"The Plum Jar" by Grant Gomm and Camden Argyle

Click here to view the script.

Artist Statement

Hollywood has attempted to tell the stories of World War II nearly since the end of the war.  Movies like Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day, and Series like Band of Brothers all tell the stories from the perspective of the soldiers who fought in the war.  

Audie Murphy was the most decorated U.S. soldier during the war, and even starred in the movie To Hell and Back where he played the role of himself, telling his story while he fought in the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division.  In 1945, in what is now famously known as the Colmar Pocket in Eastern France, Murphy held off an entire company of German soldiers by himself for over an hour.  He was awarded the Medal of Honor for this achievement.  

But what about the average citizen that was liberated by the allied armies portrayed in these films?  What is their story?  What was their experience having to endure German occupation for nearly six years?  One moment they are under the control of the Nazi German government, then the bombs fall and bullets fly.  Sometimes the fighting lasted for many days as was the case during the battle of Jebsheim, which was a part of the Colmar Pocket - the same offensive fought in by Audie Murphy. Today, the French Foreign Legion tells the story from their perspective on their official website, http://www.legionetrangere.fr (be sure to click the British flag in the upper right corner for the English version).

But again, what about the citizens?  Do they not have stories to tell?  Not far from Jebsheim, and within a few short minutes from the German border is the village of Durrenentzen.  Lucy Eischer, who had been a long time resident of the village told a story that she experienced shortly after the French and American forces pushed the Germans out.  Lucy’s story is the framework for The Plum Jar.

From the outset, we wanted to preserve historical integrity as much as possible.  Emails were sent reaching out to Lucy through her family in Durrenentzen.  Even still, not all of the details could be filled in, so some things were fictionalized to help the flow of the story.  As we fleshed out the missing parts, we found ourselves devising unique ways to recreate the history, or at least to tell the story as we imagined it.  

One such exchange was when a fictionalized object, a jar of pickles we said was found by the story’s narrator, Lucy, was turned in to a symbol, then becoming a metaphor ultimately underlining the theme of the story.  The idea was that the jar of pickles represent  goodwill, charity, and perhaps even forgiveness that was extended by the villagers to starving, young soldiers on their escape back to Germany.  When one of the soldiers is shot and killed, the jar fell, shattering on the ground, symbolizing that peace was not to be had in spite of best efforts.

As we discussed this metaphor, we felt that pickles were not the right item.  They are tart, sometimes a little bitter.  We decided to fill the jar with something sweet – the local plums known as "quetsches".  Not only did that satisfy the demands of historic plausibility, but we felt the sweetness of candied plums better represented the meaning of the metaphor.  This metaphor then became the title of the script, alluding to the meaning of the The Plum Jar.

Albert Gantz, and his "papers" during the Nazi occupation of Alsace.