Marin Mom's First Film Honors Auschwitz Survivor's Story

Twelve years ago, Jeanine Thomas was playing poker at a Peet's Coffee in San Rafael when she overheard something impossible: "My grandfather escaped Auschwitz."

Thomas, a Marin mother of four who had left her tech career to raise her kids, couldn't believe it. She approached the stranger, Daniel Cohen, who introduced her to his grandfather Herbert Heller, a local furniture store owner with an extraordinary past.

That meeting changed both their lives. Heller had kept his Holocaust survival story buried for decades, even telling his children that the scar on his wrist where he'd burned off his concentration camp tattoo was from a water heater accident.

By his mid-80s, Heller had started speaking at Bay Area schools about his experiences. Thomas watched him connect with troubled teenagers and knew his story needed to reach more people.

At 42, with no filmmaking experience, Thomas decided to produce her first movie. "Who am I to make a film for the first time?" she remembered thinking. "But I realized moviemaking is like a startup."

She teamed up with East Bay director Finn Taylor to bring Heller's story to screen. The result is "The Optimist," starring Stephen Lang, which opens in theaters nationwide Wednesday.

The film focuses on the unlikely friendship between Heller and a withdrawn high school student named Abby who survived a suicide pact with her best friend. Through flashbacks, it shows teenage Herbert's survival journey from 1940s Prague through Theresienstadt and ultimately Auschwitz.

At just 15, scrawny and facing the notorious camp doctor Josef Mengele, Herbert flexed muscles he didn't have and declared in German: "I can work!" That bravado saved his life, sending him to the work line instead of the gas chamber.

Herbert eventually escaped during a death march in January 1945 as Soviet forces approached. He settled in the Bay Area, opened Heller's for Children toy store on Fourth Street in San Rafael, and raised a family while quietly carrying his trauma.

Why This Inspires

Thomas largely self-financed the film to ensure Herbert's story would be told authentically. She had never produced anything before that coffee shop conversation, but she refused to let inexperience stop her from honoring a man who survived the unthinkable.

Herbert discovered that sharing his darkest memories could light the way for struggling young people. By opening up about his pain, he found purpose in helping teens navigate their own challenges.

The film captures both the horror of what Herbert endured and the hope he chose to carry forward. It's a reminder that survival isn't just about making it through, it's about what you do with the life you fought to keep.

Thomas will join director Taylor and Herbert's daughter Vivien Heller for a special screening conversation March 19 at San Rafael's Smith Rafael Film Center. Even after Herbert's passing, his story continues touching lives, exactly as Thomas hoped when she first heard those impossible words in a coffee shop twelve years ago.