Ex-POW’s Holocaust story told on film at Summerlin Library

David Brichetto looks over the death certificate of Jack Taylor, his mother’s cousin, on Nov. 2, 2016, who died in a plane crash. Taylor was one of the first frog men, forerunner to today’s Navy SEALs. Brichetto made a film of Taylor’s testimony at the War Crimes Trials in Nuremberg and Dachau, testimony that came from being held at a concentration camp where he was marked for execution. “A Voice From Mauthausen” is set to have a free showing at Summerlin Library on Jan. 26. (JAN HOGAN/VIEW)

The DVD case for “A Voice From Mauthausen” is seen beside some of the books that David Brichetto used as references to write the screenplay. (JAN HOGAN/VIEW)

David Brichetto was always mesmerized by his mother’s recollection of Jack Taylor.

An original frogman of the Navy — which would later become the Navy SEALs — Taylor was a relative of Brichetto’s (his mother’s cousin), but the two never met.

“I was a little kid hearing about World War II and frogmen,” Brichetto said. “And with the advent of the internet, I started Googling it.” Frogmen are trained in underwater combat.

After verifying some facts, Brichetto was determined to tell Taylor’s story. Brichetto retired from police work in 2014 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and moved to Las Vegas to write a screenplay about Taylor’s role as a spy and survivor of Mauthausen, an Austrian concentration camp.

Taylor was among the Navy’s first frogman recruits; he parachuted behind enemy lines and conducted espionage missions to help the Allied forces. When his cover was blown, Taylor was thrown into the concentration camp. He did hard labor and dropped 60 pounds (from 174 to 114).

Mauthausen was classified as a Category III camp in January 1941, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was the deadliest category, denoting where prisoners were marked as “Rûckkehr unerwünscht” (return not desired) and “Vernichtung durch arbeit” (extermination by work).

Per the Geneva Conventions, captured American military were not supposed to be in German concentration camps. The Nazis did not abide and marked Taylor for execution.

The Allies liberated the camp just hours before that was set to happen.

Taylor had the wherewithal to go into the camp’s offices and gather the lists of names of those who had died there, so families could know what happened to their loved ones.

Taylor received Navy Cross, Prisoner of War and Purple Heart medals.

Brichetto said he wrote the screenplay because he wanted to “keep history alive, especially about the Holocaust,” and to show how the Navy SEALs originated.

The work was picked up by producer Anthony Sperduti, who made it into a short film. Sperduti had to view hours of film taken at concentration camps.

“It was very surreal in some ways,” he said. “You read about it in school books and history books and you see re-enactments in films, but when you see the eyes of the people who lived it, it was horrific.”

The film is 21 minutes long and has garnered a list of awards, including three from the Golden Gate International Film Festival and WorldFest Houston International Film Festival.

Actor Tim Tucker, also from Las Vegas, portrays Taylor being questioned as a witness at the war-crimes trials in Nuremberg and Dachau.

“There were so many (aspects) of Jack Taylor’s life that could be made into a movie — his frogman training, his missions, his sailing solo around the world, being a pilot, surviving a mine cave-in in Alaska,” Brichetto said. “I’m just amazed at his story. He was trained as a dentist, an orthodontist. He could have had a position on a hospital ship, far from enemy lines, but he felt so strongly that he could make a contribution to the war effort that he volunteered for active duty.”

After the Allies liberated the camp, Taylor returned stateside to adventures of his own making. He was killed in 1959 in a solo plane crash in California.

Brichetto said he learned from his mother that her cousin helped with several inventions and procedures that advanced the work of frogmen, such as ensuring the bubbles from their breathing gear did not rise to the surface and give away their presence.

“He didn’t want fame,” he said. “He’d probably go, ‘Why did you do a film on me?’”

To reach Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan, email jhogan@viewnews.com or call 702-387-2949.