SANTA MONICA : Love Conquers All in Drama of a Lifetime

Sascha Schneider always wanted to give his parents the wedding ceremony they never had, the one robbed by the Holocaust.

As smitten teen-agers in a ghetto in Riga, Latvia, Helma and Benno Schneider had hoped for a formal ceremony. But that was destroyed when the Germans liquidated the city’s Jewish quarter in 1943.

The only rite they managed to receive was a quick Hebrew blessing on a November evening from Helma’s parents, followed by a bottle of Cognac.

Then they were trucked off to a labor camp. Of both sides of their family, only a brother and three uncles survived.

But 50 years later, after the Schneiders, who now live in West Hollywood, survived their ordeal and emigrated to the United States, their dreams of a traditional wedding become reality, thanks to eldest son Sascha, a documentary producer, and his wife, Laurie.

The acclaimed “Chuppa: The Wedding Canopy,” which will be shown tonight at a Santa Monica theater, is a filmed recording of the wedding preparations and ceremony that explores the unique relationships within a multi-generational survivor family.

The 80-minute film was first shown in March at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, where it won the top documentary award.

“It’s been my dream to give my parents a formal wedding and to make this film,” Sascha said. “This film deals with the transmission of a legacy of pain, suffering and, finally, healing.”

After surviving the horrors of two concentration camps and a year of hiding in the Russian forest, where they fled while being transferred to another camp, the Schneiders returned to Riga after the war. The state granted them official papers recognizing their marriage, but a formal wedding seemed meaningless. Only a few relatives could have celebrated the occasion.

But in 1992, on the 50th anniversary of their union, their son organized a formal ceremony that was witnessed by three generations of Schneiders.

Laurie Schneider said the making of the film and the preparations for the ceremony itself highlighted the differences between generations and the difficulty in easing a painful history.

The giving away of the bride and groom, and the separation of parent and child it symbolizes, took on special meaning for Helma and Benno Schneider.

“For many camp survivors who have lost so much, any kind of separation is equated with death,” said Laurie Schneider.

The movie depicts the family’s struggles over cultural and religious practices. For example, Sascha and Laurie Schneider battle with their parents, and between themselves, over whether to continue such rituals as a bris --the Jewish rite of circumcision--for their son (she was pregnant at the time.)

Having grown up as an American Jew, Laurie Schneider confronts the emotional demands of her in-laws--steeped in the traditions of the schtetl , the sense of a community acting as a family--while trying to retain the integrity of her immediate family.

As licensed family therapists, Sascha and Laurie Schneider have a deep understanding of the intergenerational problems of families. Sascha Schneider has conducted many workshops in America and Europe for the second-generation survivors of the Holocaust.

For many such families, concentration camps remain a forbidden topic, a subject too painful for discussion.

Sascha Schneider said the children of Holocaust survivors in therapy sessions often spoke of a strange condition that would afflict their survivor parents--”camp,” a vague feeling of depression, withdrawal and anger.

“Every survivor had ‘camp’ when they came to America, but an important part of Jewish legacy is to keep talking, keep exploring, and that’s what we hope our film does,” said Sascha Schneider. Laurie Schneider said her in-laws “took tremendous risks to live, and they have taken tremendous emotional risks to heal” and pass on their experiences to their children.

Phyllis de Picciotto, artistic director of the Santa Barbara Film Festival, said the Schneiders’ feature was the hit of the proceedings.

“The movie really touched people,” she said. “I have a theory about good movies--they make you laugh and cry, and this one surely did both.”

The Schneiders are seeking a distributor for the feature and will show the film at a benefit for the Southern California Counseling Center at 7 tonight at Laemmle’s Monica Fourplex in Santa Monica. Information: (213) 937-1344.