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The real Holocaust history behind ‘Papillon,’ the Oscar-nominated short about a star Jewish swimmer

JL;DR SUMMARY Papillon, an Oscar-nominated animated short by French filmmaker Florence Miailhe, tells the poignant story of Alfred Nakache, a Jewish swimmer who faced Nazi persecution during World War II. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

AuschwitzHolocaustResilienceOlympicsAnimationVichy RegimeAlfred NakacheBerlin OlympicsFlorence Miailhe

Places mentioned

Berlin, Germany
"His success brought him to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he competed under the shadow of rising antisemitism in Nazi Germany"
France
"Under Vichy, the Nazi puppet regime, Nakache was stripped of his French nationality and forced out of Paris."
Buchenwald, Thuringia, Germany
"He later endured the death march to Buchenwald before liberation."
London, United Kingdom
"despite these unimaginable losses, Nakache returned to swimming after the war, competing at the 1948 London Olympics."

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Cairo Item ID 76099
Cairo Source ID 42
Retrieved 2026-02-24 18:00:39 UTC
Curated 2026-02-24 19:00:39 UTC