutsky, a Lower Merion native, graduated from Northeastern University in 2003 and went to work for John Kerry’s presidential campaign. After that, he wanted to illuminate political campaigns, and he started “Doublespeak,” one of the first political podcasts.
Then he entered the world of issue advocacy as a consultant for M+R Strategic Services, working on the Save Darfur Coalition, among other issues. After that, he was on the founding team at the advocacy website Change.org.
Finally, in 2016, Slutsky went to the New School to study film. Since then, he has worked on stories. The website for his production company, Unencumbered Stories, states that “we ask people to let us tell their stories and be unencumbered in sharing their truth.”
“I think storytelling is baked into who we are. It’s how we survive and move forward in the world,” Slutsky said. “I think Jewish storytelling is vital and beautiful, and we need to do as much of it as we can.”
Bretholz died in 2014, so Slutsky is helping to pass on his story. On Yom HaShoah, he did a promotional event about the podcast series at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El in Wynnewood. Tablet is planning more events for the summer.
Slutsky is hoping there might be interest from film studios.
“The more people that listen to it and share it, the more Leo’s message gets out,” Slutsky said.
Bretholz pursued justice even when he could have been content, according to Slutsky. He started his campaign against SNCF in 2009 after he learned that an American subsidiary, Keolis, was going for a $6 billion contract to build a light rail system in his home state of Maryland.
“He wasn’t doing this for money. The truth of what the French did was buried through the generations,” Slutsky said.